Chapter 1
After transmigrating into a domineering CEO, I quickly realized this world was seriously insane.
My father was obsessed with the whole "substitute" trope. My mom and all his lovers were basically clones of each other.
The real and fake heiresses put on a prime-time soap opera every night, while the whole family spent their days figuring out how to play favorites with even more precision.
My uncle embezzled 200 million dollars at an auction just to chase after his crush, and my brother one-upped him by throwing in another 250 million dollars to steal her away.
My business partner's wife ran off while pregnant, so he ditched his hundred-billion-dollar empire, cashed out illegally, and went chasing after her.
My ex-girlfriend, armed with a system, launched a business offensive, her eyes rimmed red as she looked at me. "Love is above everything."
The stock price crashed, and the CFO scrambled to hand over the report, practically crawling on all fours.
I smiled. "Call the cops. Everyone who should be in there, will be."
*****
Bang!
The conference room door was slammed open from the outside as someone burst in.
Caroline stood in the doorway.
Her eyes were bright red as she stormed over to me. "Landon. What are you doing here, holding a meeting?"
The whole room went dead silent.
Every shareholder's eyes locked on her.
Even those old foxes, who usually kept their cool, had their masks slip right then.
She ignored them all, her voice shaky and tearful. "Today. It's the 30th day since we got together.
"I made soup and prepared a candlelit dinner for you, but you're just here having a meeting.
"Do you have any idea how upset I am?"
I looked at her, expressionless, then nodded toward the security guards at the door. "Drag her out."
The two guards immediately rushed over, one on each side, grabbing her arms.
"Landon, you jerk. You can't just treat me like this," Caroline yelled.
"Let me go. I'm Landon's girlfriend," she shouted.
Her screams rang out in the hallway, only to be silenced by the door slamming shut.
I sat down, sweeping my gaze over the stunned crowd. "Where were we? Continue."
The meeting wrapped up in less than five minutes.
My phone buzzed on the table.
It was a text from Caroline.
[Landon, you really had the guards drag me out? That's humiliating.
[I might be broke, but I've got pride. We're breaking up. It's over, right now.]
I glanced at the screen, turned it off, and tossed the phone aside.
This was already the 21st time in 30 days that she'd said she wanted to break up with me.
What on earth was wrong with people in this world?
Just yesterday, I was gunning for a promotion, giving my final presentation to become CEO of a Fortune 500 company's Hamford division.
The next second, I got tossed straight into this wild CEO novel world.
Now I was Landon, the CEO of Powell Group.
And to make things worse, the world's plot nerfed the original Landon's IQ; he was a CEO with all the brains of a potato.
This place is full of dramatic, cliché plot twists straight out of a trashy novel.
The original Landon had a prime opportunity to marry a wealthy heiress for business, but he just threw it away.
Instead, he was hopelessly obsessed with an intern who was a walking disaster and only ever caused trouble.
And honestly, it was not just Caroline. My family was even more dramatic than she was.
The real and fake heiresses put on their daily prime-time drama, like clockwork.
My mom, Alice, and my dear brother Cameron did nothing all day except obsess over how to play favorites with even more precision.
Gabriella, the so-called fake heiress, was actually my dad, Roman's, secret love child with his childhood sweetheart.
Of course, the whole Powell family was kept completely in the dark about it.
Except for me.
Bzzz. Bzzz.
My phone was buzzing like crazy on the table again.
Another message from Caroline flashed on the screen.
[Landon, why won't you reply? Do you even have a heart?
[If you keep ignoring me, I'm going to die.
[I'm about to jump off a bridge, and you'll spend your whole life regretting it.]
I grabbed my phone.
The whole room froze, everyone staring at me.
I pressed and held the power button for all to see.
I swiped to power off.
She had been spoiled rotten.
If she really wanted to die, do it already.
I'd barely settled into my chair in the top-floor office when I heard footsteps approaching my desk.
My assistant stopped right in front of me.
"Mr. Powell, your father is on the line," he said quietly.
His voice was barely above a whisper, his face a mix of nerves and eagerness to please.
"What does he want now?" I asked.
"Your father said..." The assistant watched my face carefully. "If you keep refusing the marriage alliance with the Clark family, he's going to publish a statement in the newspaper."
Was that even my decision? Hell no, that was the original Landon's mess, all thanks to his hopelessly lovesick brain.
"What statement?" I asked.
"He said... he's going to announce tonight that the company heir will be your sister, Gabriella," the assistant replied.
I leaned back in my chair, eyes closed, and could practically feel my blood pressure skyrocketing.
Put it in the paper?
Did that old man think this was some kind of joke?
What was this, swapping out the owner of a corner store and just taping a flyer to a lamppost?
I opened my eyes and stared at my assistant, who had that clueless look plastered on his face.
"Our company is worth nearly a trillion dollars, with a tangled web of cross-shareholdings and offshore trusts," I said. "And you're telling me we can just hand over the company in one night with a newspaper ad?
"Print it in the paper? What, his retirement health magazine?"
The assistant's face went pale.