302 What Am I Protecting?

"Just answer me will you," after a few glasses, Harvey once again spoke.

Ashton sighed, it seems that their group of friends had been affected by Amber one way or another and this person is the one with the most effect for him to be in this situation when Amber finally decided to be the villain of his life.

"We all have our own way of protection, your protection was never wrong. It's just it was never appreciated. That is why now that it was pointed out, you feel like everything you have done were for nothing."

"But your wife kept laughing at it. And if she was not your wife I would have hit her despite being a woman. It's hateful how she laughs at it as if everything was really a joke, all my efforts were but a sickening joke no one had really looked at," Harvey complained as he dawned another glass.

He didn't know how Amber stood in front of Harvey to make him hate her this much. Ashton was even amazed at how much she can be a villain if she wanted to. For her to make this grown up man, who was four years older than her, in this kind of state.

"Was she now?" was all he replied as he let Harvey drink to his heart content.

This man among them was the one who would smile and be a gentleman, he may seem like he was in control but when drunk, he was like a child who had a never ending complain. He was like a child who would tell them everything that pains him.

"She was the second woman you see, the second one to make me feel so helpless. So helpless that I couldn't protect what I wanted to protect. I can't do anything but just to receive the news that I was already too late to make a move," Harvey then conveyed.

And this was also the reason why Harvey made sure he was never drunk in front of them. Because he also knew of this tendency of his, something he really didn't want to show anyone.

Men are sometimes like that after all, they barely say anything to their friends but a fact still remains that they are carrying burdens and pains much greater than some women.

"Listen to me, Ash."

"Hmmm."

"For the first time in my life, ten or so years ago. I had the urge to protect someone else other than the Empire. I watched her grow and watched them mistreat her, I saw some even hurt her while her father remained oblivious."

He dawned another glass, "She didn't want her father to have any fight with his family that she kept quiet about it. Until such time that I could no longer hold back and stepped in. And on that day, I promised her and myself that I would protect her no matter what."

He laughed bitterly, "Big words for someone who couldn't even fulfill it."

"I was sent you see, sent to finish a university for my brother. Being an Empire, it was easy to do that, pay the school and the school would accept you as that person despite the fact that they knew you were an impostor."

"Yet two years before I was about to graduate a devastating news came to me, she was tortured to spit out what they wanted but she was also unaware back then. Unaware of what they wanted, by the time she was let go and she finally decided to leave that place since her father was no longer there."

"The thing they wanted from her was given to her by the lawyer their family didn't know about. When I checked the number I gave her, so many messages were there, there were hundreds. Heck, I don't even know if it reached thousands."

A lone tear dropped from Harvey's eyes, "Ash, she asked me for help over and over again. While being tortured by those hideous people. Yet because of the fact that they took my phone away from me until that day. I was unable to be there."

"By the time I was able to come back, she was no longer in there. I tried to seek justice but my grandfather didn't want to do anything to them. They were a major shareholder after all. If we touch them the Empire will be the one that will suffer."

Then came his bitter laugh, "Did you know I only found out about the will being received by her when I tried to track her down? But alas she had disappeared, must have went to another place to study. For the Empire, the ones who tortured her was left unscathed."

"For the Empire, the very first person I personally wanted to protect, was left with running away as if a mice being chased by a group of cats. Until, years have passed and at some point I had stopped thinking about her and stopped remembering her face."

He looked at Ashton, "But fate must have been playing with me. I saw her again only not to realize it was her until she showed up in front of her family. But even then I still couldn't do anything for her."

"So what is protection Ash? What am I protecting? I chose the Empire over her and in the end this is what I receive, their ire for having those measly minor shares. And her ire for the promised I was never able to fulfill."

He dawned another glass, "Your wife was right. Her eyes were telling me one thing a while ago. Maybe I really was a coward, I couldn't stand up for that little one and couldn't stand up to ensure that the Empire would not fall. I really am but a coward."

Ashton drank from his own glass being on his own thoughts before he looked back at Harvey who was staring blankly at his glass.

"Then maybe it is time that you once again stand up. Just as how you stood up for her for the first time. It is time for you to stand up now. You do understand right? Power is what you needed to not just protect her but even your Empire."

Harvey looked back at him as if trying his best to take in whatever it is that Ashton was saying.

"Have you forgotten? Brian used the power of SNN in order to stand up for what he wants, Mathew used the power of his gift in order to fight back with his own Empire. Xander and Timothy used the power of their family, their sister being there, in order to get back at their feet and seek vengeance for their parents."

"I and the others used our power in order to overthrow the underworld and start anew in the business world. Among us, you are the only one who have not yet stood up for what it really is that you desire. Always hiding behind your so called protection for your Empire."

"Yet that protection was being trampled over and over again. It is time Harvey, to face this fact and to truly protect what you wanted to protect. A helping hand was already stretched out towards you, what you only needed to do is to grab hold of it."

This was the last thing that Harvey remembered for he blacked out after that, he didn't even know what time Ashton left or how he dragged him up to his bedroom. Or maybe he just tasked the bodyguards to drag him back to his room.

Yet despite being too drank, he can clearly remember what they talked about and the advise that Ashton left in order for him to think about.

And despite his drunkenness the night before, he still ended up waking up before sunrise the very next day. He remained lying on his bed for a good few minutes before he decided to get up.

Upon coming down, what welcomed him was the sight of a prepared hangover soup and breakfast together with a note.

~I was obligated to make one since a certain someone drank too much last night. I say your friend is a really scary cold man. If not for that, I wouldn't have cooked anything. At the same time, he and I were picked up by Amber early today for we have to prepare some stuff before the opening of the restaurant.~

He just stared at it and realized that Ashton didn't get to go home last night, their talk must have been that long for him to stay until the morning.