CHAPTER TWELVE "I'll consider your request, Lauren." Her face lit up, like someone just told her she won the lottery."Did... did I hear you wrong? Am I..." She was stuttering, pushing herself up on her knees."You heard right." Alex shrugged, and kept his voice even."Thank you." The words rushed out of her. "Thank you so much, Alex."He nodded. "You can rest here for a bit if you need to. I'm going upstairs. I need to get some sleep.""No, it's fine." She was already getting to her feet, brushing off her knees. "I should go. Emma probably needs me right now. She doesn't have anyone left."She bowed deep, her head nearly touching the floor."Take care, Lauren."Alex turned and headed upstairs. Xavier followed close behind.Lauren was escorted out.Back in his bedroom, Alex walked over to the bed and sat down hard."Will you actually do it?" Xavier's voice came from behind him. "Consider her request?"Alex didn't answer right away. He just sat there staring at the wall. "Lauren has

CHAPTER FOURTEEN *"The CEO of Kane Industries isn't pure after all. I mean why resent her for helping you?"**"Do you actually believe her? Let's wait to hear Alex's side first."**"Guysssss, I posted Diane's live video and gained five hundred followers on TikTok! New way to blow up!"*The drama stretched into the night. Thomas and Xavier had left Alex alone—he'd asked them to.His online supporters were nothing compared to Diane's army. Her performance had worked. Worked perfectly."A mother's pain" was trending.People were sympathizing with her.Alex scrolled through his phone, jaw tight. "Are people always like this?" His voice came out bitter. "Did they already forget the live cam? How the Williams family treated me like garbage?"He threw the covers over himself. Started sweating immediately. For that moment, he hated the world. Every single person on it.How could they think like this?Sleep wouldn't come. He gave up trying, kicked off the sheets, and headed downstairs to get

CHAPTER SIXTEEN Alex stepped into his bedroom and walked straight to the balcony. He turned his back on the pavement below and stared into the room.Art lined the walls in beautiful arrangements. His eyes drifted to the closets—hundreds of clothes he didn't know if he'd ever wear before Thomas decided to replace them.The flower vases. The bed, neatly made with white sheets and tulips scattered across the pillows.Everything screamed perfect. And that was the problem.How could he not be as perfect as his bedroom? His perfection should have come naturally, like an OCD, but it didn't. Why the fuck didn't it?He moved from the balcony into the room and started pacing.Promising the board he'd solve this was good, but did he really know what to do? He swung his arms carelessly as he walked.A knock came from the door. It opened.Xavier.Alex stopped pacing and turned to face him."Couldn't rest?" Xavier asked, settling himself on the sofa."I was just about to head into the bathroom,"

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN Emma got inside the house and Diane was already waiting, arm akimbo behind her sofa, her eyes looking stern as ever."Where are you coming from?" She asked, and Emma nearly rolled her eyes, but she knew better than to react rashly. Her and Diane had rather gotten close over the past few days since she came back from when she confronted Alex. In a way two people stuck in a burning building get close, not from love, but from the simple fact that they needed each other to survive.Emma hated it. She'd started to see herself in Diane's way, in the way her mother's mouth twisted when she was scheming. The adage that says people of like minds tend to flow well wasn't a lie.Two days before they had prepared dinner together, the ingredients in the house were getting smaller day by day. Emma can't afford to sell parts of her belongings, same as Diane, their meals would rather suffer.They'd stood side by side at the counter, chopping onions in silence. Diane had handed he

CHAPTER TWENTY Alex held his breath as he peered into the box.He froze.An envelope.He grabbed it quickly and tore the paper wrapping away."Damn!" Xavier's voice was the only thing that reminded Alex he'd gone pale.Five pictures. Each one showed his father, Richard Kane, with a red mark drawn across the image."They're trying to—" Thomas's breath caught. "It's a warning."Alex didn't need to be told who sent them. He dropped the pictures on the table and slumped into a nearby chair.Thomas moved to the table and spread the pictures out, examining each one carefully.Random photos of Richard Kane. But the marks were deliberate—each one placed directly over his chest.Thomas clenched his fists. "These people should be hunted down. How can they be so cruel?"Xavier had moved to Alex's side, tapping him gently on the shoulder."You're not scared, right?"What kind of question was that? Of course he was damn scared. Anyone would be after receiving pictures of their dead father marked