Chapter 139: Blocked by Security

"Evelyn!"

Camila jumped to her feet, her face flushing with rage as she glared down her daughter.

For five seconds, mother and daughter stared each other down across the tile.

Then Camila took a slow breath, smoothed her robe, and locked her poker face back on.

"Think whatever you want of me," Camila said. "Your passport and phone are locked in my safe. Starting right now, you aren’t taking a single step outside this gate until you get your head straight... and you can forget about ever setting foot in New York again for the rest of your life!"

"By what right are you locking me up?!" Evelyn yelled.

"By the right of being the woman who gave you life," Camila replied without blinking.

Pushed to the edge of tears by the wall in front of her, Evelyn’s voice broke with desperation. "If you lock me in this house and don’t let me go back to New York, I won’t eat a single bite! I’ll starve myself to death right here on your floor!"

"Don’t throw a temper tantrum like a five-year-old, Evelyn. Nobody starves themselves to death in the real world," Camila brushed her off, turning toward the doors of the main house. "Everything I’m doing is for your own good. You might hate me tonight, but five years from now you’ll thank me."

Without looking back once, Camila walked through the doors and into the villa.

Left standing alone by the water, Evelyn stared at her mother’s back, her hands shaking into tight fists.

Refusing to sit in this cage for another second, she spun around on her heels and marched straight out of the pool house, heading down the driveway toward the main gates.

Before she could even make it fifty yards toward the gates, four security guards in black suits stepped out from the guardhouse, blocking the driveway.

Stopping three feet in front of them, Evelyn took a shaky breath. "Get out of my way. What do you think you’re doing?"

The head guard gave a snod, but his boots didn’t move an inch. "Miss Chen, please don’t make our jobs hard. Madam Chen gave strict orders that you are not to leave the property today. We’re just here to keep you safe inside the estate."

"Keep me safe... or treat me like a prisoner in a cage?!" Evelyn yelled in defeat, staring past their shoulders at the locked gates keeping her trapped from the rest of the world.

***

Hours later, the flight touched down smoothly at London Heathrow...

Jude walked off the jetbridge without a single piece of luggage, cutting through the glass terminal toward arrivals.

All around him, travelers and finance suits from every corner of the planet hurried past the gates.

Jude pulled his phone out and dialed the local number Thomas Sterling had texted him before takeoff.

The call picked up on the very first ring. "Good afternoon, Chairman Lawson!"

"I’m out of customs," Jude said.

"On my way to the curb right now, sir! Give me two minutes!"

"Third pillar," Jude said, hanging up.

Ninety seconds later, a clean-cut guy in his late twenties jogged across the crosswalk and stopped right in front of him, giving a respectful bow. "Chairman Jude Lawson?"

"That’s me," Jude nodded, checking him out.

Wearing a simple dark business suit with no flashy watch or jewelry, the guy looked more like a fresh analyst than a corporate boss.

"Chairman Lawson, Director Sterling briefed me on your flight," the young man said. "I booked the Royal Suite at the Savoy for you. Would you like to grab a late lunch first, or head to the hotel and crash after the flight?"

The empire built by Sebastian Lawson reached every major continent, and in London alone, Jude owned controlling shares in over a dozen public corporations... including the company run by the guy standing in front of him.

When Thomas Sterling first found out Jude was flying to the UK, he wanted the top European boss to meet him on the runway with a twelve-car motorcade.

But Jude was here strictly for private business with Evelyn, so he ordered Thomas to keep everything completely off the radar.

Letting the local corporate brass know he was in town would mean endless boring dinners with a dozen CEOs... wasting time he didn’t have.

Instead, Thomas picked Caldwell to be Jude’s solo driver and local point man.

Walking to the parking area, Jude learned that Caldwell was three years older than him and had grown up in New York before moving to the London office.

His dad was a thirty-year veteran at Empire World and one of Thomas Sterling’s closest friends.

When the old man retired last year with heart trouble, Thomas bumped Caldwell up to president of a London subsidiary... a job he got half from family loyalty and half from being genuinely sharp.

Instead of answering about the hotel, Jude unlocked his phone and showed Caldwell the screen with the address Walter Bai had sent.

"Fastest way to get here?" Jude asked.

"Charles Manor?"

Reading the screen, Caldwell blinked in surprise and dropped his voice. "Chairman Lawson, Charles Manor is one of the most locked-down private estates on the edge of London. The owner is Madam Camila Chen... Chairwoman of Lumina-Voyager Global!"

"Then the address is right," Jude said calmly. "Let’s go."

Caldwell stared at him, stunned. "You flew across the ocean today just to meet Camila Chen?"

"Something like that," Jude shrugged.

"Right away, sir... this way."

Even though Caldwell was dying to know what business his mysterious young boss had with a lady like Camila Chen, he knew better than to stick his nose into the Chairman’s personal life.

Opening the back door of a black Rolls-Royce Phantom at the curb, he let Jude slide in before hopping into the driver’s seat himself... bringing no chauffeur and no security detail, exactly as ordered.

Looking out the tinted window as the Phantom hit the highway out of Heathrow, Jude’s eyes were focused.

He knew Evelyn was being kept inside Charles Manor against her will, and he had zero interest in sitting down over tea to argue about family status with Camila Chen.

Today, he was going to use the simplest language in the world to walk Evelyn right out through those gates...