From Desk to Altar: The CEO's Irresistible Bargain

"Stop fighting it, Liam. No matter if you trade the shares for Vincent or not, Charlotte will never be yours. She won't be grateful to you; she'll just be glad Vincent is alive! And if you don't trade, even better, she'll hate you for life! She'll never be yours!"

"You want to fight to the death? Bring it on! Ever since I took over the Parker family business, you've been making my life difficult. If I can't live, neither will you! Let me tell you, if you don't hand over those shares honestly, today we're both going to end up dead! Everybody dies! Guess which grave Charlotte will cry over then?"

Dylan's dark and twisted voice pierced the air, while Charlotte, frantic, found herself unable to open the door.

Worried that Dylan would become even more extreme if he knew she was there, Charlotte looked around for another way in, and luckily, there was a small skylight in the equipment room.

Skylights... Because of Maria's death, Charlotte swore she'd never crawl through one again in her life.

But she had no choice; this was her only way in.

Climbing carefully, Charlotte couldn't afford to be distracted. There was nowhere to step on the exterior wall of the equipment room; she had to rely on her fingers to claw her way up, gripping the crevices. Her fingertips and palms were raw and bleeding, leaving red smears on the wall.

Just as she managed to grasp the edge of the skylight and tried to quietly open it, a burst of fighting noises came from the equipment room below, followed by Dylan's furious roar, "Die! Go to the hell!"

Then came the sound of a gas canister being opened.

By the time Charlotte frantically opened the skylight, all she could see was a thick yellow-green fog inside.

"Liam "

"Vincent"

Charlotte had brought a rope with her, knowing the gas wasn't anything good. Desperate to check on the men's location, she threw it inside. "Don't come in!" It was Vincent's voice.

Then more sounds of intense physical struggle followed.

During this time, Liam's people were also slowly gathering outside, each holding a few men dressed in black, probably Dylan's accomplices. And the noises from the equipment room gradually subsided.

"Liam"

"Vincent"

Charlotte's voice shook.

Liam's guys gathered around, trying to break the lock several times but couldn't.

"This place is built like a fortress, all concrete and stone. And the locks are top-notch, they won't give easily," the guy in charge said before he took Charlotte's place, ready to jump down and rescue whoever was inside.

"There's toxic gas," Charlotte muttered to herself.

She could guess what had happened.

The leader, having heard her, quickly made some basic protective measures and slid down the rope. It didn't take long before he was dragging someone up with difficulty. Charlotte didn't have the strength, and it was too dangerous up there, so Liam's people convinced and pulled her away.

So when she saw the leader pull someone out, she was full of hope that he'd go back for the second person. But then she heard him say, "It's no use, the gas is too toxic." Charlotte also heard a sound like sanity breaking.

She felt her body losing control, walking like a zombie to the front, seeing who was rescued, and then collapsing.

When she woke up again, she was in a hospital bed.

Charlotte looked around and saw Vincent dozing off in a chair beside her bed.

Seeming to hear her, Vincent woke up quickly.

"Charlotte, you're awake," he said, looking exhausted. "You scared me to death, do you know you've been out for half a month?"

Charlotte's health wasn't great, to begin with, and after the car accident, she was even weaker. Her despair-induced unconsciousness had nearly cost her life.

"Liam?" Before she could even speak, Charlotte's tears were already falling.

"Don't cry, don't cry, Charlotte."

Vincent was flustered, unsure of what to say.

He dryly recounted the events of that day.

"Liam was smart and got Dylan to spill my location in just a few words. He knocked Dylan out, planning to carry me out, but I was chained up and needed a key. Then Dylan came back, and Liam and he started fighting." "Dylan was crazy, but Liam was even crazier. He was bleeding and I thought he wouldn't make it, but he kept pulling through."

"Dylan couldn't stand being second best to Liam and, in a fit, he actually pulled out a can of poison gas, planning to take us all out with him."

"Liam could've escaped, you know."

Vincent's voice got rougher, "But he just took the keys from Dylan, unlocked my chains, and then he was all calm when he told me, he said..." "What did he say?" Charlotte asked.

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"He said... he cared about you, so he didn't want you to be sad."

"He said I'd taken good care of you, and protected you well, but you were always in danger around him."

"He also said... if only one of us could make it, you probably wouldn't want it to be him. He said the whole mess was not my fault and if I died, you'd be devastated. He didn't want you to live with the guilt." "And he hoped you'd hate him, that way his death would just be a relief for you."

After hearing what Vincent had to say, Charlotte felt like her heart turned to ash.

Liam had once asked her how he could prove he cared for her if dying would make her believe.

It wasn't necessary.

She'd rather have him alive.

"Charlotte, I'm sorry," Vincent said, his head hung low in guilt.

Charlotte shook her head numbly, like a soulless puppet, "It's okay, I don't blame you, we're the ones who dragged you into this."

She didn't blame Vincent.

She just... why did she leave?

If she hadn't taken Ethan away that time, would Liam have not been so rash?

Would the outcome have been different?

"I'm tired, Vincent, I want to rest a bit."

Charlotte lay down and drifted off peacefully.

She must have slept for a long time, because when she woke up again, she was hooked up to a bunch of tubes, and the once-green trees outside had turned yellow. Vincent had taken her abroad.

After Charlotte woke up from that episode, she was out for another seven months. Turns out, Vincent had been searching high and low for doctors, but they all said the same thing - she wasn't waking up because she didn't want to, not because they couldn't keep her going.

Vincent wasn't having any of that, though. He took Charlotte and Ethan abroad for some intense treatment.

"I wasn't zapped awake by doctors, was I?" Charlotte joked, a bit of color returning to her pale face with a laugh.

Vincent looked at her and suddenly brought up the past, about the time they decided to back.

"Do you know why I didn't object when you talked about going back home, but when you mentioned going abroad, I didn't agree right away and suggested you should see Liam first?"

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"Why?" The smile vanished from Charlotte's face at the mention of Liam.

"Because I knew, after Ethan came along, you softened. Hatred wasn't enough to make you run a thousand miles."

Vincent gave a wry smile, "Charlotte, I knew from the start that you'd go back home for Liam."

"No..."

"Have you forgiven him now?" Vincent changed the subject again.

Forgiven?

When it comes to life and death, what's there to forgive or not forgive?

"I forgave him the moment I saw that two-bedroom apartment."

Back then, she was just mad that it took him so long to show his love.

"In that case..." Vincent stood up, "you weren't woken up by doctors, Charlotte. Your sickness was of the heart, and only the person who caused it can fix it, so..."

He smiled with relief, "It was Liam who woke you up."

As to why Liam only just woke her up now, it was because he had been in the hospital for seven months too after inhaling that poison gas.

"You passed out too early that day. Liam was lucky; when they found him, he was still breathing."

After saying that, Vincent got up to leave. In a daze, Charlotte saw him greet someone at the door, and then a familiar figure came in, sat where Vincent had been, and touched her hair, "Charlotte, even though this promise is seven months late, and the plane took off, have you changed your mind?"

Charlotte's tears started to fall.

"I've changed my mind."

She hugged the man tightly, "Liam, you bastard!"

"It's me, I'm the bastard. I was too stupid and made our happy ending come four years and nine months late." "Charlotte, I love you."

Charlotte didn't reply; she just kissed him through her tears.

She loved Liam.

It was a love against all odds.

It was like walking down the wrong path until it got dark and finally seeing the dawn.

A real dawn.