My Stone-Hearted Billionaire Husband

The next morning dawned with the harsh light of consequences and a storm of chaos for the Allen family. The entire household, along with staff, sat in their lavish living room, watching in horror as their stocks plummeted in real-time on the screen, a visual representation of their downfall.

The atmosphere was tense and suffocating!

News of their cooperation crumbling, investors fleeing, bankruptcy looming, and debts piling up like a mountain spread like wildfire across every TV station. Reporters didn’t hold back, their words sharp as knives.

“The once-mighty Allen family is now on its knees, a warning tale of greed and mismanagement,” one business reporter on TV barked.

“The Allens are no longer among the titans of the industry they once were. It seems the golden facade of the Allen empire is finally cracking. Is it finally over?” one anchor declared openly.

Another reporter ridiculed, “Investors are in a frenzy, trying to salvage what’s left of their investments. The Allens are in free fall, and there’s no safety net in sight.”

On the internet, the netizens were tearing their family apart. Most of them said that they were finally getting the karma they deserved. Even the morning newspapers didn’t hold back as well, their headlines dripping with sensationalism and judgment.

It felt as if everyone had been waiting for the Allen family’s downfall all these years. It was comical!

Back in their living room, the incessant ringing of phones was a constant reminder that investors truly wanted to pull out their funds. To make matters worse, their company was now blacklisted, a scarlet letter of shame in the business world.

Grandma Florence, usually a picture of poise and grace, was a storm of fury. The once prestigious Allen Corporation she had worked so hard to build with her late husband was now a sinking ship, blacklisted and shunned by everyone.

A laughing stock!

Her eyes blazed with anger as she turned to Luke with a thunderous voice, “What have you done? Yesterday, you said you were meeting Kourtney for lunch. What did you do? What in the world have you done?”

Grandma Florence may have advanced in years, but her mind was as sharp as a knife.

Yes, she is an old hag, but she wasn’t stupid!

She knew that only someone as cunning and ruthless as Sebastian Woods could orchestrate their downfall in the blink of an eye with such precision and devastation. Only a man of his caliber could do this so easily and quickly!

Luke, usually so confident and composed, wilted under his mother’s wrath. He tried to stammer out excuses, but unfortunately for him, none of it was forthcoming.

He definitely did not see this one coming at all.

That Sebastian could go this far, all because he slapped his own daughter, Kourtney.

He felt like he was in a terrible nightmare!

Like a furious army general, Grandma Florence pounced on him, her cane raised threateningly. “Just what the hell did you do to Kourtney that made him this mad? You brought this shame upon us, didn’t you?” she accused, her tone laced with betrayal and disappointment.

The realization that this level of damage could only be caused by the one and only Woods family’s young master hit her like a ton of bricks, and her anger only intensified.

She started whipping Luke, a 52-year-old grown man, in front of the whole family like a child. He brought shame upon their family, and now he must pay the price for his recklessness…

It was the first time in almost twenty-five years she had done that to her favorite son, as she was fond of lashing only the younger members of the family whenever they committed an offense as the disciplinarian matriarch she was.

Luke had never felt so humiliated in his entire life!

He winced in pain as the cane kept striking his back, the sharp sting cutting through his pride and dignity as they shattered into a million pieces. His mind raced with a jumble of emotions – shame, anger, regret.

“Mother, please stop!” he cried out, but his pleas fell on deaf ears. He felt like a helpless child, unable to defend himself against his mother’s rage.

The once proud and powerful heir to the Allen empire was now reduced to a broken man, cowering under his mother’s wrath.Belongs to (N)ôvel/Drama.Org.

“Mother… I… I’m sorry. I didn’t know… I didn’t see it coming,” he choked out through gritted teeth.

At that moment, all he could do was admit his mistake and endure the pain and the shame, a bitter reminder of his own stupidity. But Grandma Florence did not care. Instead, she increased the force of her whips.

