“You look like you’re having a wonderful day, Lisa,” Nika said, her voice a low, dangerous hiss that made the hair on the back of Lisa’s neck stand up. “Shopping for baby clothes while the rest of the family is bleeding out in the ICU? You really are a piece of work.”Lisa’s beam vanished instantly, her face turning pale as she clutched her bags tighter to her chest.“What am I doing here?” Nika spat, stepping closer until she was inches from Lisa’s face.“I went to find you at the Hargrove estate this morning. Your own family told me you’d only gone there to cause trouble and demand money. They practically threw me out! I thought you were still a Griffin, but apparently you’re just a nomad now.”Lisa’s eyes flashed with a spark of the old fire, but it wasn’t the frantic, desperate heat Nika was used to.It was something colder.“You went to my parents’ house?” Lisa snapped. “How dare you pry into my business, Nika! I told you before, I’m done being a pawn in that mansion.”Nika laugh

The heavy silence of the VIP surgical lounge was finally broken by the rhythmic squeak of a doctor’s shoes.Adeline, Frank, Richard, and Tina scrambled to their feet as the Chief of Medicine approached, still adjusting his glasses.They hadn’t heard a word since Harold and Vivian were rushed into emergency surgery hours earlier. Now, at last, something, anything was coming, and they clung to it like a lifeline.“Good news,” the doctor announced with a professional nod. “Against all odds, both Harold and Vivian have stabilized. The water in their lungs has been cleared, their vitals are strong, and they are awake. They’ve been transferred to the recovery ward. You may see them now.”The siblings didn’t wait for a second invitation. They rushed down the hallway in a frantic swarm, their footsteps echoing off the sterile tile.But as they burst into the spacious private ward, the room felt strangely empty despite the two figures lying in the beds.Evelyn was nowhere to be seen.“Harold!

“How…” she stammered, her voice barely a whisper. “How did you know about that? I didn’t tell anyone. We were careful.”She had made sure no one had seen her, and even Neil wouldn’t have known that she had been the one to suggest the outing or that she had enjoyed it, too.Tedmond’s expression remained unreadable, his eyes tracking her reaction with clinical interest.Behind him, Hino and Persis exchanged a quick, wary glance.“Careful is a relative term in this house, Nella,” Tedmond said, his voice dropping into a low, chilling vibration. “Did you really think you could move through this city without my knowledge? I know where you go, who you speak to, and exactly what you buy. In this house, privacy is a luxury you haven’t earned yet.”He stepped closer, leaning in just enough so only she could hear the edge in his tone.“Now tell me, what else did you two discuss over silk and champagne that didn’t make it into that email?”Nella swallowed hard, forcing her composure back into pla

Before any of them could blink or find their voices, Lisa turned her attention back to the unconscious housekeeper.Without a word, she bent down, grabbed the woman by one ankle, and began to drag her across the floor. The sound of the woman’s body thumping against the floor was the only noise in the living room.Lisa kicked the front door open, the wind and rain howling into the house. With a grunt of effort, she flung the limp body out onto the porch and down the stairs into the mud and pouring rain.She slammed the door shut, the heavy wood echoing through the house like a gavel.“She’s officially fired,” Lisa said, turning back to her brothers as she wiped a smudge of blood from her knuckles. “If I see her face inside these walls again, I won’t use a vase. I will kill her. Do you understand?”She stepped toward them, her gaze sweeping over their reddened faces.“Unless, of course, the three of you want a murder investigation and a public scandal attached to your precious names to

Without waiting for a response, Lisa marched toward the walk-in closet.She ripped the doors open and began grabbing armfuls of designer gowns, silk scarves, and custom-made shoes. Storming to the large window, she unlatched the heavy frame and shoved it open. The roar of torrential rain flooded the room.“Since you like the rain so much that you’d leave people to die in it, your things can join them!” Lisa shouted.She began hurling everything out, clothes, jewelry boxes, porcelain dolls Amara had collected for years. One by one, they plummeted into the mud below, swallowed by the dark, soaking abyss.Amara let out a strangled cry and scrambled off the bed.“No! My dresses! Stop it, Lisa!”She lunged for Lisa’s arm. Lisa didn’t even turn around. She backhanded Amara across the face, sending her sprawling onto the floor.“Stay down!” Lisa barked, grabbing a heavy jewelry chest and flinging it through the window. “Or do you want to follow your clothes onto the pavement?”Amara lay o