SWNOVELS Chapter My CEO 293
293 Taking The Fall (Jayden)
One week later
I'm sitting at the kitchen table, staring at the newspaper in front of me. The headline is bold and in your face-Nexus Global CEO To Be Charged With Espionage. It's all over the news. Every channel, every site I click on, every radio station. Gus is o
going down for crimes against the country, and not just here. Five European countries have filed charges too.
I can't wrap my head around it. The world thinks he's some international criminal mastermind, but I know better. He's not innocent, but he's not guilty of what they're saying either. He played the game, yeah, but he was working from the inside to take down the real scum. And now he's branded a traitor.
There's a knock at the door. I'm half expecting it to be reporters or someone else here to shove a camera in my face asking about him. I push back from the table, heading for the door.
When I swing it open, I'm surprised to see Gus standing there. He looks calm, collected, like he always does. But there's something different in his eyes-something final. Beside him is his lawyer, a tall, serious-looking guy in a suit that probably costs more than my car. The lawyer hands me a thick envelope, and Gus gives me a slight nod.
"What's this?" I ask, my voice tight.
"Can we come in?"
"Sure." I step aside and they enter. I shut the door behind them.
Gus motions toward the envelope. "That's the paperwork. You're the sole heir to Nexus Global. It's all yours now. Just the business and all its subsidiaries, not any of the other stuff.". "Alleged other stuff," his lawyer reminds him.
"What the hell am I supposed to do with this, Gus?"
"Run it," Gus says simply, like it's the easiest thing in the world.
The lawyer takes a seat at the table, but I can't sit. I'm too on edge. I start pacing the room, trying to wrap my mind around what's happening.
"Why can't you just tell the truth? Tell them everything you've been doing-what you've really been doing. You're gonna spend the rest of your life in prison for this shit, and for what?"
Gus's face is still calm, but his eyes flicker with something-regret, maybe. "Because if I tell the truth, the people I've been working with-the ones trying to stop the trafficking, the corruption, trying to stop the real monsters-they'll be exposed. Innocent families, good people... they'll all be destroyed."
"And you're okay with going to prison for the rest of your life? You're just gonna take the fall?"
Gus shrugs, his expression never changing. "There are worse things than prison, Jayden. Think of it as my
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293 Taking The Fall
retirement."
"No, I won't," I shoot back, my hands clenching into fists. "I won't understand why you didn't just blow this. whole thing wide open. You're saving people, but you're throwing your life away."
"It's not about me." Gus says it so simply, like it's just a fact of life. "This is always how it was going to be. This is how I can protect them. And you. Your family. Nexus Global is yours. You choose what you do with it."
I drop into the chair across from the lawyer, staring at the stack of papers in front of me.
"I can't do what you do," I say, my voice low. "I'm not you, Gus."
"You don't have to be," Gus replies. "I never wanted you to be. But you're smart. You're good. You can run Nexus Global right. All the businesses are clean. There's nothing mucky going on there. I know you will do a great job." I shake my head, pushing the papers away from me. "I don't know if I want it."
Gus watches me for a moment, then leans forward, resting his hands on the table. "But it's yours, Jayden. Whether you want it or not. The only question is what you'll do with it."
Silence hangs in the air between us, heavy and suffocating. I don't know what to say.
Finally, Gus stands, his lawyer following suit. "I have to go. The federal agents are expecting me for the interview. It'll be my final confession."
I look up at him, my heart pounding in my chest. "And then what? You just disappear into a cell somewhere?"
Gus smiles faintly. "Something like that. Maybe you'll come visit from time to time."
We walk to the door.
"Gus," I say as we reach the door, my voice low and tense. "Are you sure this is the right thing?"
Gus turns to face me, his expression softening for just a moment. "Yes. It's the right thing to do. And it's the only way I can make sure you and your family are safe."
My throat tightens, and I can't say anything for a second. Finally, I manage to ask, "What about you? Don't you want to be a part of their lives?"
"I think you've made it clear, that isn't going to happen and rightly so. I don't deserve it," Gus says quietly. But... keep me updated. Tell me how they're doing. That's all I ask."
We stand there for a moment, Gus reaches out, patting me on the shoulder. "Remember, Jayden-things are not always as they seem. The fight goes on, my office will just look a little different."
With that, he turns and walks out the door, his lawyer trailing behind him. The door clicks shut, and I'm left standing there, my mind spinning with everything that's happened.
He's gone. Off to confess to everything, to be branded a traitor, And I'm here, left holding the future of Nexus Global in my hands.
I should feel elated, I'm probably the richest man in the world now, but all I feel is conflict. Gus is far from perfect, but he was doing something good.
203 Taking The F
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He was helping people, and now he's going to pay for it while the real monsters keep walking free.
Gus is making the ultimate sacrifice to give me and my kids a sofer life. Every good thing he's done will be dissolved.
I don't know what to think anymore.