CHAPTER 39
PAUL WOKE UP AND REALIZED that it had been many years since he had slept in a decent bed, even though the Colombian government had given him countless prostitutes and even had sex with some embassy employees over the years, this was incomparably better.
— I was really tired, huh.
He agreed.
— If you slept in a cubicle in a third — world embassy, you would sleep for three years straight to make up for the discomfort.
Paul realized he had a nice afternoon coffee waiting for him.
It's been a long time since I've had decent food...
— It was the asylum or the prison.
She smiled.
I know very well what it's like to choose your own shackles...
— If you're stuck with something or someone, it's still a penitentiary, because you'll never get anywhere...
— Memories are worse than a handcuff.
Paul came up behind Selene and started massaging her shoulders, which for her was always heaven, those Leaks hands, she always felt welcomed by her side, no one understood her better than he did, there was never any financial interest in their relationship, unlike other people, he felt a purely physical attraction.
— The important thing is that we can always make new memories, new moments and a new future.
— The problem is that in your case it's always new handcuffs.
— Cuffs that bind us forever.
That was her fear, living forever trapped in something that she didn't know made her truly happy, but it had been so many years living in a prison, she didn't know if she could live away from the shackles.
SELENE STILLTON was the daughter of one of the richest men in the world, Adam Stillton, owner of Stillton Bank, and grew up surrounded by everything anyone could dream of in life, except freedom, since she was born she was a prisoner in a world of illusions, meeting Paul Leaks only added to the shackles in her life.
Selene and Paul met at a Stillton Bank event. As one of the world's top computer experts, Paul hacked into the bank's system and left a penny. Soon after, he returned the entire amount, showing how flawed the bank's virtual security program was, causing Adam Stillton to hire him and become one of his trusted men.
But just like everything in Paul's life, nothing was conventional, what was supposed to be his financial and sentimental tranquility, became a whirlwind of feelings and complex moments, especially when Paul's past appeared before them.
Paul had married a young university professor named Yuliya Barah, and from the beginning, they had an explosive, troubled and sexually addictive relationship. They couldn't live apart from each other, until tragedy tore them apart, the death of their son, Daniel Leaks.
Paul went into a deep depression and after everything bad that could happen to someone, it just happened, he became a ticking time bomb... a storehouse of depression and heartache. Adam Stillton, realizing the imminent danger that surrounded him, forbade his daughter to have any contact with Leaks. He pulled strings and forced him to work for the British government, as a way of trying to compensate and redeem himself, but the government tried to cover up more crimes than to solve them, which went against Paul Leaks' code of ethics.
Selene was in charge of the Leaks Asylum, she used her father's influence and made a deal, with a future promise that she would invest heavily in Colombia when she was president of the bank, but her father was one of the old titans of the world and he refused to die, even at the age of 90, he kept ahead of the business, without giving the slightest indication that he should stop.
— Stopping is showing death that I'm ready to receive her, and as far as I'm concerned, she'll have eternity as a friend waiting for this moment.
Not that Selene wanted her father dead, however, as the sole heir, it was something that was undeniably going to happen. But, she was already approaching 50, she had no heirs and her great love was caught between many worlds.
— Selene, you made a lot of mistakes in dealing with Leaks — said the father one afternoon — you didn't get anywhere, you've always been a girl with no personality and it will be impossible to assume the presidency of the bank when I die.
— You're already old, you don't even know what you're talking about anymore.
— I already called my lawyer and changed the will, it will have good money, however, the bank will be managed by my vice president.
She nodded nonchalantly, knowing she'd used a master trick her own father had used all his life.
Cash...
Selene bribed the family's lawyer by marrying him hidden from her father and forged a new will benefiting them, after her father signed one of the copies, Selene had him killed and would have all the family fortune to invest in her great love, it was then that Albion appeared in her life and everything changed completely.
— Can you save Leaks?
— We can.
She nodded happily, but it was still a huge risk to trust that person.
Albion held out his hand and like everyone else who approached her, they only had handcuffs instead of pain.