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@ ODILI ONUOHA
2025-05-16 05:35:17CHAPTER TWENTY
The Ray family exchanged glances. Mark smirked faintly, leaning toward Helen. “It’s probably one of those foreign board members,” he muttered. “No way it’s James.”
Helen nodded with a smug expression. “James is just a placeholder. A temporary President."
Even Tracy looked up from her phone, curious but confident in her assumption that the former street man she helped frame could never amount to much more.
But just as Mr. JP inhaled to say the name, a loud and chaotic voice broke through the hall.
“There he is!” a young woman shrieked from the back, storming down the aisle. “That’s him! That’s my brother! He threw me out like trash when I asked for help!”
The entire room fell into stunned silence. Gasps erupted from every corner as the woman dressed in tattered clothes for effect pointed dramatically at James, who remained seated with a stoic expression.
Cameras immediately turned toward her. Reporters snapped photos and started whispering frantically into their microphones.
“What is going on?” someone muttered from the crowd.
Mark nearly jumped in excitement. “This is perfect,” he whispered to Helen. “Let her ruin him in public!”
Helen chuckled darkly, “Couldn’t be better timing.”
But the moment was far from victorious.
Mr. JP’s face turned crimson with rage. He slammed a hand on the podium and shouted, “Security!”
Guards rushed in and surrounded the woman, who was still putting on a show for the cameras.
“I said remove her!” Mr. JP bellowed. “This is a private event, and that woman is not my daughter nor does she have any relation to my family!”
The woman’s protest turned into stammers. “But… I”
“You were paid to do this, weren’t you?” Mrs. JP cut in fiercely, standing beside her husband. “You dared to come here to sabotage our son’s moment? Arrest her at once!”
As the security officers grabbed the woman and escorted her out, the room remained frozen.
Mr. JP stepped back to the microphone, eyes blazing.
“Now let me make this perfectly clear,” he announced, his voice shaking with fury and pride. “The man you just tried to humiliate, the man you dared to frame, is not just the President of JP Enterprises…”
He turned toward James, his gaze softening with emotion.
“He is my only son. James JP. The true heir to everything I have built. My blood. My pride. My legacy.”
The entire hall erupted into gasps again this time, not from shock, but from awe.
Cameras turned sharply toward James, who now stood slowly from his seat. Mrs. JP immediately walked over and wrapped her arm around her son with tears in her eyes.
“We love you, son,” she said tenderly. “You deserve every bit of this moment.”
James gave a small nod, his eyes scanning the room as all those who once looked down on him now looked up in silence.
From their seats, Helen and Mark were speechless.
Tracy clutched her phone, her hands trembling.
This wasn’t supposed to happen… this wasn’t in the plan… she thought.
James turned to face the Ray family directly. His eyes were calm, but piercing.
The grand ballroom had descended into an eerie quiet. All eyes were now fixed on James, the man who had once been mocked as a beggar, ridiculed as a street dweller, and dismissed as a disgrace to the Ray family. But there he stood tall, refined, and composed as the sole heir to the JP empire.
Reporters who once whispered slanderous headlines now stood frozen, their cameras lowered slightly, unsure whether to record this new twist or pause in awe. Among them, Tracy felt a chill run down her spine. Her earlier confidence had vanished like smoke, replaced by the crushing weight of guilt and dread. She couldn’t even meet James’s gaze.
Helen, seated a few rows ahead, was seething silently. Her fingers clenched the silk of her gown tightly, knuckles whitening. Mark sat beside her, pale-faced and stiff. All his previous arrogance had withered into regret. This wasn’t the plan. This wasn’t supposed to happen. James wasn’t supposed to rise. Not like this.
As the hall slowly began to clap, starting from the board members of JP Enterprises to representatives of international partners who respected Mr. JP’s authority, the applause grew louder. It became thunderous, roaring like justice finally given form. The heir had been revealed, and it wasn’t just a title it was a crown reclaimed.
Mr. JP gestured for silence once again, and when the room obeyed, he turned to James and said, “Son, I may have failed you in the past. I listened to lies, I acted in anger, and I walked away when I should’ve stood by your side. But today, in front of the world, I ask for your forgiveness and welcome you back not just as the President, but as the heart of JP Enterprises.”
The crowd erupted into another round of claps, cheers, and whistles. Emotions swirled through the hall like a whirlwind.
James slowly approached the podium, every step echoing the long journey he had endured. From rejection, betrayal, and homelessness to becoming the man everyone now admired.
He adjusted the microphone and let his calm voice wash over the crowd.
“I never imagined this day would come. Not because I didn’t believe in myself but because for a long time, the world refused to believe in me. Many of you here know me as the President. Some only know me through headlines good and bad. And a few… know me as the man they once threw away.”
His words cut through the crowd like glass.
He turned his gaze slowly toward the Ray family. “To those who called me worthless… to those who spat at my name, who mocked me when I had nothing… thank you.”
Gasps filled the room.