Supreme Mars novel Chapter 68

Early next morning, Lydia sent Emilia to the kindergarten as usual while Leo began his usual exercise routine.

Leo was still in the middle of doing one-armed pushups when he was interrupted by Marie's boisterous voice.

"Holy shit! Shit! This is some crazy news!"

Marie charged out of her bedroom like a whirlwind and hurried towards Leo.

When Leo got up from the floor, a phone was thrusted in his face. "Check this out!"

Leo took the phone and read the title of the news article Marie had wanted to show him: "Breaking News! The son of Julton Pharmaceutical's Chairman is a closeted submissive!"

Scrolling down, Leo saw the same video Cheryl had recorded back at the suite. The video was five minutes long, and it showed a man being tied up and whipped repeatedly by a woman.

The unsavory bits of the video were blurred out, but the face of the man in the video was exposed. It belonged to Cedric Reyes, the son of Thomas Reyes.

Leo returned the phone to Marie and dropped to the floor to continue doing pushups.

"What?" Marie stared at Leo in shock. "Nothing? You've got nothing to say about the fact that Cedric is into bondage and kinky sex?"

"I've already seen it earlier," Leo said. "It's all over the press now."

Marie's jaw clicked shut. "Wait a minute..." Her eyes narrowed into slits. "This isn't your doing is it, Leo?"

Leo leaped to his feet, then shrugged. "Who knows?"

The more cryptic Leo was, the more Marie suspected that Leo was behind this. "Come on, Leo," Marie whined as she followed Leo around like a lost puppy. "Just tell me... Please? Was it you? Did you leak the video?"

Leo's phone rang before he could speak. The call was made from an unknown number.

Leo answered the call. "Who is this?"

"Are you Leo Cohen?"

The husky voice belonged to a woman.

"Yes. And you are?"

"I'm Teresa Collins, the legal representative of Julton Pharmaceutical."

"Julton Pharmaceutical?"

Marie flinched at the name. She didn't expect to hear from them so soon. And from their lawyer, no less.

Marie turned to face Leo, wanting to ask him what they should do, but Leo was already speaking into the phone. "Is there anything you need, Miss Collins? If not, I'm hanging up."

"Were you behind the footage in the news?" Teresa asked.

Leo smirked. "You clearly believe it was me, so why bother calling?"

"Delete it." Teresa's voice trembled as she tried to suppress her anger. "What you did is against the law. Julton Pharmaceutical can sue you for this.

"Also, we'll be holding a press conference later today to clarify things. We'd like you to show up at the press conference and admit that the video is your doing."

Leo chuckled. "Admit to my doing? What's there to admit? The truth is out there." Leo paused. "Cedric Reyes has a thing for BDSM. That fact doesn't change, whether the video exists or not."

"Not if you admit to setting the whole thing up to make Julton Pharmaceutical look bad," Teresa snapped. "That's exactly what we want you to do at the press conference. And then you'll pay us a compensation fee."

Leo chuckled. "Is that so?"

"And don't think you can get away with not showing up, Mr. Cohen," Teresa said. "We've already done a thorough background check on you. We know that you have ties with the Ford family of Emerdale. Rest assured that drastic measures will be taken against you and the Fords if you refuse to cooperate."

A smile formed on Leo's lips. "Is this the best you can do, Miss Collins?" Leo let out a laugh. "In that case, you, and the rest of your PR team for that matter, should hand in your resignations."

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

"I'll tell you one thing," Leo said. "And I'm willing to bet that you people will change your minds about holding the press conference after hearing it."

When Teresa was silent, Leo took that as his cue to make his big revelation.

"You should know that Shawn Harris is already in police custody," Leo began lazily. "It's been more than 24 hours since he was brought to the police." Leo paused pointedly. "I'm sure you know what awaits him, Miss Collins. That's right, he'll be interrogated by the police." Leo smirked. "All it takes is one slip of his tongue, and you and your employer will be dealing with a much bigger scandal than Cedric Reyes' torrid sex life."

Leo could now hear Teresa's heavy and ragged breathing through the phone.

"Now," Leo continued, "I'm sure you can tell which is the lesser of two evils, Miss Collins. If you want the original copy of the video... I'm happy to give it to you." Leo paused for a few beats. "What I want is very simple. Tell Cedric to show up in front of my house this afternoon. He is to kneel in front of my house and apologize for his wrongdoings."

Leo promptly ended the call. When he lowered the phone, he noticed the look of shock on Marie's face.

