William thought about this question thoroughly before standing up with a straight back, resolution on his face. “What else can he do to us, other than try and reason with us to get along with that adopted son of his? It's not like he can hurt us or anything.”“First of all, he's way older than us. If he hurts us, it would be called out as bullying. Using his status to oppress the children of two lower-tier families. Our family will turn this against him.”Alessia nodded her head with a calmer expression. “Sir Ethan should know better than that, right? So… he wouldn't get back at us, right?”William nodded his head firmly. “I mean, it's not like we ended up getting Jamie expelled as we planned.”The reminder of his recent loss stung his heart greatly, and he grabbed the bottle of whiskey from the table, throwing it across the room in great anger. “Damn! I can't believe Jamie managed to humiliate us?! What the fuck are we gonna tell Young Meredith?!”Alessia looked worried at that ques

“So let me get this straight: a few weeks after Young Madam Meredith showed up in LA, you two suddenly popped out of nowhere, admitting yourselves into HU, and began messing with my adopted child before he even took a step inside the classroom.”William could have lied that he and Alessia were already aware of Jamie since he's the Honorary Child. Plus, there are many viral videos of him online. Knowing about him wasn't hard at all.Also, it wouldn't exactly be far-fetched for either William or Alessia to claim that they simply wanted to challenge someone outside the Ashford clan's registry, and Jamie was simply the perfect target to go after.But no matter how arrogant that sounded, Willing knew for a fact that Ethan Lincoln would not believe them. That's because this man was simply that good at sensing bullshit. He would definitely ask follow-up questions that would eventually expose everything.Hence, he kept his mouth shut. Alessia exchanged a discreet look with him. Apparently, sh

“Tell me, before you were called over here, did she truly interact well enough with you?!”William couldn't answer, and that was enough for that question. No, Meredith had always treated him the way she treats most of the subordinates in her circle: like they're less than. Cold and distant. “But then she promises to grant your wishes as long as you do her bidding. Tell me, if it was easy to get whatever she wanted done, why would she call you all the way from the Island of the Maldives?! After all, her target is merely an Honorary Child of HU, an adopted child of Ethan Lincoln!”William's father had to calm his wife down. She was getting stressed out after the lengthy explanation. So he took over. “William, we know we can't take you away right now, not without offending Young Madam Meredith. But we can order you to formally reject the mission and return to the Ashford clan's academy where you belong. It's barely a week, and you've managed to draw the attention of someone like Ethan

“Not even my parents know about that. I can't afford to let this matter draw in more attention, not right now. Besides, the Lincoln family isn't an entity I can solely tackle. Since Jamie is publicly attached to his current wealth by being Ethan Lincoln's adopted child, it is within reason that things ended up the way they did.”She shook her head as she sat up straight. “Damn it, Jamie truly came prepared right from the very start. There's no way someone like him could have gotten Ethan Lincoln to play this public charade of being an academically adopted child if Grandpa didn't pull strings on his end.”“They should be ashamed of themselves. All three men. Creating this false narrative just to hide the fact that Jamie Oman is actually a long-lost grandchild of the Ashford clan's patriarch. What a joke!”By the time Meredith was done venting, she realized that her murderous intent was already leaking, which had made General Naomi Cho and the AS99 soldiers around her bow in a show of r

The attack came suddenly, in the midst of her mumbling. Stella narrowly avoided the sharp ice sword that flew past the left side of her face, glinting dangerously under the daylight sun.“What the hell??” She sidestepped that surprise attack. “Naomi, what the hell are you….”Stella's eyes widened as she could tell the murderous intent was a short few steps from her position. Naomi had taken advantage of that distance to close the distance between them. Stella didn't need to see it with her eyes to know this. Years in battle had honed her intuition scarier than the ice sword that just flew past her face.Besides, she could smell the familiar cologne Naomi hadn't seemed to stop using since they last saw each other years ago.Stella knew the kick was coming before her eyes caught it. Her hands held up guardedly over her head. The kick came, and she was sent sliding across the ground.Stella dropped her hand with a slight glare. “Cheap shot, General Cho. You're still as sneaky as ever.”