Zarek’s brows arched as he watched the doctor approach.The man looked as though he’d been dragged from sleep and dropped into a war zone.His hands were steady, but the way he avoided looking at the family members spoke volumes about the fear Robert instilled in his staff.Robert didn’t wait for an introduction. He leaned back in his chair, hands resting on the table like a king presiding over a tribunal.“The doctor is here,” Robert said, his voice slicing through the heavy silence that had followed his threat to the wives.He turned his head slowly, locking his predatory gaze onto Zarek. “The test will happen now. No closed doors. No secret labs. I want the result born in the middle of this family so that when it’s read, there is no room for noise or doubt.”Zarek’s expression remained cold, but internally, his mind raced like a high-speed processor.Had Shaw truly managed to reach the Sullivan family doctor in time, or was his aide’s failsafe nothing more than a gamble?If the do

At the mention of that, Zarek’s eyes narrowed.“So, let me get this straight,” he said, his voice low and deliberate, each word measured like a scalpel. “The women of this house conspired to crown me heir before I even returned, using me as a pawn to consolidate their own power while pretending to mourn a dead child?”Robert’s grin widened, unbothered by Zarek’s tone. “Exactly. They were clever, in their way. Manipulative. But clever doesn’t equal strong.”He leaned forward slightly, his voice dipping into a slow, predatory purr. “They wanted leverage. They wanted control. They thought the heir was a title they could claim, a prize they could contest. But the boy returned. The heir returned. And now?”Now, he gestured toward Zarek, his hand sweeping across the table as if presenting a trophy. “The crown sits on him. The others? They have nothing but their schemes and the knowledge that I can crush them with a word.”Zarek’s jaw tightened. He could feel the weight of Robert’s delib

To Robert, Grisha wasn’t a son; he was a lab rat in an expensive suit.The man was testing him, seeing if this new, improved version of his heir could survive the very vipers he lived with.‘Robert has a plan,’ Zarek thought, jaw tightening as he looked at the locked doors. ‘He didn’t just walk out to let them kill me. He walked out to see if I was worth keeping alive.’"You need to get up, Mother," Zarek said, gently but firmly, detaching her from him.He walked to the dining table and picked up a steak knife, testing the edge with his thumb."They’re still out there," he said, eyes darkening as they met the heavy doors. "They’re waiting for the silence to mean I’m cold."They had locked him in with a grieving mother, expecting a corpse and a broken woman.They were about to find out that the poison hadn’t just failed, it had made him impatient.Now that Zarek knew Robert didn’t care about Grisha, he also knew how he was going to deal with him.He had spent years wondering if there w

He turned to Masha, who was standing by the door, her eyes wide but no longer crying.“Come, Mother,” Zarek said, his voice returning to a calm, level tone. “I think they’ve learned their lesson for the morning. We have things to do.”As they walked out, not one sibling dared even to look in their direction.The fear Zarek had planted was deep, and for the first time in twelve years, the Sullivan house was silent.Zarek led Masha away from the wreckage of the lounge, his stride long and purposeful.Behind them, the silence was absolute, a heavy, suffocating quiet that only exists when a pack has realized its alpha is a fraud.As soon as they turned the corner into the gilded hallway leading toward the east wing, Masha stopped.She gripped Zarek’s arm with surprising strength, pulling him into a recessed alcove hidden by heavy velvet curtains.“Grisha, stop,” she hissed.Her eyes, which had been clouded with a manic, delusional fog since he arrived, suddenly cleared.The frantic mother

“Our contacts, our loyalists among the staff, and our influence,” Alessandra said. “We don’t just kick him out, Giorgia. We make sure that when he leaves, he leaves in pieces so small that even Masha won’t recognize him.”“Together,” Giorgia agreed, a dark, twisted smile finally touching her lips. “We end the man tonight.”The alliance between Alessandra and Giorgia wasn’t born of love, but of shared hatred.As they released each other’s hands, the air in the medical wing seemed to thicken with the scent of a new conspiracy.“Robert is still brooding in his office, waiting for a son who isn’t coming,” Giorgia whispered, her eyes darting toward the security monitors at the end of the hall. “He doesn’t know the boy is sitting out there by the pool, treating this estate like a vacation resort.”Alessandra’s lips curled into a thin, jagged line.“He thinks the water is his sanctuary. He thinks he’s safe because he’s in the open air.” Her eyes hardened. “He’s a fool.”She leaned closer, he