2024-09-10 08:23:08The next day, Tedmond got ready for school with a newfound confidence. For the first time, he felt a sense of self-assurance heading to university, knowing it was better than the oppressive environment of home.
“When will you be back, brother?” Bianca asked, tugging at his trousers and clutching the rabbit doll he had bought for her.
He glanced down at her. “I’ll be back before 7,” he replied, squatting to smooth her hair. “I can’t pick you up from kindergarten today.”
She nodded slowly. “The nanny will pick me up,” she said.
“Okay.”
He stood up, grabbed his bag, and looked back at Thomas, who was watching him with concern. “Do you need a driver to take you?” Thomas asked. “You can choose any car from the garage if you’d like.”
Tedmond considered it for a moment before shaking his head. “No need. I can get there on my own like I used to.”
“By taking the bus?” Thomas asked, clearly worried.
“Yes.”
“No way!” Thomas exclaimed. “Not only did you take a taxi home yesterday, but now you’re planning to take the bus? That’s not happening. You’re coming to the garage with me today to pick a car.”
Tedmond didn’t want to waste time since he was already running late. “I’ll let the driver take me,” he said.
He knew that if he didn’t say that, Thomas wouldn’t let him leave. He gave Bianca a final smile and walked out of the mansion to where the driver was waiting. Minutes later, he exited the car several steps away from school.
He didn’t want anyone he knew to see him arriving in a luxury vehicle. As he walked towards the school gate, a car brushed past him, nearly hitting him if he hadn’t ducked out of the way.
“Get out of the way, loser!” a young man yelled, sticking his head out of the window and giving Tedmond the middle finger. “Bastard thinks he can waltz into school like nothing happened.”
Tedmond’s frown deepened as he recognized Kyle, a friend of his half-brother. His elder brother, half-sister, and his ex-girlfriend were all students at the school and were in their sophomore year, four years ahead of him.
As he walked down the hallway to his first class, other students avoided him and whispered as he passed by.
“Didn’t his girlfriend dump him to marry his brother, the cooler kid?”
“I heard they’re not even real brothers; he was just the son of their maid who they took in.”
“He wasn’t even invited to the wedding and was sent away while it took place.”
“Every poor man doesn’t deserve love.”
Ignoring the snide remarks from the girls who glared at him, Tedmond entered the classroom and made his way to his usual empty seat. He pulled out his notebook from his bag and settled in.
Before he could get comfortable, he was approached by three male students.
“You’re here,” one of them said.
“What do you want, Kyle?” Tedmond asked, not even looking up. “I thought you should be in class.”
Tedmond was a freshman, having graduated high school at eighteen and managed to start college a year later.
“How dare you talk to me like that?” Kyle demanded, his brows furrowing. “I heard what happened yesterday. How dare you act cocky after being kicked out of the Griffin family?”
Tedmond remained silent.
“Where did you sleep last night?” Kyle pressed. “I would have guessed at Lisa’s house, but she dumped you to marry your brother. You never knew she was cheating on you, using your little money for gifts for your brother! How pathetic have you been?”
“So it’s true,” one student murmured. “He was driven out of the house.”
“He’s daring to offend Kyle, the heir of a second-generation fortune. This could get us all in trouble if the class gets targeted.”
“Lisa really dodged a bullet; good for her for picking someone better.”
The murmurs filled the room, and Kyle grinned widely at Tedmond, who remained quiet. He knew Tedmond couldn’t look him in the eye or respond.
“Is that all you have to say?” Tedmond asked, finally meeting Kyle’s gaze. “How old are you, thirteen?”
Kyle’s face flushed with rage. “Are you mocking me?!”
“I only asked a question,” Tedmond replied calmly. “You talk like you’re thirteen.”
If the comment hadn’t come from Tedmond, it would have been a joke or a sharp comeback. Kyle’s face reddened further, his anger palpable.
“You dare speak to Kyle like that?” one of his friends demanded.
“When did a trash like you grow wings to look us in the eye?” another snarled.
Tedmond’s lips curled into a grin. “The professor will be here soon, and I don’t have time to argue with you. You can say whatever you want; it doesn’t matter to me.”
“You!” Kyle yelled, his fist clenching. He aimed a punch at Tedmond but stopped when the voice of the lecturer interrupted.
“What’s going on here?” Miss Scarlett, the lecturer, demanded. “Kyle? What are you doing in my class?”
Miss Scarlett was known for her strict demeanor, and no one dared act out of line in her class.
Kyle withdrew his hand. “We were about to leave,” he told Scarlett. “Just give me a moment.”
Irritated and fuming, Kyle glared at Tedmond. Unable to handle Tedmond in the classroom, he decided to challenge him another way.
“Tedmond’s been causing trouble,” Kyle announced. “Since he spoke to me like that, I’m challenging him to a basketball game!”
At the mention of the basketball game, the students flinched. Kyle was renowned as the best basketball player in the school, having led his team to numerous victories.
“You know the rules of my duel challenge,” Kyle added. “The loser becomes a slave to the winner.”
Fear gripped the class.
“I’ll be kind,” Kyle said with a sneer. “The people who team up with Tedmond won’t be punished, but he’ll be the slave of my entire team. Do you agree to play, Tedmond?”
Kyle grinned, expecting Tedmond to back down. Everyone else did too.
“I’ll play,” Tedmond said firmly.
“I knew you wouldn’t agree to—what?!” Kyle bellowed, stunned by Tedmond’s response.
“I’ll play,” Tedmond confirmed.
Hearing this, the class erupted in protests, angry at Tedmond for putting them in such a position. He ignored their cries.
“I don’t intend to pick my team from this class,” Tedmond announced, his eyes flashing. “I can’t wait to have five slaves.”
