Chapter 5: An eye for an eye

Adam Morland leaned casually against the bonnet of his sleek sports car, a smug smile plastered on his face. He glanced at Harry and his bodyguards, barely able to contain his laughter. “You really think you can bring down Cloud Logistics? Do you have any idea who you’re dealing with?”

Harry stood a few feet away, his face unreadable. “I know exactly who I’m dealing with, Adam. And I’m not here to play games.”

Amelia, standing beside Adam, let out a mocking laugh. “This is pathetic, Harry. You can barely manage your own life, let alone bankrupt a company worth over twenty million pounds.”

Adam smirked, straightening up. “That’s right. You don’t have the power to touch us. You’re just a nobody pretending to be someone important.” He turned to his girlfriend, his voice dripping with sarcasm. “Honestly, Amelia, I’m starting to feel bad for him. This delusion must be tough to keep up.”

Harry’s eyes narrowed, but he kept his composure. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone, nodding subtly at Richard, who stood nearby with an air of calm authority.

Richard stepped forward, dialing a number. “Begin the operation,” he said into the phone, his voice low but firm. “Ten minutes. Not a second more.”

Adam rolled his eyes. “What is this, some sort of joke? You can’t seriously believe a phone call is going to—”

His words were cut off as his phone buzzed in his pocket. He glanced at the screen, his brow furrowing. “Hold on,” he muttered, answering the call. “Dad, what’s up?”

The voice that erupted from the phone was anything but calm. “What have you done, Adam?” James Morland’s voice was filled with fury and desperation. “Why are all our investors pulling out? We’re hemorrhaging money like it’s water! Charles Carter just withdrew his investment. Two million pounds, gone in seconds!”

Adam’s smug expression faltered. “Dad, calm down. There’s no way this is real. Maybe it’s a misunderstanding.”

“Misunderstanding?” James’s voice was nearly a shout. “Every single investor is pulling out. They’re all demanding their money back, and they’re not willing to negotiate. We’ve lost everything in the last eight minutes!”

“Eight minutes?” Adam stammered, his eyes darting towards Harry. He tried to force a laugh, but it came out strangled. “This is impossible. Cloud Logistics is too stable to go bankrupt in minutes.”

“Impossible?” James growled. “You’d better tell me what you did, Adam! Who did you piss off?”

“I... I didn’t do anything!” Adam’s voice cracked with panic as he glanced helplessly at Amelia, who now looked just as confused and scared as he did. “There must be some mistake.”

“Damn it, Adam!” James roared. “Because of you, Cloud Logistics is finished! I’ve been trying to salvage what I can, but it’s too late. They’ve already started liquidating our assets.”

Adam’s face drained of color. He could hear the desperation in his father’s voice, and he realized with growing horror that this was no joke. He turned to Harry, his eyes wide with disbelief. “You... you really did this?”

Harry’s gaze was cold and unyielding. “I warned you, Adam. But you didn’t listen.”

“This can’t be happening,” Adam muttered, his hands trembling as he clutched his phone. “Dad, I... I didn’t mean to offend anyone. I swear.”

“Offend?” James’s voice was a low growl now. “You’ve ruined us! Our name, our business—everything is gone. And for what? To taunt some guy and his girlfriend? You’re a disgrace. You’re no son of mine.”

The line went dead, and Adam stared at his phone in stunned silence. His entire world was collapsing around him, and he was powerless to stop it. He turned back to Harry, his eyes filled with a desperate plea. “Please, Harry. I’m sorry. I didn’t know you could... I didn’t mean to—”

“It’s too late for apologies, Adam,” Harry interrupted, his voice calm but laced with steel. “You thought you were untouchable. You thought you could walk all over people without facing any consequences. Well, now you know what it’s like to have everything taken away.”

Amelia’s voice, trembling with fear, cut through the tension. “Harry, please. You’ve made your point. Just... stop this. It’s not worth it.”

Harry turned to her, his gaze softening for a moment. “You made your choice, Amelia. You sided with someone who would use and discard you the moment it suited him. Now you’re seeing the consequences of that choice.”

“But... we didn’t know!” Amelia protested, tears welling up in her eyes. “I didn’t know you had this kind of power. I thought you were just—”

“Just what?” Harry snapped, his voice cutting through the air like a whip. “Just a nobody? Just someone you could walk all over? Well, guess what, Amelia. You were wrong.”

Adam, his legs trembling, fell to his knees on the cold pavement. The weight of his father’s words crashed down on him, the reality of his situation sinking in. He had lost everything in mere minutes, all because he had underestimated Harry Winstone.

“Please,” he begged, his voice barely a whisper. “Please, don’t do this. I’ll do anything.”

Harry looked down at him, his face expressionless. “It’s out of my hands now, Adam. You made your bed. Now you have to lie in it.”

Richard, who had been watching the scene unfold with a satisfied smirk, glanced at his watch and then at Harry. “It’s done, Mr. Winstone. Cloud Logistics is officially bankrupt.”

Adam let out a choked sob, his shoulders shaking as he tried to process the enormity of what had just happened. He looked up at Harry, his eyes red and swollen. “Why? Why would you do this?”

Harry leaned down, his voice barely above a whisper. “Because you thought you could ruin my life. You thought you could hurt the people I care about. And for that, you needed to be taught a lesson.”

With that, he straightened up and turned away, leaving Adam sobbing on the ground. Amelia stood frozen, tears streaming down her face as she watched the man she once scorned walk away, his back straight and his head held high.

Richard placed a hand on Harry’s shoulder as they walked towards the waiting car. “Well done, sir. You handled that perfectly.”

Harry nodded, but his face remained impassive. “It had to be done. He needed to learn that actions have consequences.”

As they drove away, leaving the shattered remnants of Adam’s arrogance behind, Harry felt a strange sense of peace settle over him. He had stood up for himself, for Celia, and for everything he believed in. And now, he was ready to face whatever came next.