Chapter 1074 The Deadlock (IX)

• Chadwick Fullner lay on the bed, scrolling on his phone for ages, digging up everything he could about Donnie Burns. Now he finally got why Samantha Wembley used to treat Donnie with that mix of respect and fear. Donnie’s last company was already a heavyweight, and after he pivoted to venture capital, he kept backing online education and new energy startups. All of them were taking off. That made Chadwick uneasy. He remembered when Donnie came to Senefield International to pick his brain, saying he didn’t really know how to pick projects and wanted to partner up. But judging by Donnie’s moves now, he’d leveled up fast in no time. Chadwick figured Donnie’s partners must be seasoned vets. That’s what worried him: would Donnie still be willing to throw Regal Peaks a lifeline right now?
• Truth is, Chadwick didn’t really want to approach Donnie—especially over anything tied to Madison Sawyer. He’d met Donnie through Samantha, and he knew how close those two were. Seeing Donnie meant thinking of Samantha.
• Samantha—he’d tried hard not to think about her lately. Some people drop into your life and leave you with a pain that cuts to the bone, and a clean break you have to live with. Chadwick kept telling himself: in love, he and Samantha had already made their choices. It was over. He couldn’t use the past to betray or hurt what he had now.