From Prison To Billion-Dollar Empire

Chapter Four Berry Grave

The limousine glided to a silent halt by the front gate of the Kingston’s villa.

“Don’t follow. I need to do this alone.” Liam voiced, his dark golden leather Italian shoe clicking firmly against the ground as he stepped out.

Yesterday, he was a man dressed in ordinary clothes and cheap sneakers, feeling beaten as he sat on a public chair by the roadside, exposed to the eyes and judgment of strangers. 

Today, he was transformed. Clad in the best dark suit and polished shoes like someone reborn, someone untouchable.

“Yes, boss.” Edward answered, already turning the wheel as he drove speedily off the instant Liam approached the gate.

Liam took a deep sigh, steadying himself. Then he walked through the gate gently.

The Kingston Villa was a large vast of different mansions, arranged in such a way that every member of the family had their own quarters, each structure standing like a silent witness to power and legacy.

Inside the vast compound stood a sacred building dedicated to Berry. The first small room in the particular building held a decorated wall where his large portrait was hung, the man’s eyes seeming alive even in stillness. Beyond it, inside the inner room, was where his body was buried.

Liam approached the building differently, his steps slower now, heavier.

Since he came back from prison, he had not paid his obedience to Berry’s grave. Life, chaos, and betrayal had kept him away, but today, he was here.

He stood at the front of the building for five long minutes. Memories flooded him: the evening Berry took him in, the night he pulled him off the streets and offered him dignity.

In the same manner, the same Berry, even from death, had helped transform his life, shaping his destiny and making him become the richest man in Greenfield.

A tear dropped from Liam’s eyes.

He walked through the front door and knelt before the portrait. His eyes fixed on it as though Berry himself stood in front of him, alive, breathing, watching.

“Master, what did I do to deserve this level of transformation?” he voiced, his words barely louder than a whisper.

He bowed to the floor, his head touching the cold ground.

“I promise to abide by your wish. I will do everything you want me to do.”

He sat there for the next one hour in silence and solitude, eyes closed, the world outside fading away. When his instinct finally told him he was now free to leave the sacred building, he rose gently and bowed once again, slower this time, deeper.

He stepped out of the door.

“Look who we have here.” Lucas sneered.

He was holding hands with Betty. They had intended to enter the sacred building together, but instead found Liam stepping out through the door.

“Did you sleep here?” Betty gasped, her eyes wide as she saw Liam, the man she treated as a servant, stepping out of her grandfather's sanctuary looking like royalty. 

Unable to fathom what Liam was doing in the sacred building. To her, though he was her husband, he was more of a slave and a slave should not be allowed to pay homage to her grandfather even if her grandfather loved the slave when he was alive.  

“No, it couldn’t be.” Lucas voiced, scanning him from head to toe.

“Look at what he is wearing. He looks cleaned up. Maybe he came back after he stole that suit from a store.” 

“Hey!” he poked, 

“You stole that didn’t you?”

“You want to please my lovely Betty and deceive her into taking you back, right?”

Liam found what they said unreasonable, so he didn’t answer. 

He had only come to pay his last respect to Berry, and he had done so. The next step was to claim all that was left for him by Sabastian and begin his era, making all of them pay, one after the other.

Without another glance, he walked past them.

“I am fucking talking to you!” Lucas shouted, stretching his hand to grab Liam by the collar.

But Liam had already predicted it.

He understood the psychology of preys like Lucas. They loved control, and whoever they couldn’t control, they sought to trample upon.

Liam dodged his hand.

He stumbled, losing his balance. He crashed to the floor, his suit stained as shock froze his face.

“What did you just do?!” Betty blurted.

She stepped forward, her hand stretched out, aiming to slap Liam.

“Don’t you dare!”

Liam grabbed her wrist before her palm could land on his face.

She froze.

Confidence burned in Liam’s eyes. He had never been like this with her.

Five years ago, he was nothing more than a tool for her anger. She slapped him anytime she wished. Even yesterday, he was still that weak—but somehow, today, he stood firm, unshaken, terrifyingly confident.

Her heart beat fast.

“You insolent bastard!” Lucas cursed as he rose to his feet. His heart raced, watching how easily Liam had brought him down, and how boldly he held Betty’s hand without fear of the consequence that would surely follow.

“Do you even realise who I am?” he barked.

“I don’t care who you are.” Liam answered calmly, then turned, wanting to walk away.

Lucas’s heart thundered in his chest. This was humiliation. He was the heir of Williams House International. If he allowed a useless son-in-law like Liam to disgrace him this way, how could Betty ever look at him the same again?

Betty’s heart dropped as well. Liam felt strange, dangerously unfamiliar. If she let him leave freely after insulting her and Lucas, how could Lucas ever stand beside her and help her family’s status rise higher?

“I will make you regret this!” Lucas snorted, storming toward the main building of the Kingstons’ estate.

“Mr. Kingston!” he called angrily.

“Daddy!” Betty screamed, running after him into the main building.