Kyle’s face turned red with anger. “You dare be so confident? You’ll regret this.” He glanced at his friends and gestured for them to leave. “Lunchtime, 2 PM. Meet us at the court.”
With that, Kyle stormed out of the class, leaving Scarlett to glare at Tedmond before starting the lesson. He had dared miss several of her classes, she was going to deal with that later.
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CHAPTER 871
The SUV ground to a halt at the gated entrance of Pier Forty-Two, its tires crunching heavily over shards of glass and dried seaweed. The driver killed the engine and headlights, plunging the cabin into near-total darkness."Keep the engine warm," Vance told the driver, his voice a low whisper. He turned to Arthur, his expression grim. "Keep your mouth shut unless he asks you a direct question. These old intelligence brokers don't care about your banking committees. They only care about survival parameters."Arthur nodded frantically, his throat bone-dry as he stepped out into the biting, salt-heavy air.They walked down the long, creaking pier, the ancient timber groaning beneath their weight like a staircase ready to collapse. At the very end of the dock, tied to a pair of rusted iron bollards, sat The Iron Sentry. The trawler was massive, its hull covered in jagged patches of dark orange rust, looking completely abandoned to the casual eye. But Vance’s sharp ears caught the f
CHAPTER 870
Vance’s fingers moved across his screen with a rapid, practiced rhythm, its dull glow illuminating the sharp angles of his face. The interior of the SUV remained dead silent, save for the low hum of the climate control and the distant, mocking murmur of the surf.Outside the tinted window, Arthur paced a tight, frantic line in the gravel. Every crunch of stone beneath his designer loafers felt like a second ticking away from his life. He checked his watch again, his heart hammering violently against his ribs.Inside the cabin, Vance placed the phone to his ear. It didn't ring with a standard tone; instead, a series of high-pitched digital clicks echoed through the speaker before a heavily modulated voice patched through."Speak," the voice rasped, entirely devoid of inflection."It’s Vance. I need a line to Henderson," Vance said, his tone flat and professional. "Code alpha-seven. The maritime grid."A long pause stretched over the airwaves. The silence was so heavy that Vance co
CHAPTER 869
Arthur stood rooted to the gravel for a full minute after the taillights of the vintage convertible disappeared past the resort’s iron gates. The exhaust from Tedmond’s engine still hung faint and heavy in the humid night air.Slowly, the paralysis left his limbs. He lowered the leather portfolio, his knuckles aching from how tightly he’d been gripping the eighty-million-dollar offering. The panic in his chest hadn't receded; it had simply crystallized into a cold, terrifying realization. They weren't just taking his boards, his seats, and his autonomy. They were systematically dismantling the perimeter he had spent his entire life building."Are they..." Arthur’s voice cracked in the darkness, trailing off before he could finish the thought. He looked toward the shadow of the main gates. "Are they going to take revenge anyway?"The question hung unanswered in the empty driveway. A document at eight o'clock tomorrow morning wasn't a truce; it was a hostage situation. Handing ov
CHAPTER 868
"He’s a boy! He’s an ignorant, reckless boy!" Arthur cried out, his face turning an ugly, panicked shade of purple in the glare of the headlights. He looked back toward the lead SUV, where the tinted glass hid a terrified, bruised Chad. "I will strip his trust. I’ll send him to the compliance office in Prague to count paper clips for the next five years. Whatever you want! But please, don't let a twenty-minute ego trip on a public beach destroy thirty years of asset building."Persis leaned her elbow against the smooth leather of the passenger door, a slow, icy smile playing on her lips. "Your son didn't just have an ego trip, Mr. Meriwether. He put his hands on my husband. He threw a tantrum because he thought we were small enough to crush. You taught him that strength is measured by a bank balance. It’s a very poor curriculum.""I see that now. I see it completely," Arthur said, sweat dripping down his silver temples despite the cool coastal breeze.He reached into his suit jacke
CHAPTER 867
His face carried the deep, weathered lines of a man who had spent his life shouting over tickers and boardrooms, but right now, those lines were pulled tight with immense tension. He didn't look at Persis. His eyes locked onto Tedmond, scanning the massive frame of the man who had nearly erased his life's work in four minutes.The older man took three slow, measured steps forward, stopping just outside Tedmond’s personal space. He raised his hands slightly, palms open, a universal gesture of peace that looked entirely unnatural on a man of his stature."Mr. Washington," he said, his voice a gravelly, raspy tone that had commanded D.C. committees for decades. "I am Arthur Meriwether."Tedmond didn't offer his hand. He stood like a monolith in the gravel, the cooler hanging loosely from his shoulder. "I know who you are, Arthur."Arthur swallowed hard, his silver mane shifting as he nodded. He looked exhausted, the high-stakes panic of the afternoon still visibly draining his ener
CHAPTER 866
The resort’s interior was a stark contrast to the bright, gritty beach. The hallways were lined with cool, polished marble, the air smelling faintly of fresh jasmine and expensive wax. Large, arched windows offered sweeping views of the coastline, casting long, golden rectangles of light across the floor.They had just turned the corner into the main residential wing, heading toward the terrace elevators, when a door down the hall clicked open.Chad stepped out.He had changed into a crisp, pastel pink button-down and white trousers, clearly trying to piece his wealthy facade back together. He was staring down at his phone, his thumb hovering cautiously over the screen as if checking to see if his bank accounts were truly functional again.Then, he looked up.The moment Chad’s eyes landed on Tedmond’s massive frame, every ounce of color vanished from his face. He froze mid-step, his jaw dropping so fast his phone nearly slipped from his fingers. He looked at Tedmond, then at Persi
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