Too Late to Hold Me Back novel Chapter 1179

Even if it meant risking life and limb.

Later, Master Ellis let his desires cloud his judgment. He not only handed over the financial control to Chloe Abbot, but he also let her manage the men.

That was when Chloe's true colors showed. She secretly siphoned off a massive amount of his funds."

"Where did she move it?" Mira asked.

"Offshore.

We have no idea when Chloe started contacting foreign operatives. Looking back, she might have been someone's pawn from the very beginning.

Think about his line of work—he definitely had his fair share of enemies."

"Doesn't he have connections abroad?" Mira asked.

"Not back then.

Early on, Master Ellis's influence was strictly confined to Asian territories; he had no foothold in the West.

We figured that after the Chloe incident, he couldn't swallow his pride, which drove him to expand his network overseas."

"He let Chloe run his men. When one of the guys refused to fall in line, she claimed he had harassed her.

Master Ellis was so blinded by her that he beat the guy without a second thought and kicked him out.

The truth? Chloe was just throwing her weight around, using his authority. The guy only talked back once.

Similar incidents kept happening.

Master Ellis thought he was establishing her authority, but all he did was alienate his loyal men. Soon after, a lot of them quit.

"He did. They even had a child. The kid she took with her was his son."

"At least she had a shred of decency left not to abandon her baby," Rachel commented.

"Decency? She took the kid to ensure Jordan wouldn't go after her. Otherwise, with his skills, he would have hunted her down and killed her, even overseas.

Having the kid changed everything. She could threaten him—if he came after her, she'd hurt his son.

Over time, he gave up the search. He decided it wasn't worth the effort and just hated himself for being a poor judge of character.

As for the boy, he figured if the mother was that toxic, he didn't want the child either. He considered the stolen money as child support.

Fortunately, she only managed to drain his surface-level accounts; the core of the Ellis family's wealth remained untouched."