Carter stepped into his villa with a lot of questions in his mind. He has not yet told Brandon what Lucas told him on the phone. The conversation still echoed in his head like a threat that refused to fade away. He was the heir of the Kingston family; he would handle it and prove to Brandon that he was better than him. If this situation spiraled out of control, it would only confirm Brandon’s belief that Carter was unfit to lead, and that thought alone made his chest tighten with anger.His hand shook.“Master, should we serve your dinner now?” his chef bowed to him as he entered.Carter hissed. Food was not on his mind. Even if he was hungry, sooner or later, he wouldn’t be able to pay his house workers their due salary because their company was already bankrupt. The mansion around him suddenly felt less like a symbol of power and more like a fragile illusion waiting to collapse.He walked past the chef without a word and stepped into his home office.He never had to come here to do

Brandon sat beside the hospital bed. He held Betty’s hand while her eyes were closed.The room smelled faintly of antiseptic, and the slow rhythm of the monitor beside her was the only sound breaking the silence.She was still unconscious. Lilia had rushed her to the hospital when she found her in the pool of her own blood in the bathroom.If Lilia was not fast enough, Betty might not have been lucky.“Betty?” Brandon called as he noticed it.Betty’s eyelids trembled slightly before opening slowly. She’d been unconscious for twelve straight hours.“How are you feeling now?” Brandon asked, leaning closer to her.After he and Carter arrived back at the Kingston estate, while Carter went straight to his villa, he had gone to Betty’s.After he spoke to her rudely on the phone he wanted to apologize. Everyone can make mistakes and they were all suffering from an offense to a greater person in the country they didn’t know yet.They should not be so hard on each other.It was from there he kn

Lucas scratched his hair hard.A few hours ago, Williams had called him.His voice had been harsh yet broken on the phone.“They have taken it from us Lucas.”“Everything is your fault.”“That poor bastard is behind it all.”Williams’ voice was simple yet ambiguous at the same time, and that was what unsettled Lucas the most. His father was never a man who spoke without clarity. If Williams sounded like this, then something truly terrible must have happened.“Father, who is the poor bastard you are referring to? I do not understand.”“Why didn’t you know?” Williams said on the phone again.“It’s him. The poor son-in-law of the Kingston’s. He is the new major shareholder of our company. He is the one calling all the shots now.”“What?!” Lucas’ eyes almost popped out.“How in the heck?”“You are no longer the heir. He made it so. I am no longer the president. He made it so.”“You are the remote cause of all this. You were the one who offended him. Now, he’s come after us all. I regret t

Brandon stepped into his villa. His heart heavy, his father’s words rang in his head like a bell.The silence inside the house only made the words echo louder in his mind. His father’s expression earlier had been cold, almost dismissive, as though Brandon’s existence barely mattered.He stepped to his cellar. He lifted his hand and picked a whiskey bottle and a glass.The familiar smell of alcohol filled the small space as he uncorked the bottle. Drinking had always been the easiest way for him to quiet the thoughts that refused to leave his mind.He poured, and gulped it all at once.“He told me to go beg my ex-wife if I need to beg anyone.” he poured another cup and gulped once again.Carter was seven years older than Brandon. Because he was the last child, Michael was not seeing his effort.To Michael the first child was supposed to be the heir no matter the strength or the weakness in his intelligence.Brandon never cared to be an heir. But he wanted his father’s acknowledgement w

Lucas stepped back into his home office, shutting the door behind him as if he could lock out everything that had just happened.He never knew a day like this would come. But three years ago, when he gifted his mother this phone, he’d set it up for her, not out of suspicion, but out of caution.He’d added his fingerprint to the phone security as well so that he could access it anytime he wanted, a quiet layer of control he never imagined he would actually need to use.Now, standing there with the weight of everything pressing down on him, it was the only option he had left.With this, he gently placed his thumb on the phone sensor and it unlocked.As the phone unlocked, he opened Judy’s personal banking app. He didn’t know her passcode but with the fingerprint, it was enough.He clicked on the dashboard and her balance displayed.“500,000,000.00”He let out a breath he didn’t realize he had been holding.He sighed, relieved.Though he couldn’t recover the remaining two hundred million