To say that Marie was shock was a severe understatement. The truth was that Leo's demeanor had left Marie flabbergasted. Usually, when someone received threats from Julton Pharmaceutical, they'd be frightened out of their wits. But Leo had been anything but frightened; he'd even threatened them back! But it was Julton Pharmaceutical... Wasn't he afraid at all?

After ending the call, Leo padded to the living room and poured himself a cup of tea.

Moments later, Marie joined him at the living room. "What now, Leo?"

Leo smiled and took another sip of tea. "Now we wait."

"Wait?" Marie frowned. "Wait for what?"

***

The chairman of Julton Pharmaceutical sat in his office with a dark scowl on his face.

A man and a woman stood in front of the chairman's desk.

The man's body was covered in welts and gashes due to him being struck repeatedly with a leather whip. The woman was immaculately dressed in a skirt suit, her short bob reaching past her ears to her chin.

"What's his response?" Thomas Reyes growled, his scowl darkening by the second.

Teresa flinched at the chairman's tone. She knew how angry the chairman was, though she didn't dare tell him anything but the straight truth.

As Teresa recounted her phone conversation with Mr. Cohen to the chairman, she could tell that the chairman's anger was escalating. At one point, the chairman interrupted Teresa's report by slamming his fist on his desk.

"That son of a bitch!" Chairman Reyes sprung to his feet. "How dare he disrespect me like this! Does he know who the hell I am? All my life, nobody has ever had the guts to threaten me!"

"Chairman, please," Teresa pleaded. "Please allow me to finish."

Chairman Reyes let out a huff and gestured for Teresa to continue. Teresa steeled herself and continued to speak, knowing that she'd yet to deliver the worst part of her message.

"Mr. Cohen told me that he's in possession of the original video. And that if we... if we want to video, Mr. Reyes has to kneel in front of his house this afternoon and beg for forgiveness—"

Teresa jumped when Chairman Reyes' fist connected with the surface of his desk. In an instant, Chairman Reyes was out of his chair again.

"You useless piece of trash!" Chairman Reyes' slapped Cedric across the cheek. "Other than repeatedly causing me trouble, you've accomplished nothing of value! Look at this fucking mess that you've created." Cedric's head whipped to one side at the force of the chairman's blow. "I don't give a shit what you do behind closed doors. But how could you be so indiscreet? Now the entire company has been dragged into your mess!"

Cedric slumped wordlessly to the floor.

"What should we do now, chairman?" Teresa asked.

Chairman Reyes pinched the bridge of his nose. "Cancel the press conference."

"Sir... Are you sure about this?"

"The guy is right, Teresa." Chairman Reyes sighed. "It's all over for us if Harris spills his guts to the cops." Chairman Reyes glanced at Teresa. "Speaking of Harris. I need you to get him out of there, Teresa."

"But—" Teresa cut herself off, then took a deep breath. "Getting him out won't be easy, sir."

"I'm not giving you a choice, Teresa!" Chairman Reyes lowered his gaze and kicked Cedric in the butt. "This is all your fault, you useless piece of shit! You need to go to his house and kneel!"

Cedric's eyes widened in shock. "But dad! I'm your son! Are you seriously asking me to kneel down in front of his house?"

"Oh, you bet your ass I'm serious." Chairman Reyes' eyes flashed in anger. "You and I both know that between your dignity and the Julton Pharmaceutical's survival, I'll always pick the latter. Now get your ass over there and clean up your mess!"

Cedric gulped and scrambled to his feet. "Y- Yes, father. I- I'll do it right away..."

Nobody saw the hatred contained in Cedric's eyes as he walked away. It was a bloodthirsty kind of hatred, not just for his Leo, but for his father as well.

***

It had been half an hour since Leo had hung up on Miss Collins. Leo had sat in the living room the whole time, alternating between sipping tea from his cup and pouring more tea from the teapot which was almost empty by now.

Marie, on the other hand, could barely sit still. While Leo was happily sipping his tea, Marie was pacing back and forth in the living room anxiously.

At one point, Marie lost her cool. "Oh, come on, Leo. You gotta give me something here. You told me we'd wait, but who or what are we waiting for?"

"Ah. Speak of the devil." Leo smiled at Marie and pointed at the gates. "He's here."

"What?"

Leo pointed out the window again. "There's your answer."

Curious, Marie padded towards the window and peered out. Marie gasped and bolted out the door the moment she saw the man standing outside.

It was Mr. Cruz, her previous teacher!

Mr. Cruz clambered towards Marie the moment he saw her. Only then did Marie notice the object he was carrying—a large canvas bag of expensive health supplements.

Mr. Cruz's knees hit the floor. "I was wrong, Miss Henderson. Please, I beg you. Please return to the university to resume your studies!"