From Worthless Son-in-Law to Island King

Chapter 9: The Real Matter

“How dare you hit my brother!”

Heather rushed forward and threw her arms around Charles, helping him sit up.

Then she turned and glared at Joseph.

“He was asking for it.”

Joseph was already tired of dealing with the Martin siblings.

“Since you’re here, you can clear this up yourself.”

He pointed at Charles.

“Tell your brother exactly when I kidnapped you.”

Charles stared at Heather.

“You’re all right?”

He looked her over as if unable to believe she was standing there unharmed.

Then his gaze shifted toward one of his men.

The lackey stiffened.

“S-Sir, I saw it myself!”

He hurriedly pointed at Joseph.

“I saw that worthless bastard carry Miss Heather away with my own eyes!”

“With your own eyes?”

Joseph narrowed his gaze and slowly looked the man up and down.

“When I found Heather last night, a man was about to assault her.”

“There was no one else nearby.”

“So tell me—if you saw me take her away, where exactly were you hiding?”

The lackey’s face changed.

“What are you trying to say?”

Joseph had only asked a simple question, yet sweat had already begun to gather on the man’s forehead.

Joseph continued in an unhurried voice.

“Now that I think about it, the man who attacked Heather had a build very similar to yours.”

He tilted his head.

“His voice sounded familiar too.”

“That’s a lie!”

The lackey immediately lost his composure.

“You’re slandering me!”

He turned toward Charles in a panic.

“Mr. Martin, don’t listen to him. He has no proof!”

Charles’s expression darkened.

“Is he telling the truth?”

The lackey went pale.

At that moment, he looked as though he had been cast straight into hell.

“Joseph!”

Charles turned back to him, his eyes filled with menace.

“I can overlook the fact that you kicked me.”

“But if you try to destroy my sister’s reputation with a false accusation, I’ll make you pay for every word.”

“Why argue about it?”

Joseph stretched lazily, completely unbothered by the threat.

“Just take a look for yourself.”

He pointed toward the lackey’s injured leg.

“If I’m not mistaken, the cloth wrapped around his wound was torn from Heather’s dress.”

“Mr. Martin, you have to believe me! Don’t listen to that worthless bastard. He’s trying to frame me!”

Sweat poured down the lackey’s face.

The more desperately he protested, the guiltier he looked.

Charles made a sharp gesture.

Two of his men immediately stepped forward. They seized the lackey and tore open his trouser leg.

A strip of fabric was wrapped around his wound.

It matched the torn section of Heather’s dress perfectly.

The truth was now impossible to deny.

“Mr. Martin, please spare me!”

The lackey dropped to his knees with a heavy thud.

“I know I was wrong. I lost control for a moment—that’s all!”

“Please, just give me one more chance!”

His face had gone deathly pale.

Of course he regretted it.

After Joseph ruined his plans the night before, the man had been unwilling to let the matter go. He had quietly doubled back to spy on them and happened to see Joseph carrying Heather into the cave.

Charles already hated Joseph. And since the lackey was not sure whether Joseph had recognized him, he decided to turn the situation to his advantage. If he could convince Charles that Joseph had kidnapped Heather, Charles would get rid of Joseph for him.

Then there would be no one left to expose what he had done.

Besides, what man would carry an unconscious woman into a cave and not take advantage of her?

He had been certain Joseph would do something to Heather.

But despite planning for every possibility, he had never imagined that Joseph would leave her untouched.

Worse still, he had completely forgotten about the strip of fabric tied around his leg.

And he certainly had not expected Joseph—the useless coward everyone looked down on—to expose him in front of Charles and the other survivors.

The lackey knew Charles’s temper better than anyone.

He was finished.

If he could turn back time, he would never have returned to spy on them.

“Oh, and there’s one more thing.”

Joseph had no intention of letting him off so easily.

“Your man said he’s been sick of you for years.”

He looked at Charles with an innocent smile.

“But since he didn’t have the courage to go after you directly, he decided to take his anger out on your sister.”

“He called it punishment for everything your family had done to him.”

Joseph spread his hands.

“That’s everything I know. What you do with him is up to you.”

His smile widened.

They had tried to frame him.

Did they really think he was still the same helpless fool from the ship?

Watching Charles turn his anger against one of his own men was immensely satisfying.

“Take him away.”

Charles’s face had gone completely blank.

That lack of expression was far more frightening than rage.

He had arrived with a group of men, expecting to crush Joseph in front of everyone. Instead, Joseph had kicked him in the face, and one of his own subordinates had been exposed as the man who tried to assault Heather.

Charles had been humiliated from beginning to end.

“I never want to see him again.”

His voice was quiet but vicious.

“Mr. Martin, please! Have mercy!”

Despair consumed the lackey.

“Give me another chance! I’ll do anything—”

Two men grabbed him before he could finish and dragged him away.

His pleas echoed across the beach, growing fainter and fainter until they stopped altogether.

A short while later, the two men returned alone.

No one asked what had happened.

They already knew.

After being humiliated so thoroughly, Charles would never have allowed the man to live.

Joseph’s expression tightened.

A human life had been erased just like that.

Charles had not merely been punishing a traitor. He had been sending a message to everyone else.

Cross him, and this was what would happen.

The survivors fell silent. Some lowered their heads, afraid that even meeting Charles’s gaze might draw his attention.

“Now that we’ve cleared everything up, I assume you have no reason to stay.”

Joseph met Charles’s eyes without flinching.

“Why don’t you go back where you came from?”

“You’ve embarrassed yourself enough for one day.”

Charles narrowed his eyes.

He had spent his entire life dismissing others. No one had ever dared speak to him this way, least of all Joseph.

The man standing before him was nothing like the coward he had humiliated aboard the ship.

Charles had clearly underestimated him.

“Don’t be in such a hurry.”

A cold smile appeared on Charles’s face.

“We still have the real matter to discuss.”

“The real matter?”

Confused murmurs spread through the crowd.

Had everything that just happened not been serious enough?

Charles pointed toward the supplies Joseph had collected.

“Everything you took from the wreckage belongs to me. Hand it over.”

“The ship was mine. Therefore, anything that washed ashore from it is still my property.”