The CEO's Secret Obsession-Chapter 124: The Harsh Reality

Jack screamed.

"NO—!"

He stumbled back, horror flooding his face as the body hit the ground and blood pooled darkly beneath the streetlight.

The attacker vanished as quickly as he appeared.

Jack spun toward Olivia, shaking. "What did you do?!"

She didn’t look at the body.

She looked at him.

"I solved the problem," she said calmly

Jack was taken aback by her calmness.

Olivia’s calmness told him that it wasn’t the first time she had seen someone being murdered or maybe this wasn’t the first time she had murdered one.

When realization hit him, his breath came in ragged sobs. "You murdered him. We could have paid him! I would have paid him!"

"You would have fed him," Olivia snapped suddenly with anger flashing in her eyes. "And he would have eaten you alive."

Jack dragged his hands through his hair, breaking apart. "This wasn’t supposed to happen. I didn’t want this. I didn’t want blood."

"I know," she said quietly.

And that just made it worse.

"I am not like you, Olivia," he choked. "I can’t live with this."

Olivia stepped closer, lowering her voice. "You already are living with it. You just didn’t want to look."

He collapsed against the car, sliding down, trembling violently.

"Oh, don’t be such a baby," she rolled her eyes. "It’s already done, what are you going to do about it?"

She squatted in front of him. "You can’t run to your father now, can you?"

When Jack looked at her, she smiled, "He already sees you as a traitor, someone who is useless—a good for nothing. Do you want him to see you as a murderer as well?"

"You did this," Jack said, his voice trembling. "I didn’t ask for this."

"Well, then—" She gently caressed his hair. "Good luck explaining that to your family, especially your father."

Olivia got up, watched him for a moment then turned away.

"This is the last time I clean your mess," she said. "From now on, you either survive quietly or you don’t survive at all."

Jack sobbed, face buried in his hands and Olivia Reid walked back to the car without looking back.

....

[Jack’s Hotel Room]

The door shut behind him with a dull click.

Jack stood there for a long moment, unmoving as the silence pressed in on him like a physical weight.

The room smelled normal—linen, carpet cleaner, faint traces of alcohol but his senses refused to register anything except one thing.

His shoes.

Slowly, mechanically, he looked down.

Dark stains marred the leather near the soles. It wasn’t much but just enough. 𝗳𝗿𝐞𝕖𝘄𝗲𝕓𝗻𝚘𝚟𝕖𝐥.𝚌𝕠𝕞

He kept staring at the blood stains until his stomach lurched violently.

"No," he whispered, voice cracking. "No, no—"

He kicked the shoes off hard, sending one skidding across the floor while the other toppled onto its side. But he still felt like the stain was glaring up at him like an accusation.

Jack staggered toward the bathroom.

The light suddenly felt too bright and too clean.

He bent over the sink and gagged, gripping the porcelain until his knuckles turned white.

His reflection stared back at him—eyes wild, skin pale, lips trembling.

"This didn’t have to happen," he muttered. "This didn’t—"

His gaze dropped again when he remembered that the blood was still there.

He lurched out and yanked the shoes into the bathroom and shoved them under the faucet.

He twisted the tap open all the way, letting the water rush over the leather.

The water splashing onto the tiles, soaking his sleeves but he didn’t care. He kept scrubbing, harder and faster.

His breathing turned erratic as he dragged a towel over the soles again and again.

"Come off," he whispered desperately. "Please—just come off."

For a moment it felt like the stain faded, then it didn’t.

Even when the leather looked clean, even when the water ran clear, his hands still shook like the blood was seeping into his skin instead.

He dropped the shoes into the tub and backed away.

His chest burned.

He slid down against the bathroom wall, pulling his knees to his chest and his fingers digging into his hair.

"I didn’t want this," he said aloud, the words spilling out broken and raw. "I never wanted this."

His voice cracked completely.

He hadn’t wanted death. He hadn’t wanted screams or collapsing bodies or that awful sound he couldn’t stop hearing every time he closed his eyes.

Only if he had just paid the man, kept Olivia out of it and If he had handled it quietly, stupidly, cowardly, maybe the man would have been still alive =.

"He would still be breathing," Jack whispered.

And that thought crushed him, harder than before.

Jack had always been the rebellious one. He was the prodigal son of the Reid family, the one who never listened and did what he liked even when it resulted in others being hurt.

He didn’t care how much his actions hurt others.

Despite his past actions, he was everything but a murderer.

When he hired the man to tamper with Alexander’s car, he knew he had crossed a line. Only he knew how guilty he had felt when he saw his brother lying in the hospital bed.

But his guilt was soon replaced by fear—fear of getting caught and losing everything..

Though he hated Alexander to his gut, he never wanted him dead.

What happened today made Jack realize that this wasn’t a strategy anymore. It wasn’t rivalry or jealousy or power.

This was blood and it was on him.

Jack pressed his forehead to his knees, shaking.

"I can’t do this," he murmured. "I can’t—"

Something inside him snapped then—not loud, not dramatic.

The hunger, the ambition and the need to win was gone.

Evelyn’s face flashed through his mind and he pushed it away.

Alexander, his father, the company, none of it mattered now.

All Jack could think about was escape.

Getting out far away to someplace where no one knew his name, where no one looked at him and saw expectations or comparisons or crimes wrapped in expensive suits.

"I am done," he said hoarsely. "I am done."

He forced himself to stand, legs weak beneath him and walked back into the room.

With trembling hands, he grabbed his phone and opened his calendar.

He started looking for flights. He didn’t care about the place or time.

Because Jack Reid didn’t want power anymore, he just wanted to survive what he had become.

.....