Chapter 3

Mia Reed POV

Ethan pinned me against the table, and I was shaking with rage.

“Ethan Foster, let go of me! You bastard!”

Ethan shoved the pen into my hand and gripped my wrist, pressing it toward the agreement.

I clenched my fist tightly, refusing to take the pen.

“Mia Reed, I’ll say this one last time. Sign it!”

“I won’t sign! I won’t sign even if you kill me!”

Ethan’s patience had clearly reached its limit. He directly grabbed my hand and used it to sign.

I struggled desperately.

“Ethan Foster! Even if you force my hand to sign it, this agreement will be invalid! I’ll sue you! I’ll accuse you of coercion!”

“Then go ahead and sue! And after you’re done suing, don’t think you’ll ever step foot into Boundary Tech again.”

I turned back to look at him in disbelief.

We were extremely close. I could clearly see the coldness in his eyes and feel his scorching chest pressed against my back.

But the words he spoke were so cold that my heart chilled.

Was this person really determined to uproot me completely from his life?

No.

Ethan and I had stood side by side for sixteen years. From the orphanage to starting a company, what kind of storms hadn’t we endured together?

I understood Ethan too well. He was cold, yes, but he had never been fickle.

It was impossible for him to suddenly kick me out of the company and force me to surrender my equity.

Unless he had planned to do this all along.

“You knew from the beginning that I wasn’t the one who did it that night, didn’t you?”

I whipped my head around and shouted at him.

“You planned to drive me away from the very start! What happened at the hotel just gave you an excuse!”

Ethan lowered his eyes and didn’t look at me.

“If you want to blame someone, blame yourself for stepping on my bottom line.”

“So you really did know.”

My eyes reddened all at once. Tears surged out without warning.

I came from an orphanage. Since I was little, I had learned to grit my teeth and endure. I never cried in front of outsiders.

During the hardest years of building the company with Ethan, when clients humiliated me and competitors squeezed us, my eyes didn’t even turn red.

But right now, I couldn’t hold it together anymore.

“You clearly knew I was framed…”

My voice had gone hoarse.

“You knew Olivia Bennett set me up. Fine, you didn’t help me. But you even teamed up with her to bully me! Just because the Bennett family has money and power, just because I have nothing, you can treat me like this?”

Tears slid down my cheeks and dripped onto the agreement on the table, blurring the words “equity transfer” into a wet smear.

Ethan looked at my tear-streaked face, and his heart trembled. The strength in his hand loosened slightly without him realizing it.

At that moment, Olivia’s faint voice came from the hospital bed.

“Ethan, you promised me you’d drive her away. She has ulterior motives toward you.”

“And my dad said Bennett Group won’t negotiate a partnership with a CEO who only controls half the equity.”

Ethan’s expression immediately turned cold again.

He tightened his grip on my wrist and shoved the pen back into my hand.

“Sign!”

My heart plunged straight to the bottom.

With just one sentence, Olivia had taken back every bit of softness he’d just shown.

In his heart, the Bennett family’s partnership was far more important than me.

I bit down hard on the back of Ethan’s hand.

Ethan loosened his grip in pain. I seized the chance, snatched up the agreement, tore it into pieces, then turned and ran toward the door.

Just as I rushed to the entrance, I crashed into someone head-on.

It was Ethan’s assistant, Noah Brooks.

“Noah Brooks, move!”

Noah blocked my path, his tone polite but utterly unyielding.

“Thirty million in exchange for your shares is already far above market valuation. If you don’t sign now, the conditions that come later will only be worse. You know Mr. Foster’s temper better than I do.”

I glared at Noah, trembling with anger.

“Noah Brooks, you’re forcing me too?”

“I’m only helping you make the optimal choice.”

“You went through so many years with Ethan and me. Don’t you know how much of my blood and effort is in this company?”

Noah didn’t speak. He only gave a slight nod toward the space behind me.

Ethan walked out of the hospital room and stood behind me.

Noah was in front of me, Ethan behind me. I was trapped between them with nowhere to retreat.

“Mia Reed, I don’t want to do this the ugly way.”

Ethan’s voice came from behind me. “Sign it and leave with dignity.”

I was still struggling.

Left with no choice, Ethan stepped forward, seized my hand, and used it to sign my name.

Then Noah handed over a red ink pad.

Ethan pried open my fingers and pressed my fingerprint down.

The red ink looked as glaring as blood. All the strength left my body, and I slid down the wall to sit on the floor.

“From now on, you have nothing to do with Boundary Tech, and nothing to do with me.”

Ethan handed the agreement to Noah for safekeeping, then lowered his head to look at me on the floor.

I looked up and glared at him, my face covered in dried tear tracks.

“Ethan Foster, dream on!”

“Don’t even think about shaking me off. You think some lousy agreement can make me disappear? You’re underestimating me.”

“Even if you drive me away ten thousand times, I’ll show up ten thousand times again!”

Ethan didn’t look at me again. He turned and walked back into the hospital room.

Noah called over two security guards, and they hauled me up and escorted me out of the hospital.

I collapsed onto the curb and looked down at the thirty-million check in my hand.

My sixteen years of devotion had been settled with thirty million dollars.

My tears fell again.

Ever since I met Ethan when I was ten, my entire life had revolved around him.

I didn’t care about equity or money. I just wanted to stay by his side.

But he had pushed me away with his own hands.

He had held me so tightly, kissed me so fiercely, possessed me so completely. I could feel that his feelings weren’t fake.

So how could he also force me to sign so ruthlessly and drive me away without a trace of mercy?

I clutched the check, crying so hard my whole body shook.

“Ethan Foster, don’t even think about it!”

I said softly, as if I were saying it to him, and also to myself.

“I won’t give up!”