Chapter 52 - ACE CARTER GREYSON

A VILLAIN IS JUST A VICTIM WHOSE STORY HASN'T BEEN TOLD…. THEY AREN'T BORN…. CIRCUMSTANCES MADE THEM.

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"I, Ace Carter Greyson, steps down as the CEO of Greyson Enterprise. The CEO position goes to its rightful owner— Vince Greyson—the legitimate son of Ybbrahim Greyson. You heard it right, I'm a bastard born out of wedlock, a product of my father's fleeting affair with his mistress and I am in no position nor do I have any further reason to stay on the throne that should never belong to me!"

Pain…. Regrets…. Anguish…. I was half expecting those emotions to hit me at once until I couldn't take it anymore and haul me to the ground until my knees touched the floor. But the emotions didn't hit me the way I expected it to crush me with force and take the last thing that was left on me which I consider the most important of all—pride. Instead, there was a long, hollow emptiness drilling my heart and creating a bigger hole for me to cover.

I left the stage, ignoring the deafening silence that suddenly struck the room. If a feather was dropped into the floor it would surely be heard as it dropped to the bottom. Even a blind person entering the room would mistake the room as empty with its unnerving silence. But there was nothing empty about the room, only my heart.  In fact, the hall was crowded with greedy paparazzi drooling to capture their award-winning headlines.

The flashing camera with its non-stop shutters stopped. If the situation were a bit different and I was not so grim at the moment, I should have been greatly amused or even entertained by the sight. I didn't expect that signing off as the CEO could stun such a huge crowd who were after all used to explosive announcements.

Realizing I was leaving, the room seemed to resume its normal pace, the irritating hustle and bustle returned and so the uproar that had taken over the room before the announcement. The flashing camera ceaselessly sounded, this time it began to bother me non-stop until the lights blinded my vision.

"Wait! Mr. Greyson! The press conference isn't done yet. We have questions! You need to answer them!" I could hear a reporter run after me but no one can't stop me even if someone aimed a shotgun into my head. 

I didn't look back from the urgent call proving to them what a bastard I really am. I don't care what they would think of me now. It was the last of my concern. I no longer give a damn. To hell with them, I don't fu*king care the way anyone didn't fu*king cared about me when I was nothing back then. There was only one person who truly cared for me and I am truly a stupid jerk for wasting a gem.

I walk out of the door—leaving my entire future behind me. I know the moment I stepped outside—I was no longer a significant figure in the world of fame, money, and power. I am now an ordinary man whose life was a perfect mess of chaos and disorder. I was almost sitting on the pedestal, but I chose to leave the golden throne I was sitting on by choosing freedom over power.

I once have everything but now I have nothing. Surprisingly there's not an ounce of regret inside which I should have felt after I sign off as the CEO of the company I worked hard by investing my blood and sweat just to make it a huge success. There are reasons—hundreds of them which should fill me with regret from leaving the Greyson Corporation. But it didn't affect me, not a little bit. I guess I don't give a damn anymore. In fact, I knew that it's the best decision I ever did. It's all worth it.

"Please Mr. Greyson. Told the press you are joking and that what you said is  rubbish and utter nonsense."

A member of the board blocked my way in a desperate attempt to change my mind but no amount of words could convince an even more desperate man to change what he'd already decided months ago.

"Get out of my way," I replied in a menacingly calm manner, locked my gaze to his, giving him a look of cold disgust that could freeze the underworld and would make Cerberus, the three-headed dog that guards the underworld to run with fear.

Seeing the terrifying glint darkening my eyes, he scurried aside to clear my path while the frenzied paparazzi followed behind me like a wagging tail. The sound of footsteps and the rumble of voices followed me until I reached the parking area.

My car came to view and I quickened my steps to escape the starving hounds who persistently followed me this far. If I dropped a bomb right here in the parking area, I was damn sure that three-fourth of the population of paparazzi from all over Belavia will perish on earth. 

I climbed inside the car with ease while ignoring the chaotic disorder that was tailing me.  I turned the engine on and sped away but still, a few desperate members of the press followed until my car became out of their sight.

"What have you done Ace!"

It was the greeting that thundered all over the foyer when I arrived at the Mansion. I was deeply surprised that it's the only thing that welcomes my arrival. I was half expecting Ybbrahim Greyson to lift the sofa and haul it in my direction. That would serve me right.

"Have you swallowed your tongue! Speak!" He ordered, he was like an active volcano about to dangerously erupt. Laser-sharp glare nailed on me, if looks could kill not only did I die, my body had been sliced to cubes a few moments ago.

"No matter what I say, I'm wrong in your point of view so why waste my efforts on an argument in which I knew I could never win? Did you forget you were never wrong even if you are? And have you forgotten that you never once cared about my opinion? " I spat bitterly. My face remains a mask of an unreadable facade.

"How dare you talk to me like that! You're just my son and you have no right to spat at me like that!" Ybbrahim Greyson's voice rose higher this time as he trembled with fury. His red-rimmed eyes darted to me angrily and it was ready to pop out of his eye socket anytime. 

"Don't call me your son, Ybbrahim," I muttered in between gritted teeth. If he happened to be a stranger, I swear, I already punched him hard a few moments ago. That would be enough to knock some sense from him. "You have never been a father to me. I'm  just a charity case you took under your roof to ease your guilt!" My face twisted in an ugly mask of rage while glancing at the man who never showed me an inch of affection.

I stood there watching him with eyes ablaze with fire while recalling a single pleasant memory we shared stored into my mind—there was none. What came flashing back to me was an agonizing memory of a child bruised, beaten, and shaking with fear as he waited for the violent blow from the leather belt that had turned not only his heart into stone but his soul as well. The only consolation that he felt at the moment was the thought that when die he would go to heaven because he'd spent his life in hell.

"The only proof that you'd been my father was my sense of irresponsibility toward my child! You'd been there to criticize every mistake I did but you've never been there to congratulate me on my first success. Some men can father a child but not everyone is worth being one!"

I turned away fearing that if I continue to look at him, I would lose my self-control and kill him right away before a heart attack could.

"You ungrateful bastard! Where the hell you think you're going! You are good for nothing irresponsible son!  Running away from your wedding hasn't been enough for you! Now you're running away from your responsibility too!"

I stopped on my tracks after the inexcusable remark that sent me boiling with rage. Gone was the menacingly calm voice I used a moment ago, it was now replaced by a thunderous roar that almost shook the foyer with its authority.

"This man you dare call irresponsible! Was the same man who saved the Greyson Enterprise from bankruptcy and made it possible to achieve the glorious success it has now!"

I was about to leave and walk away but decided to stay a bit longer to tell him the important news he didn't surely want to miss. "Also, the bride-to-be was pregnant with another man's child! And that man was not me... It belongs to your sole legitimate child—Vince!"