Chapter 236: Chapter 236
At that moment, upon hearing what lisa just said, Oliver’s jaw tightened, his lips pressing into a hard, cold line. The air between them thickened with tension, and he slowly turned his head toward her, his voice sharp but low.
"So you’re telling me that Victoria’s brother this Robert has actually met Cora before?" His eyes narrowed. "And he’s now partnering with her... on that estate project?"
lisa nodded slowly, her expression showing regret, like she was unsure if sharing that detail was the right thing to do.
"Yes," she confirmed. "They’ve had meetings. From what I know, it’s not just a passing business contact. It’s more like they’ve been circling each other for a while, and now they’ve finally locked hands."
Oliver scoffed under his breath and stepped away, pacing a bit. He rubbed his forehead like he was trying to piece together a puzzle with broken edges. "So that means... maybe Abigail is interested in Robert. That part is still not confirmed. But if that’s true, and if they both believe that Cora is the one stealing Robert’s attention—"
He paused, shaking his head in disbelief. "Then this drama... all these sudden attacks, public embarrassments, sly accusations it all makes a twisted kind of sense now."
He turned back to lisa. "It’s not just about business. It’s about rivalry. Jealousy. Position. But Cora... how could she be this naive?" His tone shifted, more disappointed than angry now. "Does she really think she could walk through all this without competition? Without getting dragged into their games?"
He sighed deeply, almost exhausted. "Still, maybe I’m jumping to conclusions. This might just be strictly business. Maybe Robert doesn’t even know who Cora really is beyond her title in the company or have anything for her. Why am I assuming the worst?"
There was a long pause.
Then lisa, who had been watching him carefully, quietly said, "Well... I didn’t want to mention this earlier. I didn’t want to say anything because I wasn’t completely sure. I wanted confirmation first."
Oliver immediately stopped pacing and turned to her. His brows lifted slightly. His voice was firmer now. "What is it?"
At that moment, Lisa took a quiet breath before she began. Her voice was soft, yet the weight of her words hung thick in the air. "Oliver, do you still remember the share you told me about... the one from ZXZ? The 10% you mentioned? You said it was a big deal how giving it away could hurt her, and how you had to step in to fix everything before it was too late."
Oliver narrowed his eyes, nodding slowly, already feeling the tension crawl into his shoulders. "Yeah, I remember," he said sharply, gripping the envelope of photos tighter in his hand. "What about it?"
Lisa hesitated. She was trying to find the right way to say it without escalating things too far, but she knew there was no easy way to say what she was about to say. "That 10%... the one that was transferred well, it wasn’t transferred to just anybody. It was transferred to Robert."
In that instant, Oliver froze. His entire body went rigid. The envelope in his hand slipped through his fingers and fell onto the table with a light thud. His jaw clenched, and his eyes locked on Lisa like lasers. "You’re telling me... that Cora gave Robert that 10%?"
Lisa nodded with a heavy heart. "Yes."
Oliver’s voice lowered, turning icy. "How long have they even known each other?"
Lisa looked away, trying to recall. Her brows furrowed as she shook her head gently. "I don’t know. That’s the thing—I don’t know. But from everything that’s been happening, the timing, the patterns, the silence, the sudden closeness... I’d say it hasn’t been long. Especially since her divorce was just finalized recently. If I had to guess, they must have met only recently. Maybe weeks ago."
Oliver leaned back slowly, still processing. He wasn’t angry no, it was deeper than that. He was disappointed, confused, suspicious, all at once. His fingers curled slightly, and he sat there in silence for a few seconds, staring at nothing in particular. Then, finally, his voice returned low, calm, but layered with disbelief. "So you want to tell me... recently they knew each other... and Cora is this very trustworthy towards a stranger that she doesn’t even know."
At that moment, Oliver’s chest rose heavily, his hands slowly curling into fists at his side. His jaw was clenched so tight it looked like his teeth would crack from the pressure. The room around him suddenly felt too quiet, too tight, as if the very air refused to comfort him. What he just heard didn’t sit right in his chest it didn’t just sting. It felt like betrayal, deep and personal.
Lisa stayed silent for a moment, studying him. She had never seen Oliver look this... pained. Not angry, not even disappointed in the usual sense but wounded. And that was worse. Much worse.
"She gave Robert the shares?" he repeated, almost in disbelief.
He wasn’t shouting. No. His voice was too calm. Too still. The kind of calm that came right before a storm. Lisa nodded slowly. There was no use denying it anymore.
"She trusted a man she barely knows," Oliver muttered to himself, almost like he needed to say it out loud just to believe it.
"A stranger."
He slowly sat down, elbows on his knees, both hands running over his face as if hoping the tension would disappear with a rub. But it didn’t. It stayed with him, heavier than before.
"If she really saw me as someone she could trust," he said quietly, "someone she could truly count on... then how could she do this?"
Lisa opened her mouth to speak but held herself back. This wasn’t the time to offer excuses for Cora. Oliver wasn’t looking for them. He was searching for meaning, for something that would tell him that all this wasn’t what it seemed.
But there was no meaning.
Oliver continued, his voice dropping further.
"I’ve been standing beside her. Fighting battles she didn’t even know were coming. Watching her back in silence. Planning ahead. Taking hits for her without ever asking for anything in return."