Chapter 191

"Real action, huh? Fine. I’ll show you."

Joseph took a deep breath, his gaze sweeping across the crowd that still hadn’t dispersed. The sight only made his anger surge. "What are you all staring at? Don’t you have your own business to deal with? Why are you all still hanging around here? Don’t you have anything better to do?”

But his attitude finally set off the extras he’d hired.

One by one, they stepped forward and confronted him.

“Boss, you haven’t paid us yet.”

“Yeah, you promised a set rate—none of us have been paid.”

“You’re not seriously trying to stiff us, are you?”

That last line made Joseph snap.

“Why the hell would I do that? Don’t talk nonsense!”

But now, the people around them—extras and onlookers alike—turned suspicious eyes on him. Some of them had actually felt bad for him earlier, thinking he’d been humiliated unfairly. Now they realized everything had a reason.

This man wasn’t someone to be pitied. He’d orchestrated the whole thing.

That thought spread quickly, especially among the extras, and even more so among the passersby.

Joseph’s reputation took a nosedive right there and then—his name now known by too many for all the wrong reasons.

With the crowd still watching, he had no choice but to pay up. There was no way he could risk the fallout of actually refusing to pay.

He motioned for the hired extras to leave with him, disappearing down the street, leaving behind only a confused group of onlookers.

Some were still stunned, not having fully processed what had just happened.

But a gust of cold wind cleared their heads.

And just like that, Joseph quietly retreated from the gates of Walton Corporation.

Joseph didn’t drag his feet when it came to paying the extras—he handed out the money in full, settling everything at once.

Only after sending them off did he start reflecting on everything that had happened over the past few days.

It seemed Aurora was even more complicated than he’d imagined.

He couldn’t figure out what she’d been through since their breakup, but something had clearly changed. She’d become cold, ruthless, and even cruel.

That wasn’t the woman he used to know.

He thought back to what she said about him being all talk but no action.

Why didn’t he try to work things out for once?

Joseph clenched his fists, the veins on the backs of his hands bulging, those large, angular fingers looking almost menacing.

He refused to believe Aurora’s luck would always hold out.

Besides, after everything that had happened, he’d come to realize something—Aurora was not someone to be underestimated.

Sometimes, the things she did were so unexpected, no one could see them coming.

The next day, Joseph arrived at the office, only to be handed a stack of documents by his subordinates.

He glanced over them, then immediately swept them all off the table with a wave of his hand.

“This is what you’ve come up with after all this time?”

His expression twisted in disbelief. “We’re going up against Walton Corporation, and this is what you think will do the job?” Since his last visit to Walton Corp, Joseph had been hunting for any possible weak point in the company.

There had to be something. A corporation that size couldn’t possibly be flawless.

But looking at the proposals his team brought him—nothing stood out as worth using.

It was starting to drive him crazy.

He didn’t even know if any of this would make a dent in Aurora’s world.

Slumped back in his executive chair, he stared up at the ceiling, too frustrated to speak.

Meanwhile, the office was a mess of voices, people talking over one another with no clear direction.

It was during this chaos that Judy arrived, holding a lunch container, and walked straight into what looked like a full-blown marketplace.

Chapter 192