His Devious Rule

At a luxurious hotel in West Coastal city,

The brightly lit living room of the luxurious suite looked foggy as if there was a fire. On the couch, Harper was sitting with a smoking pipe in his mouth. He drew a long breath and pulled the pipe out of his lips. After a few seconds, he smoked out air.

Only the men around Harper knew how freaked out they were, yet they stood in the living room of the suite watching and hearing Harper curse Anya Owen time and time again.

Harper had thought he could leave the city after bailing out but he received a court letter to their hotel, delivered by a cop.

Harper's advocate explained to Harper that he wasn't allowed to leave the city and he should visit the police agency every day as proof of his presence in the city. Failing to follow the orders could result in arrest.

Harper and his secretary had strongly doubted how Anya could let go of Harper so easily. Now they understood how she calmly tied Harper in the city.

The vast room was filled with the smoke of Harper. His secretary and other men were itching to leave the room and breathe in fresh air but they were afraid to move.

'Ring Ring… Ring... Ring…' The mobile on the coffee table rang aloud in the living room.

The secretary quickly checked Harper's mobile screen and saw it was a call from Miles, Harper's son. "Chairman, it's from President Johnson." He respectfully and carefully uttered each word.

Harper signaled his secretary to hand him the mobile while drawing another smoke. He grunted at his son to talk while holding his breath.

[Dad… How is the situation there?] It was a hoarse nonchalant voice.

Harper blew the smoke out before speaking. He didn't respond to the question but said, "That b*tch is trying to bring you to the country." Without knowing her motive, Harper didn't want to call his son.

There was a pause over the line. Miles was least bothered about the lady cop and focused on the trouble they were in. His main focus was finding out if they could save the Johnsons' branch in Narnia.

[Narnia's Anti-Money Laundering Specialists had their eyes on us for five years. Why didn't I know about this?]

Money laundering is a common technique used by financial criminals and others to hide illegal gains. Miles was aware his father was trying to turn the black money to white without needing to pay hefty taxes. But he hadn't expected it to be running for years and the illegal gain was huge.

Harper shrugged his shoulders, "I had bought those men." Thus he wasn't caught these years. However, a new trainee in the anti-money laundering department had got the hint of his case and sent the hard disk directly to the President of the country.

There was a pause over the call yet again, [Did you open those loss-making companies to avoid taxes?] Opening a company to make losses was illegal when proven.

Large companies usually buy a bankrupt company to avoid taxes. The previous year, Miles acquired an F&B company and took advantage of a 500 million dollars operating loss in the form of tax benefits. This was legal.

Hence Miles couldn't understand why Harper would foolishly open new companies and run them at loss.

Harper snorted at this end. He wasn't just avoiding taxes, he had turned a lot of black money to white. "Why are we speaking of this?" He was irritated at his son for focusing on the company instead of him.

The other end seemed to be angered by Harper's attitude. Why wouldn't he? If Harper slides off saying it was the President of the company, then Miles will be imprisoned in place of Harper.

[The drama you created for the hard disk has every bloody detail of your money laundering. Your smurfing, large investments in cryptocurrencies, the illegal international transport of goods, casinos at your private island…" Miles briefed the money laundering and continued with other tax-saving crimes.

"The artists of the paintings confessed they didn't receive money as much as you claimed to the news channels. The orphanages confirmed they never received the money you stated in the tax record. 700 million loan waiver from the bank due to the shutdown of the three companies details are proven fake…]

Miles paused and snapped at his father, […And the list goes on.]

p In the suite, Harper was on his feet when his son just gave a glimpse of the illegal acts of his whole business life. He only heard that the hard disk had a few details of money laundering.

How did his informant not know?

Harper realized only Bernard and Anya Owen probably knew the content. "How did you get to know?"

This time his son ignored his father and revealed his decision straight away, "You better handle your mess and come out clean. I am no f**king way going to put my hand and burn myself."

Miles didn't forget to add, "You better don't think of using Mom. She will be with me." Then the call ended abruptly.

Harper smashed his mobile to the ground. He couldn't believe he was thinking of keeping Miles out of the country until he gets to know Anya's motives. But his son learned about his dirt and lifted his hands without even thinking of helping him.

Even if Harper wanted to control Miles using his power as Chairman, Harper couldn't leave the city as their headquarters was in country X. Taking Miles' calculative mind, by the time he tries to handle the situation in Narnia, Miles will have control over the Board members.

