2025-09-17 23:43:08
Previous Chapter
Latest Chapter
166
The estate smelled of blood and smoke. The marble steps, once a symbol of the Callahans’ wealth and power, were stained red in streaks that no servant could ever scrub away. The gardens were silent, flowers crushed beneath boot prints and bodies. The air still carried the ghost of gunfire.For the first time in decades, the Callahan mansion looked fragile.---Caleb hadn’t moved from the steps since dawn. His shirt clung to him, soaked with sweat and streaked with blood—some his, most not. The revolver rested against his thigh, barrel blackened from the heat of too many shots.The sun rose slowly, spilling light over the ruins, as though mocking him with beauty in the aftermath of slaughter.Diana emerged from the hall, her braid undone, clothes torn at the shoulder. She carried a fresh clip in one hand and a cracked phone in the other.“They’re saying it already,” she muttered, sitting beside him. Her voice was flat, but her eyes betrayed the storm inside. “Every channel. The Callaha
165
The news spread faster than fire: the Callahan empire had been wounded.Northbridge Holdings, a fortress of white walls and polished glass, suddenly found itself under siege—not by police, not by regulators, but by whispers that cue through the city. Rumors of secret ledgers, ghost accounts, and a shadowy “Consortium” had broken into drawing rooms, trading floors, and taverns alike. The name Callahan, once unshakeable, was now spoken with awe and with hunger.And hunger attracts vultures.Caleb sat in his father’s chair. It was not a throne, though it might as well have been. The oak back was tall, carved with symbols of heritage; the desk beneath his hands was scarred from decades of decisions that had built dynasties and broken rivals.The silence of the study was heavy, broken only by the faint tick of the grandfather clock. Mr. Loo hovered at the edge of the room, calm as ever, a shadow stitched from loyalty. Diana stood by the window, arms folded, eyes sharp.“They’ll come,” she
164
Caleb stood with the man sleeping at his feet and thought of Richard, calm and measured and still moving chess pieces even as the house burned. The courier’s words hurt in a different way; if true, it meant the conspiracy was not local politics. It meant there were hands on strings he could not reach with blades and bullets.They took what they could from the house: ledgers, the yellow-coated man’s phone, a stretch of cloth with a mark cut into it. They left nothing but a message for the night.When they returned to the mansion, it was almost dawn. The house slept, but for the low, steady watch of men who kept their eyes open for the same ghosts that did. Outside, the city smoked and the lights came alive again, indifferent.Mr. Loo met them at the gate; fatigue shadowed his face. He took the yellow coat’s phone and flipped through the messages with the slow care of a man who had been building patterns for years.“There’s a code here,” he murmured. “Numbers, times. Someone’s mapping o
163
The card lay on the desk like a slug of ice, cold and deliberate. Caleb looked at the four words again and again until they blurred into a smear of ink and accusation.THE RIGHTFUL ONE RISES.He did not tear it up. He did not throw it into the fire. He folded it carefully, as if the paper contained something alive that might recoil at violence. Then he slid it into his pocket like a secret that might be used against him later.Diana watched him from the doorway, her face ashen in the late light. Jasper sat at the foot of the desk, trying to be a man who understood grown things; instead, he worried the frayed edge of a wooden soldier between his fingers.“Who brought it?” Diana asked.“No one stayed,” Mr. Loo said. He stood by the doorway, the years of service bowed into the polite, restrained posture of a man who had seen much but revealed little. “The watchman at the north gate found it this morning. No trace of courier. No prints.” He bowed his head. “Nothing but the wind, sir.”Cal
162
Richard’s glass of wine barely rippled as the report came in.“Vercetti is dead, sir. His compound… gone. Callahan’s boy lit the sky with fire.”The underling’s voice quivered, his eyes darting to the carpet as though afraid to meet Richard’s gaze.Richard swirled the wine slowly, the liquid catching in the glow of the chandelier above him. “And the others?”“Dozens of men—dead. The survivors scattered.”A soft laugh escaped Richard’s lips. He set the glass down and leaned back in his chair, the leather groaning under his weight. “Good. Let him burn the weeds. It saves us the trouble of trimming the garden ourselves.”He rose, buttoning his suit jacket with deliberate calm, and strode toward the massive oak doors at the end of the chamber. The guards flanking them opened the way without a word.Beyond the doors lay the Table.A vast underground hall, dimly lit, where men and women of power gathered like shadows around a polished stone circle. Their faces were half-hidden, but their vo
161
The mansion still smelled of smoke. Even after the flames had been doused and the dead carried out, the scent lingered in the walls, in the halls, in Caleb’s lungs. It was as though the fire refused to die, feeding instead on the ruin inside him.He sat alone in the study, a glass of untouched whiskey trembling in his hand. The bandages around his ribs were still fresh, white cloth already stained red. His sword leaned against the desk, streaked with blood he hadn’t bothered to clean.Diana had begged him to rest. Jasper had cried until sleep finally claimed him. The twins, too young to know the world had cracked open, slept peacefully in their cribs. But Caleb couldn’t close his eyes. Not tonight. Not after him.Richard.The name burned in his skull like poison.Mr. Richard, you… you were all behind this.He had spat the words in rage, but even now they rang hollow in his ears. How could it be true? The man who had served his father faithfully for decades, the man who had guided Cale
You may also like
Rise Of The Disrespected Trillionaire Heir
Blaq79.7K viewsSecretly Rich Son in Law
Banin SN190.4K viewsThe Secret Billionaire Son-in-law
Perry will85.8K viewsRise of Power: Return of The Pathetic Commoner
Iwaswiththestars72.9K viewsNolan Lancaster: Rejected, Revenged, And Richer Than Ever
Icy popsicles2.4K viewsRoad To Revenge: Obtaining a villain system
Kayysemiu023156 viewsTHE UPRISING HEIR
Grep-pens1.7K viewsGod Of war: Bloody Revenge
Wheezpen1.1K views