Blake woke to the sound of buzzing voices. Workers, whispering like bees. The only time they turned into bees was when a heavy rumor had landed in the house.He tried to lift himself from bed. His middle was still sore, burning with pain. That fucking Cole!!!“Hey,” he croaked at one of the workers.The buzzing stopped instantly. All eyes snapped to him.“Where’s Dad?” Blake demanded.The workers looked at each other like children caught stealing candy.Blake scowled at one of them. “What is happening?”“Sir…” one of the women stepped forward—then burst into tears.Blake’s face twisted in disgust. “Spit it out or lose your tongue.”“Your father is dead!” a man blurted.Blake froze. “Is that a sick joke?”He grabbed his phone from the desk. Over a hundred missed calls. Messages pouring in like a flood:“Sorry for your loss.”“So sad.” Crying emoji.“Accept my condolences.”His hands went limp, the phone clattering to the floor. He scanned the room in disbelief.“Get me the guards, righ

Footsteps thundered outside, shattering the silence.Armed men stormed in, rifles raised. Red laser dots danced across Blake and his uncle’s chests.Earlier, when Scarface had brought his squad in, their ammo had run dry in the fight outside. But he’d sent for backup—and this wave came armored in bulletproof vests, fingers curled tight on triggers.The gun slipped from Blake’s uncle’s hand. Slowly, he raised both arms. Revenge meant nothing if he was dead.“Uncle!” Blake hissed, panicked. “Do something!”His uncle shot him a glare to stay quiet, but Blake was too far gone.“There’s a bomb on him!” Blake jabbed a finger at Cole, voice cracking. “Kill him and you all die! He’s a commander—more of his men are outside! Tell them, Uncle!”Scarface strode over and cracked Blake across the head. “Senseless brat.”Blake crumpled, out cold again. Maybe the tenth time in twenty-four hours.“Untie them,” Scarface barked.Ropes fell. The Whitmore family bolted for the exit, shrieking, desperate.

“Grandma, I told—”“Answer the question, Amanda!” one cousin snapped. “Yes or no.”“You’re always rebellious,” an aunt seethed, still shaken from the earlier chaos.“Such a stubborn idiot!” an uncle spat, his face still ghostly pale from being tossed around by Blake’s uncle’s men.“The only place I’ve ever seen guns is in movies — and I stopped watching those for my sanity,” another uncle hissed.Granny lifted a hand, silencing the room.Seconds later, the angry murmurs faded, though the glares remained. If looks could kill, Amanda’s body would’ve been riddled with holes.“Look around,” the matriarch said once the quiet held. “Can you see your parents here?”Amanda swallowed hard. “I… I can’t, Grandma.”“And you know why they’re not here?” Granny asked.“I don’t have an idea,” Amanda replied.“That’s because you’ve put them in a tight spot,” Grandma said coldly. “I gave them two options: either they keep coming here and tell you to divorce the monster you call a husband, or they disow

“If I were her, I’d have dropped out already,” a sneering voice said.Cole’s eyes cut to two girls watching Bella with open contempt.“What do you expect? She’s broke. Running errands for us is all she’s good for.”“Even if I was poor, I’d never stoop that low.”“Her results almost didn’t get released last term because she refused to do Dora’s assignments.”“And the last time her mother came here—rags. Actual rags.”“I don’t know why she’s still in this school,” the second girl said. “She’s disgusting. I wish I could just—kill her.”Cole walked toward them, his steps calm, his eyes anything but. Their sneers wavered as he closed in. He stooped, picked up a pen one of them had dropped, and placed it back in her trembling hand.His stare lingered on them, cold and piercing. “T-th-thank y-you,” the bolder of the two girls stammered before bolting away. Cole turned away, stepped into the elevator, and strode down the hall toward the principal’s office.He was two steps from the door whe

“How many followers do I have right now?” Amanda asked, taking off the cover of the marker and standing in front of the whiteboard in the room she had converted into a mini office.“One point seven million, ma'am,” her personal assistant said with a sad sniff.“Don't cry. I already told you I got this covered.”“But…how can the numbers drop that quickly? I had already planned that by the end of this week, with all the strategy and the new collaboration, we'd have a million new followers.”“I think you don't know who I am,” Amanda muttered, writing the number on the board. “This is my chance to show you the superpower I already told you I had.”Her assistant sniffed again. What a crazy time to be dealing with family problems. It was actually her first time seeing, face to face, how wicked some family members could be. This was Amanda's moment to make a major breakthrough.“Priscilla?” Amanda's voice called her out of her thoughts. “What are you thinking about?”“I'm sorry, ma'am. What