Margaret, Luke’s loyal wife, rushed forward, trying to shield him from the onslaught and wrath of his mother. But the cane found its way to her too, leaving angry slashes all over her skin.

“You foolish woman! You were present there, weren’t you? Why didn’t you stop your husband from being such a menace?” Grandma Florence kept screaming as she transferred her aggression completely onto Margaret now, forgetting about Luke.

“Stop this madness, Mother! Luke didn’t do anything wrong,” Margaret protested, her voice filled with a mix of fear and defiance.

“You dare speak back to me? You should have known better than to marry this man of incompetence and disgrace known to be my son! You sat there and dared to let him anger Sebastian Woods? That conniving snake in the grass? That wicked and unforgiving bastard? You’re both ridiculous!” Grandma Florence spat her words like venomous arrows, her grip tightening on the cane.

Margaret’s heart ached with both physical and emotional pain. Luke would certainly have done more damage to Kourtney if she hadn’t been there to stop him in the first place, yet she was still blamed and accused by his mother like this.

The air was thick with tension as the rest of the Allen family sat in stunned silence watching the whole drama unfold. They knew better than to interfere with Grandma Florence whenever she became angry and uncontrollable.

Even Kathlyn could do nothing more than watch in horror and tear-stung eyes as her parents were whipped and disgraced.

Everyone present exchanged worried glances, unsure of what would come next. The stakes were high, and their future looked bleak.

As the last crack of the cane echoed through the room, Grandma Florence finally lowered her scrunched arm, the storm of her anger subsiding for now. The room was filled with a heavy silence, broken only by the soft sobs of the wounded and the distant sound of ringing phones.

“Now! How to fix this mess! Everyone dress up and get ready! We’re going to pay a visit to Kourtney and that crazily ruthless and stinky-rich lunatic she married,” Grandma Florence declared, her raging tone leaving no room for argument.

***********

“Damn it, Kourt! Switch on your fucking TV, right now,” Lilian screamed into the phone line. “Do you even know what’s going on?”

Kourtney robbed her sleepy eyes. Lilian’s endless phone calls had just woken her up from her beauty sleep that morning.

“What is it, Lil? Can’t this wait until I’ve had coffee?” Kourtney groaned, her voice thick with sleep.

“No, it can’t wait! Just turn on the TV, Kourt. You won’t believe your eyes,” Lilian urged urgently.

There was so much drama going on in her best friend’s life, and it was starting to take a toll on her too.

Grunting in frustration, Kourtney reached for the remote and flicked on the bedroom TV. Images of chaos and devastation flooded the screen, her family’s company logo flashing in distressing news reports.

Her heart immediately sank like a stone thrown to the bottom of the ocean!

The words “Bankruptcy,” “Mismanagement,” and “Fraud” seemed to leap out at her, mocking her disbelief.

“What… what’s happening?” she gasped.

“How???” her voice was barely audible over the chaos unfolding on the screen.

The images of her family’s legacy being torn apart before her eyes felt like a nightmare she couldn’t wake up from. The room spun around her as she struggled to process the magnitude of the situation.

Kourtney’s mind started racing through the possibilities, landing on the one name that sent shivers down her spine. Sebastian. It had to be him, but why?

How could he have orchestrated such a devastating blow to her family’s empire? What had driven him to such lengths?

Suddenly, she remembered the bruise on her cheek, still tender from her father’s unjustified rage the day before. She had kept the cause hidden from him, not wanting to complicate matters.

But how had he found out about the altercation? Then it hit her – Sebastian’s influence stretched far and wide, like a spider weaving its web across the city. He literally owned Melbourne City!

Shaking off her shock and determined to confront him, Kourtney quickly freshened up, dressed, and rushed downstairs. After asking the servants for his whereabouts, she stormed into Sebastian’s study, her eyes blazing with accusation at the man who seemed to be engrossed with work.

“WHAT DID YOU DO?”