He needed to act quickly as Anya had proof against him and his son was going against him. The only choice left for him was to escape from the country. Then cops of this country won't have the power to control him.

Escape!? He wasn't allowed to the airport, so sea route. All his speedboats and yacht were seized by Anya's team.

Infuriated, he roared at his secretary, "Did you get in contact with Alvin Matthews?" Only if he knew they had seen Alvin Matthews.

The secretary hesitated to respond, "Err… His men chased away our men with a warning."

Harper breathed heavily as planned about his escape plan, "Bring me the details of ships which are departing. Quick."

Once he enters international waters or reaches a different country, nobody could stop him. Not even his son. Then he will deal with Anya Owen for insulting him repeatedly.

Before that, he has to send her away from the Coastal city to escape without a hitch. He instructed his secretary, "Send a million to Anya Owen's account. Ask that woman to convince Kyle Reynolds to frame Anya Owen."

Although all his main bank accounts were seized, he still had enough money to afford his well-being.

Thus he was going to make Anya look like she is a corrupt cop. She will be summoned the next day and he could escape from the country.

————

At President's quarters,

After about ten minutes, the woman failed to convince Kyle Reynolds. She had to leave with displeasure. Anya quickly locked the door after the woman left for a good distance.

She looked at Kyle who didn't dare to meet her eyes. "Kyle Reynolds, I am giving you the last chance."

His secret was already out. Is there a need to hide from her?

Anya and Alvin sat and heard everything that happened at Kyle's end. At last, he begged her to believe him, "I swear I didn't know they would destroy your house. I didn't know they would have attacked the car we were in. I expected the President's security to save you but a man took you away. I don't know anything more than that. I have never met Harper Johnson…"

Anya looked at Alvin who was sitting on the chair next to her, looking at deadly daggers at Kyle, "Were you the masked man?"

Alvin glanced at her before responding sarcastically, "Should I watch my wife being kidnapped?" He used words rather than actions against Kyle.

'My wife?' Kyle's eyes widened.

Anya wasn't irritated by the 'wife' anymore. She scoffed, "So you kidnapped me." The smooth way to handle everything was letting her go with the president's security.

If that happened, Alvin wouldn't have met her again, much less going through life and death experiences together and considering being together. So she wasn't displeased at being kidnapped by him. Rather, she was very curious to know how he fooled everyone and took her away. She decided to ask in the car.

Annoyed, Alvin squinted his eyes at the woman. Kidnap? He saved her, okay?

Anya ignored his threatening gaze and looked at Kyle, "You might just lose the job IF you continue to cooperate with us." His family business was there for him to survive so there was nothing to pity.

Kyle was ready to give up his job. He was worried about being imprisoned for years.

She stood up as she patted Alvin's arm, signaling him as it was time to depart. Alvin looked at the man who trembled and avoided his eyes. He went to the bathroom while Anya gave the last instruction to Kyle.

"Keep my arrival a secret, else that woman might try to kill you. Clear?"

Kyle had no choice but to trust her. He nodded and looked at the bathroom door where Alvin went in.

His finger hesitantly pointed to the bathroom, "W-who is he? Y-your husband?" He didn't want to believe it as she always lived alone.

If the love Kyle was talking about could push her into danger, Anya didn't have any mercy while saying, "Father of my son." It was the first time she confessed it in front of somebody.

Kyle: "…"

He had assumed Zane's father was dead or married to some other woman.

"Little Donut!!" A displeased voice came seeing her still talking with the man.

Anya quickly went to the bathroom as she instructed Kyle, "Fix the glasses back to the window."

Kyle came out of his daze and stood by the bathroom door. He silently watched, Alvin holding her waist and helping her out of the window when she nimbly climbed out. Then Alvin went out, held her hands when she offered, and pulled his long legs out.

Kyle stood there for a long time, he heard no sound of a bullet, or dogs barking. It was as if there was no intruder. The same peace wasn't in him. He felt suffocated as if somebody was squeezing his lungs.

Although he was forced to reveal the location of the hard disk, they had assured him that Anya won't be punished as the hard disk will be stolen from her. But she might be suspended from the job.

If Anya loses her job, she will need financial support. Wishing to get her, he planned to offer himself to be her and her son's financial support when he revealed to Harper's men about Anya having the hard disk.

Now, he wasn't only in danger, he couldn't even get her.