Chapter 4 The Man in the Shadows

Power was a language Marcus Thompson had learned to speak fluently. It wasn't inherited, not in the way people assumed. It wasn't handed to him on a silver platter, polished and waiting. No, he had built it with blood, with ruthless ambition, with a will so unyielding that even the weight of a shattered past couldn't break him.

His family name had once meant something. Thompson. A legacy, a dynasty-until his father ruined it all. William Thompson had been a businessman, sharp but reckless, a man who believed he could play a dangerous game without getting burned. He had lost everything. One day, the Thompson family had been on top; the next, they were buried under insurmountable debt and disgrace. And then, William disappeared. No explanations, no goodbyes. Just a ghost of a man who left behind a crumbling house and a wife too proud to beg for scraps.

Marcus had learned young that survival didn't come from pity. His mother, Evelyn, had tried. She worked tirelessly and kept her head high even as whispers followed them, even as they were shut out of circles that had once embraced them. But no matter how hard she fought, the world had already decided their fate. Marcus refused to accept it. He wouldn't be his father's failure. He wouldn't live in the shadows of a ruined name. He was going to rebuild what had been lost, and he was going to do it on his own terms.

But fate had other plans.

The accident changed everything. One moment, he had been untouchable, a rising force in the business world, a man determined to carve out his empire. The next, he was in a hospital bed, his body shattered, his right leg mangled beyond repair. The doctors said he was lucky to be alive. He hadn't felt lucky. Not when they told him he'd never walk the same way again. Not when they handed him a future that looked a lot like defeat.

That wasn't an option.

Pain became his companion, his shadow. Recovery was brutal, but he forced himself through it, teeth clenched, muscles screaming. And when he finally stood, when he finally took those first unsteady steps with a cane in hand, he made a promise to himself-he would never let the world see his weakness. If he had to walk with a cane, then he would wield it like a weapon. If he had to live with pain, then he would make sure no one else ever had the power to hurt him.

And so he built his empire.

Brick by brick, deal by deal, he turned failing businesses into gold. He was ruthless, calculating, and feared. They whispered about him in boardrooms, about the CEO who never forgave, who never showed mercy. The man who limped but never faltered. The man who had clawed his way to the top and dared anyone to challenge him.

No one did.

Until the Ogoins.

Their proposal had caught him off guard. An arranged marriage, wrapped up in negotiations and power plays. Joanne Ogoin. He had researched her, of course. The sickly daughter of a wealthy family, a girl ignored in favor of stronger heirs. A pawn, most likely. He wasn't sure whether to be insulted or intrigued.

Now, standing in his office, fingers drumming against his cane, he stared out over the city and thought about the woman who was about to become his wife. Joanne Ogoin. Fragile. Quiet. Unwanted.

They thought they were throwing her away, binding her to a man as ruthless as him. Maybe they thought he wouldn't care about her, that he would discard her just as easily.

But Marcus Thompson never let go of what was his.