"You may not know about grifters like this one, Clara, but I do." Toby turned his head slightly to address her. His sneering eyes never left Reed's face His voice was laced with a greasy, condescending superiority. "I have dealt with many like him. First try to sneak in under the guise of a job, when that fails to work, they try to use their charm on naive staff like you and fool you with cloned cards." The truth was, the very millisecond Toby had locked eyes with Reed, a jolt of recognition had zapped through his brain. The spineless pretty boy who had come looking like a wet rag for a job? And dared to come empty-handed and hope to work beside him. All the other applicants had greased his palm. He grinned in memory of how he had embarrassed him. ‘It seems you are just a glutton for punishment,’ Toby thought. He was practically vibrating with the anticipation of crushing Reed all over again, this time in front of his colleagues and customers. To Reed, Toby just looked like a

Reed's laughter thundered across the storeroom, causing everyone's eyes to be drawn to him."Who are you to say anything about anyone?" Reed demanded after his laughing bout had stopped."There is someone standing right beside you, stripping you of the clothes off your very back, and yet you question me? A customer who has done nothing wrong but purchase an item?"The level of delusion was simply too much for Reed.Other people in the store nodded in agreement and started to whisper among themselves."Exclusive Cars has staff with such deplorable behaviour? How pathetic.""I wonder if the company does background checks? If they did, it would sieve out unsavoury people like this."Clara almost started to wring her hands.She turned to Reed and spoke reassuringly."Please, Mr Hawke, don't be offended by my colleague's words."Seeing that Toby was trying to agitate the customers, which would in turn give the store a bad reputation. She decided to step in and smooth tempers.No one would

"That is unacceptable." Clara stood up for Reed.When Toby had first said he no longer wished to call their boss, she assumed he was ready to let things go, but now she could see that was not the case. Something sketchy was underfoot."How dare you speak to me so rudely? Have you forgotten I am your superior? I will have you sacked." Toby thundered."Good morning, Mr Shaw." the guard greeted, and Toby turned pale while everyone else turned towards the entrance to see the dignified man in a well-tailored suit striding in.From his demeanor, one could see this was not an ordinary person; his black hair streaked with white was brushed back in a classy style, while the stone in his lapel, an imperial jade gemstone, blinked attractively.People started to whisper at the arrival of the newcomer."Who is that?""Don't you know? That is Kurt Shaw, the owner of Exclusives Cars and one of the members of the prestigious Shaw family."In Ruby City, there were the old families who controlled all t

At first, Reed considered ignoring his former landlady entirely.She was a spiteful old woman who had made life for him in that building a misery. He never wanted to see her face again.Moreover, going back there could be dangerous.He leaned back against the plush velvet sofa of his luxury penthouse, a cold, indifferent look crossing his features.Let the old hag do whatever she wanted with that damp, suffocating cubicle.After all, the only things he had left behind in that cramped space were a few articles of faded, worn-out clothing and some cheap, broken furniture that creaked with every use.There was absolutely nothing of monetary value inside that room, nothing that justified a wealthy man like him taking the time to travel all the way back down to the slums just to pick it up.Memories of the first time he had come up to the city and had been forced to spend that first night alone without his wife made bile rise in his throat.He had been used to simple accommodations since h

Andre and Theo.Everyone knew Reed’s former landlady’s children.They were a menace, not just to the residents of the building but to the entire neighbourhood.They were two jobless, vagabond drunkards who spent their days loitering around the local betting shops and their nights stumbling through the alleys.They were used by their mother as crude, violent muscle to harass vulnerable tenants, enforce imaginary fees, and facilitate the seizure of personal property whenever someone fell behind on their rent.Nobody in the building ever dared to stand up to them.Complaining to the building management meant you would be violently kicked out into the freezing streets within the hour, and the two thuggish brothers would still gang up on you in a dark alleyway later just to teach you a lesson about being a snitch.The landlady relied on the fact that her two miscreant sons would do anything she asked and nothing would happen to them. Not even the police would take a complaint since she pai