Chapter 91: Charles Smith Regrets It

The empty silence that permeated the opulent halls of the Smith family estate was suffocating, a constant reminder of the hollow void that had taken root in Charles Smith's life. Once, these walls had echoed with the laughter and playful shrieks of his young son, Henry – a sound that had grated on Charles's nerves like nails on a chalkboard. But now, in the wake of his divorce from Emma and her subsequent departure with their child, that very absence weighed upon him like a physical weight, a burden he could scarcely bear. At first, in the tumultuous days following Emma's departure, Charles had been too consumed by the turmoil within his family's company to dwell on the loss of his wife and child, and his every waking moment had been devoted to damage control to stemming the tide of scandal and upheaval that threatened to engulf their empire. But as the dust settled and a sense of uneasy normalcy returned, Charles was adrift, unmoored from the anchors that had once tethered hi