All Chapters of From Illegitimate To A Zillionaire Heir: Chapter 631
- Chapter 640
802 chapters
CHAPTER 630
Persis stood her ground until the last of her breath was spent, chest heaving, eyes still burning.The brothers crumbled under the weight of the room’s collective scorn, faces pale, eyes darting.Just as the chaos reached its peak, a heavy hand landed on Persis’s shoulder.She jumped, turning to see Thomas. He had returned from the car, his expression unreadable but his presence grounding."It's enough, Miss Persis," Thomas said quietly. "You’ve said what needed to be said. He needs you now."Persis glanced at the broken remnants of the Griffin family, then back at Thomas. The fire in her eyes dimmed, replaced by weary exhaustion. She nodded once, tucked a stray hair behind her ear, and let Thomas lead her through the throng of shouting police and angry spectators.*****The cool, damp air of the parking garage was a sharp contrast to the courtroom’s suffocating heat.As Thomas opened the rear door of the black sedan, Persis sank into the leather seat, adrenaline finally draining f
CHAPTER 631
Three days had passed since the gunshot in the courtroom shattered the world.Three days since the name Mill Washington had been dragged from the shadows of a dead man’s throat.Inside the sprawling estate, the air felt stagnant.The staff moved on tiptoe, their eyes constantly drifting toward the heavy oak doors of the master suite.Tedmond had not left his room.Food was placed on silver trays outside the door, only to be collected hours later, cold and untouched.Behind those doors, there was no sound at all, only a crushing, absolute silence.Tedmond was a prisoner of the realization that he had mourned a ghost for twenty years while his mother was likely suffering in a cage Harold had built.Persis stood in the hallway, her hand hovering inches from the door handle.The only thing separating her from Tedmond was that door, and she had been standing there for a long time, wanting to knock, unable to find the courage, endlessly deciding what to do.She wanted to give him space to c
CHAPTER 632
He paused.“Have you identified all the locations where women could be sold?”Wherever they had sent his mother, whatever they had done to her, he would find her himself and make sure she came home.After being gone for so long, he knew one thing: if she had regained her memories and been free, she would have found a way to contact Thomas. The fact that she hadn’t meant there were only two possibilities.Either she had regained her memories but was being held captive without access to a phone, orOr she hadn’t regained them at all.Persis and Thomas exchanged a quick, worried glance. They had far more to tell him, not only about the search for Mill, but about the collapse of the Griffin line he had left behind.“Eat first, Tedmond,” Persis said, her voice soft but firm. “Then we’ll talk. There’s… quite a lot to catch up on.”Tedmond nodded and headed toward the dining hall with a brisk, measured stride.“Fine. But keep it brief. I have a hectic afternoon ahead of me.”As they descen
CHAPTER 633
Tedmond turned away from the mirror, and for the first time in three days, a slow, boyish grin spread across his face, a look that was almost more unsettling than his coldness.“Oh, she didn’t bring me the silver trays, Persis,” he said with a light shrug. “She used the servants’ crawlspace behind the wardrobe. Apparently, she found a way to slide snacks and takeout through a gap in the wood.”Persis gaped at him. “Takeout? Snacks? Tedmond, where would a five-year-old get—”“She must have hidden a stash,” Tedmond chuckled, his eyes dancing with a brief, rare flash of warmth. “While you were all mourning me as if I were already in the ground, that little rascal was smuggling in chocolate bars and cold sandwiches she swiped from the pantry. She told me I looked ‘grumpy’ and needed to eat my feelings.”He let out a short laugh, shaking his head.“So no, Mary doesn’t need to cook a feast. I’ve lived on sugar and Bianca’s ‘secret’ rations for seventy-two hours. I’m quite fueled.”Persis r
CHAPTER 634
Thomas looked Tedmond in the eye.He knew what would happen if he told him the names of the gang he had gathered, and he didn’t want Tedmond going after them without a plan.Thomas paused.“But this will take time. Information in that world is bought with blood and patience. In the meantime…”He hesitated, glancing at Persis before looking back at Tedmond.“You are still enrolled. If you’re still interested in finishing your studies, I suggest you do so. It provides the perfect cover. Let the world think you’re a grieving heir trying to find his footing in academia while we build our army in the shadows.”Tedmond leaned back, the dining hall's silence emphasizing his isolation.He thought of the long road ahead, the strength he would need, the discipline required to dismantle a syndicate that had hidden a woman for twenty years.“You’re right,” Tedmond murmured. He gave a single, sharp nod. “I need the credentials and the cover. I’ll finish. But Thomas… don’t stop digging. Not for a
