Chapter 8: The Heir They Should Have Chosen

The room fell silent after my words.

Simon stared at me as if he had suddenly realized that something was wrong.

The woman in the white suit stood calmly beside me, her expression unreadable.

Dad's face darkened.

“Daniel, who exactly do you think you are threatening?”

I looked at him and smiled faintly.

“I'm not threatening anyone.”

I paused.

“I'm simply reminding you that you chose the wrong person.”

Simon laughed.

“You really think this woman can save you?”

The woman finally stepped forward.

“Save him?”

Her voice was calm, but every person in the room immediately stopped breathing.

“I didn't come here to save Daniel.”

She turned toward Dad.

“I came here because Fullerton Group has been operating under a misunderstanding.”

Dad frowned.

“What misunderstanding?”

She handed a document to her bodyguard.

The bodyguard placed it on the table.

“Q Holdings has withdrawn its cooperation offer from Simon Fullerton.”

Simon's expression changed instantly.

“That's impossible.”

The woman looked at him coldly.

“It isn't.”

Simon grabbed the document and scanned it rapidly.

His hands began trembling.

“This is fake.”

I shook my head.

“You should read the final page.”

Simon turned to the last page.

His face went pale.

The signature at the bottom belonged to the chairman of Q Holdings.

But there was something else written beneath it.

Daniel Quinlan.

Dad stared at me.

“You knew about this?”

“Of course.”

Simon suddenly stepped toward me.

“You set me up!”

I didn't move.

“No, Simon.”

I looked him directly in the eyes.

“You set yourself up.”

He clenched his fists.

“You were supposed to handle the project!”

“I did.”

“Then why did it fail?”

I smiled.

“Because you signed a contract you never understood.”

The room erupted into whispers.

Dad snatched the document from Simon's hands.

His eyes moved quickly across the pages.

His expression became increasingly grim.

The contract contained several clauses that transferred liability to Fullerton Group if Simon failed to meet the project's conditions.

And he had already signed it.

Simon suddenly looked at me.

“You knew.”

“I knew everything.”

Stella's face turned white.

“Daniel, you wouldn't dare do this to the family.”

I turned toward her.

“The family?”

I laughed softly.

“You stopped calling me family the moment Simon became heir.”

She opened her mouth but couldn't find an answer.

Dad slammed the contract onto the table.

“Daniel, explain yourself.”

I looked at him for several seconds.

Then I reached into my coat and pulled out another folder.

“Before you ask me to explain, you should look at this.”

I placed the folder on the table.

Dad opened it.

Inside were records of my company.

Not just its current valuation.

There were acquisition documents, overseas investments, private equity agreements, and confidential partnership offers.

The numbers made everyone's faces change.

My company wasn't worth ten million dollars.

It was worth hundreds of millions.

And most of its growth had been deliberately hidden from the Fullerton family.

Simon stared at the documents in disbelief.

“How?”

I closed the folder.

“While you were spending money trying to become the heir, I was building something you could never inherit.”

Dad's expression finally changed.

For the first time in 26 years, he looked at me not as an adopted son.

He looked at me as an opponent.

The woman in white stepped beside me.

“Mr. Fullerton, there is one more thing you should know.”

Dad looked at her.

She smiled faintly.

“Q Holdings didn't come here because of Simon.”

She glanced at me.

“They came because Daniel is one of their principal strategic partners.”

No one spoke.

I looked around the room at the people who had laughed at me only days earlier.

Their faces were filled with fear and regret.

I slowly raised my glass.

“You all thought I had lost everything.”

I smiled.

“You were wrong.”