Chapter 131: How About Bending Over for Me?

Seeing the Collins family go bankrupt, everyone Caleb Collins had ever bullied came up to kick him while he was down. It wasn’t unusual for anything to happen in a chaotic bar, and the people in the other booths didn’t bat an eye.

“Isn’t this a party hosted by our big bro Caleb? Wonder if he can even foot the bill now.”

As soon as the words left the speaker’s mouth, a burst of uproarious laughter erupted. The more arrogant Caleb had been in the past, the more unbridled their laughter was now.

The man who had shoved his phone in Caleb’s face continued to mock him. After all, his family also made their fortune in construction, putting him in the same circle as Caleb. He had only been forced to treat Caleb with respect because the Collins family overshadowed his own. Thinking of those stifling days of the past, a surge of irritation washed over him.

Caleb covered his ears, his face filled with terror. “Impossible! The Collins family is a massive enterprise; how could we possibly go bankrupt? It must be those unscrupulous reporters writing nonsense! They’re spouting bullshit!”

At that thought, Caleb snatched the phone that had been shoved in his face and hurled it to the ground. He pointed at the man in front of him. “My family could never go bankrupt! You’ve always just hidden behind us, surviving on the scraps I didn’t want. Don’t you ever dream of surpassing me in this lifetime!”

The man looked at his phone discarded on the floor, then listened to Caleb shooting his mouth off. His expression instantly turned ice-cold. With a sudden movement, he shoved Caleb. Caught off guard, Caleb tumbled to the ground.

But his mind was entirely consumed by his family’s bankruptcy. The realization that his glorious past might be gone forever, that the people he had bullied would retaliate a thousand times over, and that the sycophants who used to kiss his ass would suddenly climb over his head to shit on him—it was too much to accept.

As he lay on the ground, he kept muttering, “Impossible. The Collins family couldn’t have gone bankrupt. Don’t listen to that woman’s nonsense. Our family’s business is huge, and we have the Walden family backing us! How could we go bankrupt? That woman must have riled up Wyatt Winslow and the others to fabricate this!”

Even now, Caleb stubbornly refused to believe the Collins family had gone bankrupt. Although he had seen the news on the phone, he rejected the truth.

The man who had first shoved the phone in his face sneered. “Caleb, you still don’t believe it? Look at yourself—you’re like a pathetic dog, desperately hoping this is all fake. Why are you such a glutton for punishment?”

Someone else chimed in, “You’d better stop living in denial, Caleb. If I were you, I’d hurry home, grab some cash, and lay low abroad for a while.”

The man wasn’t wrong. Wouldn’t it be better to gather some wealth and hide out before the cops came to seal up their assets? Once his father was locked up in prison, the Collins family’s former rivals and enemies would try every possible way to ruin Shawn Collins’s only son. Plus, all the remaining debts would fall squarely on Caleb’s shoulders.

And with Caleb’s rusty, useless brain, could he ever pay off those debts? When that time came, he would never be able to turn his life around.

Lying on the ground and listening to the surrounding mockery, Caleb felt a deep sense of irony. In the past, these people had all been his lapdogs, trying to suck up to him so their families could ride the Collins family’s coattails.

The man who had initially shown him the bankruptcy news picked up a nearby glass of liquor and hurled it at Caleb with tremendous force. The glass shattered against his face, and shards cut into his skin, leaving multiple gashes. Liquor dripped down his cheek, and a dark bruise bloomed on his forehead where the impact struck. He looked utterly pathetic.

“Caleb, you look just like a little pug right now!”

“Come on, Caleb, stand up and keep acting tough! Why aren’t you acting tough anymore?”

“Hahaha! However glorious you were back then is exactly how miserable you are now.”

“Look at your dad. The latest news just dropped—your dad, Shawn Collins, has already been taken away by the cops.”

“And there’s more! Your house has been seized. You’re nothing but a homeless stray dog now.”

“Caleb, you’ve got such a pretty, pale face. Why don’t you bend over for me, and I’ll buy you a house?”

“No way, bro, you’re into that? Damn, you really can’t judge a book by its cover!”

Someone grabbed a drink and dumped its contents over Caleb’s face, chest, and crotch.

Caleb flailed in resistance, accidentally kicking someone. He heard a loud, “FUCK!” Immediately after, wave after wave of fresh pain radiated across his body.

He tried to fight back, but his resistance only earned him a fiercer barrage of punches and kicks. Terrified to fight back any further, he curled into a ball, cowering in the corner as he absorbed the rain of blows.

Having vented their frustrations, the crowd looked down at Caleb, who was cowering like a quail, taking the beating and curses without a word of protest. They quickly lost interest. They preferred it when their prey put up a fight, rather than enduring the abuse like a corpse.

Suddenly, a phone rang. As the crowd looked around to see whose it was, Caleb, still huddled in the corner, pulled out his phone with trembling hands. A familiar voice blared from the speaker.

“Caleb! Who the hell did you offend?! You’ve bankrupted our family! Not even the Walden family could save us! What kind of big shot did you cross?! You sure are a great son, sending your own father straight to jail!”

It was the voice of his father, Shawn Collins. In that moment, Caleb’s tightly held delusions completely shattered. He had firmly believed that Rian Sinclair was lying, and he had refused to believe the reports circulating online, but hearing the truth from his father’s mouth drained every ounce of strength from his body.

He slumped to the floor like a walking corpse. The phone slipped from his grasp, his father’s voice still yelling from the other end, but Caleb could no longer hear a word.

The family legacy he had always been so proud of had been effortlessly destroyed by someone’s casual command. Even the Walden family hadn’t been able to protect them. Just what was that woman’s identity? She had never revealed who she was. Why did she hide it? If he had known she wielded such immense power, he never would have spoken up for Joy Woods.

Caleb was consumed by overwhelming regret. He realized that if a single word from her could bankrupt the Collins family, she could easily bring them back from the dead.

Suddenly, as if remembering something crucial, Caleb whipped his head around. But Rian and her friends were nowhere to be seen. All that remained at their table were a few glasses filled with liquor.

The string holding Caleb’s sanity together abruptly snapped. No one could save the Collins family. From now on, he could no longer live a life of debauchery, no one would clean up his messes when he caused trouble, and he could no longer rely on his family’s status to bully others at will.

In an instant, he had plummeted from heaven straight into hell. The sound of mockery surrounded him, and countless people were pointing fingers at him—all of them his former lapdogs.

…

Meanwhile, with Rian Sinclair’s group.

They had left the moment they delivered their sarcastic parting shots to Caleb, having no desire to stick around and watch the others exact their revenge.

Having stepped out of Yaz, the group stood by the cars to enjoy the evening breeze while waiting for their chauffeurs to pick them up, as they had all been drinking and couldn’t drive. Ruby Forrest was no longer glued to Wyatt Winslow’s side; instead, she was gazing at Rian with starry eyes.