CHAPTER 635
Persis didn’t just inhabit the room; she commanded it.She leaned over the massive desk, her body arched in a curve that spoke of both exhaustion and lethal elegance.The silk of her emerald-green blouse clung to the arch of her back, shimmering like water under the chandelier’s glow.Her raven hair, usually pinned in a professional twist, had partially escaped, cascading over one shoulder in heavy waves that brushed against the polished wood.As she reached for a pen, the movement emphasized the toned lines of her arms and the narrowness of her waist, cinched by a high-waisted pencil skirt that stopped just above the knee, revealing legs that seemed to go on forever, ending in stiletto heels sharp enough to draw blood.With a frustrated groan, she tossed a folder to the floor; the papers fluttered like wounded birds.“It is entirely too hard running a company,” Persis muttered, rubbing her temples. “I wasn’t built for this much paperwork.”A pair of small, sensible heels clicked acro
CHAPTER 636
Just as he said, “lock the estate down,” a loud, exaggerated “Ewww!” echoed from the staircase.The group turned as one.At the bottom of the steps stood Bianca. At ten, she was no longer the tiny toddler who smuggled chocolate bars through crawlspaces.She had grown into a leggy, sharp-featured girl with the same defiant spark in her eyes that Tedmond carried. She wore an oversized hoodie and headphones, observing the display of affection with pure, unadulterated middle-school disgust.“Seriously?” Bianca groaned, folding her arms. “The world is ending, Thomas is hyperventilating in the van, and you two are doing… that? In the living room?”Tedmond’s tactical mask didn’t just slide; it shattered.A genuine, lopsided smile curved his lips. For a moment, he was no trained killer or corporate titan. He softened, stepping away from Persis with open arms, an invitation for the hug she always gave after a long trip.“Come here, you brat,” he said warmly.Bianca didn’t run. She didn’t ev
CHAPTER 637
The drive into the jagged heart of the mountains ended at a secluded tactical base, hidden within a natural amphitheater of towering stone.As the SUV rolled to a stop and the engine cut out, the silence was absolute, broken only by the ticking of cooling metal.Tedmond was the first to step out.The air was frigid, sharp with the taste of pine and ancient snow.He walked to the edge of the clearing and looked out.From this height, the valley below lay bathed in the amethyst glow of twilight.A thin veil of mist clung to the treetops like spun silk, and the surrounding peaks were painted in strokes of gold and deep violet by the dying sun.To Tedmond, it was breathtaking.It felt as though the world were holding its breath, offering a moment of untainted peace before he descended into fire.“It’s beautiful,” Tedmond murmured, his eyes reflecting the vast, quiet expanse. “Hard to believe something so ugly is hiding in a place like this.”Marek stepped out beside him, gravel crunching
CHAPTER 638
Tedmond’s hands stopped.The silence in the cabin grew heavy, suffocating.He didn’t look up immediately. Slowly, he slid the magazine into his sidearm, a sharp, final clack before lifting his head.“You think this is about the result, Thomas?” Tedmond’s voice was low, vibrating with a settled, dangerous conviction. “That I spent five years turning my body into a weapon just to let another man pull the trigger?”He leaned over the table, his rough, calloused palms flat against the maps of the villa.“If money could have brought her back, she would’ve been home twenty years ago. If power alone were enough, my father wouldn’t be in a grave, and she wouldn’t be in a cage.” His eyes locked onto Thomas’s with a fierce, unbreakable light.“Some things in this world aren’t solved with a checkbook. They’re solved by the person who carries the weight of the debt.”He straightened, his silhouette casting a long shadow against the cabin walls.“It’s my mother, Thomas. Every bruise Marek gave me
CHAPTER 639
The rock was cold, not just chilly, but the kind of deep, biting frost that felt as though it were trying to fuse Tedmond’s skin to the slate.He reached up, his rough fingers finding a ledge barely wider than a credit card. He hauled himself upward, muscles screaming in a rhythmic, dull ache he had long since learned to find comfort in.Beside him, Marek climbed with the terrifying fluidity of a mountain lion. The man didn’t seem to use his hands so much as simply will himself higher.“You know,” Marek whispered, his voice hitching slightly as he jammed a boot into a vertical crack, “if you’d just bought a helicopter like a normal billionaire, we’d be having a drink on that balcony by now.”Tedmond grunted, a bead of sweat rolling down his temple despite the freezing wind.“A helicopter has a signature, Marek. And I’m not ‘normal’... you made sure of that. Besides, it would draw too much attention. I don’t want anything that could expose my identity or give them a reason to hide he