Joshua calmly told him that his mouth was too dirty and that someone needed to teach him how to speak with respect."Your mouth is filthy," Joshua said evenly. "Someone should have taught you how to use it a long time ago. I'll do you the favor."When Richard tried to raise his hand against him, Joshua caught his wrist, twisted it behind his back, and forced him down with one sharp movement."You dare—" Richard snarled, swinging.Joshua caught the wrist mid-swing, turned it behind Richard's back, and drove him downward. Richard's knees struck the carpet. He grunted, his face flushing scarlet."Get him!" Richard shouted. "Get him off me!"The guards moved forward, but Joshua's men immediately blocked them.The doors at the far end of the lounge had already opened. Joshua's security team, who had trailed him at a distance despite the demand that he come alone, poured in and stepped smoothly between their employer and Richard's guards. Nobody drew a weapon. Nobody needed to. Their positi

The following morning, Peter brought Monica to the Bertan residence after a private discussion between them."You don't have to do this," Monica said as their car pulled through the estate gates, the long driveway lined with manicured hedges she remembered from years ago. "Your family already has enough to say about me.""That's exactly why I want you there," Peter said, glancing at her before the driver opened the door. "I'm done pretending their opinions dictate who I bring into this house."Her presence immediately unsettled the family because they still remembered that Monica had once been chosen as Peter's arranged bride before she rejected the marriage.A hush fell over the sitting room the moment they entered. Aunts exchanged glances over the rims of their teacups. An older cousin set hers down with a sharp, deliberate clink, as though the sound itself were a statement.Several relatives had never forgiven her for walking away from the alliance, especially because they believed

"Trace every frozen transaction," Peter said, already reaching for his laptop. "I want to know exactly who authorized each one, down to the exact timestamp."Before going to bed, Peter received a call from an unknown number.The phone buzzed against the nightstand near midnight, jolting him from the edge of sleep. Peter answered quickly, expecting an update from his employee.The person only mentioned one sentence: Someone inside your family has already signed your replacement."Someone inside your family," the unfamiliar voice said, cold and clipped, "has already signed your replacement."The line went dead before Peter could respond, the silence that followed heavier than anything the call itself had said.The next morning, Peter began investigating the frozen transactions himself.He spread every document across his kitchen table before sunrise, coffee going cold and forgotten beside him, working steadily through account after account with growing unease.He quickly discovered that

The next day, Peter discovered that the recent attacks against his companies were connected to several old documents from his father's final years.He sat alone in his study, comparing shipment records against a stack of decade-old files his lawyer had finally located in storage.The documents showed that important business decisions had been changed shortly before his father died, and some of the changes had directly affected the companies Peter now controlled.Three ownership transfers, Peter thought, cross-referencing the dates. All filed within the same six weeks before he died. Every one touches something I run today.Peter became suspicious when he noticed that several of the documents had been approved by people who were still close to his uncle.He recognized two of the approving signatures immediately, men who still attended every Bertan family gathering, still sat beside Harold at every dinner.He refused to believe his uncle could have been involved in his father's death or

Chapter 347Nearly half a month had passed since the chaos surrounding the divorce, the Bertan family conflict, and the recent attacks on Joshua's business. Joshua had deliberately kept himself away from unnecessary distractions, focusing on Galaxy while quietly following several unfinished leads.The office had settled into a strange, watchful rhythm during that stretch, board meetings by day, quiet phone calls with Peter and Monica by night, every conversation circling back eventually to the same unanswered questions. Natalie's divorce sat frozen in legal limbo. Damien had gone quiet. Selena had not resurfaced. Joshua treated the silence the way he treated everything else lately, as something to be watched rather than trusted.One afternoon, the hospital director contacted him and told him that his mother had finally agreed to speak about the strange man she remembered from years ago."Mr. Hart," Dr. Reynolds said over the phone, his voice careful, "your mother asked to see you. She