The silence in Chen Lihuan's office was a lie. Shards of his broken tablet glistened coldly on the floor—a silent witness to the storm raging inside him. Li Wei's scream still echoed in the corners of the room, raw and desperate, tearing at Chen Lihuan's carefully built composure. He was a man who controlled everything. Yet now, his world felt like a fragile house of cards collapsing.
He had sent his apology, humble and steady. He had waited. But the only response was cold silence. Every attempt to reach out had hit an unyielding wall of ice. And now that ice had shattered, revealing a chasm of pain so deep it swallowed him whole.
Shame burned bitter in his throat, twisting his Alpha scent into something sour and raw. He wasn't just a CEO who commanded millions—he was a monster he barely recognized. A man whose cruelty had become undeniable truth, spoken by the very person he had failed.
A knock on the door yanked him from his spiral. Wang Jin stepped inside, expression unreadable, holding a single file.
"The medical history you requested for Li Wei, sir," he said quietly, placing it on the desk like any other report.
Chen Lihuan's hands shook as he reached out. An instinct deep in him screamed to stop—his Alpha instincts warning him not to open this door. But the memory of Li Wei's trembling voice, the haunting words "You let me die alone," burned through his fear. He had to know. He had to face this nightmare.
His eyes flicked over the cold, clinical words. The jargon blurred, but the story beneath was horrifying. A rare autoimmune disease. A relentless decline. Labored breathing. His mind—trained for logic—started piecing it all together.
Li Wei's cough, which Chen Lihuan had written off as a stubborn cold.
His exhaustion, dismissed as overwork.
The faint scent that lingered but was ignored.
This file wasn't just a medical report—it was a ghost story. A chronicle of a life Chen Lihuan had stood beside but never truly held.
A detail caught his eye: a painful treatment for Omegas, one unbearable without the comfort of their mate. Flashes of himself delegating care, absent when he should have been present. He'd given Li Wei his card, his money, but never his time.
The last page came with a punch to the chest. The date of death stared up at him: October 27th, 20XX. A scrawled note from a doctor in the margin:
"Patient's health sharply declined, worsened by profound emotional isolation. Spouse notified but unresponsive. Patient died alone. Pity."
Pity.
The word cut through Chen Lihuan's pride like a dagger. Not just pity for Li Wei, but pity for himself—the monster who stood between love and loss.
The file slipped from his trembling hands, pages spilling across the floor like damning evidence at a crime scene.
Li Wei's scream was no longer just an echo—it was a truth Chen Lihuan could no longer deny. He hadn't just failed his Omega. He had killed him—with coldness, neglect, and silence.
His game of dominance and control was over. Now, it was a desperate race against time—and against the monster he'd become. And deep down, he knew with terrifying clarity: he had to earn the trust of the man he had already lost.