Tedmond’s expression didn’t soften; if anything, his features settled into a mask of absolute indifference.He picked up his tablet and swiped through a list of blocked numbers, a digital graveyard of the people who had once dictated his every breath.“They already tried to call Tina,” Tedmond said, his voice a low, melodic baritone. “She is currently being transported to a place where her voice will never be heard again.”His expression didn’t change.“They’ll try their high-priced lawyers next, and they’ll find the lines disconnected and the retainers emptied. If they try to call me…”He looked at the black screen of the device.“…let them listen to the dial tone. It’s the most honest conversation I’ve had with them in years. A Griffin only begs when they’ve run out of people to bully. I have no interest in hearing the sound of a predator losing its teeth.”Thomas bowed slightly, acknowledging the finality in his master’s tone.“Understood, young master. I will ensure that no commun

Seeing the look on Tedmond’s face, confusion flared across Harold’s.“What do you mean?”Tedmond chuckled.“She is indeed my partner, Harold. But the money? The empire? That isn’t hers. It’s mine.”Harold scoffed, a flicker of old arrogance returning.“Yours? Don’t be ridiculous. Since when do you have anything? Even if you’d started a small business five years ago, it wouldn’t have grown into an entity capable of swallowing the Griffin Group. You were a nobody.”“It was my mother’s business,” Tedmond said quietly.Harold froze. The name of the woman he had discarded decades ago seemed to hang in the stale air like a ghost. Then, he began to laugh, a sharp, mocking sound.“Your mother? That beggar? That thief? Tedmond, she didn’t have a cent to her name when I kicked her out!”“She wasn’t a beggar, Harold. And she certainly wasn’t a thief,” Tedmond’s gaze turned lethal, voice dropping to a dangerous whisper.“She was the daughter of an incredibly wealthy, powerful family who chose t

“Order!” The Judge hammered his gavel until the room fell into a deathly silence.He leaned over the bench, eyes fixed on the three brothers.“I have sat on this bench for thirty years. I have seen killers, thieves, and monsters. But rarely do I see men who look at the lives they’ve destroyed… lives of their own blood and lives of the poor and demand ‘fairness.’”Flipping through the final pages of the indictment, he continued,“The evidence provided by the whistleblower, who, for the record, has delivered more forensic proof than I’ve seen in a decade, is overwhelming. The accidental deaths resulted from grade-four steel being used where grade-one was required. You traded lives for profit margins. And the treatment of the minor in your care…”The Judge’s eyes softened briefly as they flicked to Tedmond, then hardened again.“It is a miracle he survived you at all.”“We didn’t know!” Harold pleaded, voice now a pathetic whine. “The contractors lied to us!”“The signatures on the cost-

The thought hit him like a physical blow. He pictured her not as a ghost, but as a prisoner in some dark, concrete hell, waiting for a son who thought she was under six feet of dirt.The guilt was instantaneous, a suffocating wave that threatened to break his composure.He had been playing for stocks and buildings while his mother was being held by gangsters."She’s alive," Tedmond repeated, his voice barely a breath."She was too valuable to kill," Harold sneered, enjoying the way Tedmond’s face had finally crumbled. "And now, you'll never find her. Every day you spend in that penthouse, just know she’s under the dirt… just not the kind you think."Tedmond’s inner struggle was visible in the frantic twitch of his eyes.The logic that had made him a king was battling the raw, bleeding hope of a son.He wanted to scream, to wrap his hands around Harold's throat and tear the location from him, but he was paralyzed by the weight of the lie he had lived for years."Tedmond!" Persis’s voic

Back in the courtroom, the gunshot’s echo finally died, replaced by a silence so dense it felt as if it were crushing the air from the room.Harold’s body lay slumped on the floor, his final act of spite complete.He had died as he had lived, sacrificing everything to ensure he had the last word.Tedmond stood frozen, his hand still reaching into empty air.“Tedmond!”Persis broke through the crowd, her face ashen. She grabbed his arm, her touch finally grounding him.“Tedmond, we have to move. The police are calling a lockdown.”He turned his head slowly. His eyes were hollow, reflecting the red and blue flashes of emergency lights through the high windows.“He did it,” Tedmond whispered, his voice cracking. “He killed the only map I had.”“We’ll find another way,” Persis said fiercely, pulling him toward the side exit as bailiffs shoved the shouting press back. “Thomas is already on the phone. We’re not giving up.”As they passed the defense table, Tedmond’s gaze caught on Frank a