
“Will the father now place his beloved daughter’s hand into the groom’s?”
At the Lumina Grand Hotel, the groom moved across the stage, bouquet in hand.
In the crowd below, Adrian Doyle stood in the shadows, a baseball cap pulled low, his right hand in a bandage. He watched the groom—immaculate in bespoke tailoring—with a jaw clenched so hard his teeth ached.
Three days earlier, Adrian had discovered that his girlfriend, Hailey Grant, was cheating on him—with the very man now standing on stage: his boss, Felix Irving.
Adrian and Hailey had been together since college and later joined Hill Group after graduation. At some point, Hailey ended up in bed with Felix, who managed their department.
Adrian would have remained oblivious, if not for the night he stayed late and stepped into Felix’s office to fetch a file. The computer was still on. One folder on the desktop had a startling title: “Hailey Grant.”
Curiosity tugged at him. He clicked.
What he saw numbed him: thirteen gigabytes of sex videos, all of Felix and Hailey—hotels, kitchens, bathtubs, cars…
Adrian’s vision went red. He wanted to smash the machine.
At that moment, the office door swung open. Felix walked in.
Adrian would never forget the ugliness that twisted Felix’s face that night. Felix blanched at first, but recovered quickly and hissed his threat: “Adrian, I hear your mother’s on some miracle medication. Costs a fortune every month. If the company lets you go—and the job market’s dire—tsk, tsk… One week without it, and her condition will nosedive.”
Adrian’s blood, boiling a heartbeat before, went cold.
Felix, smug and swaggering, closed in, taunting: “Your girlfriend’s service is something else. Quiet little lady on the surface, total contrast underneath. Loves to kneel at my feet, take me in her mouth, and call me Daddy.”
“Last week when she took a sudden day off—you remember? Told you she was on her period, felt unwell? She spent the whole time in my office, riding me.”
Adrian nearly swung, but the thought of his mother’s illness stayed his fist. He ground his teeth and endured.
After work, he raked his hands through his hair until his scalp burned.
He loathed his own cowardice.
His girlfriend had betrayed him; her lover had humiliated him—and still he swallowed it.
That night, he drank himself senseless. Staggering home along a quiet lane, he was jumped by three thugs with steel pipes.
They pinned his right hand to the pavement and brought a pipe crashing down. When it was over, they tossed a note and a bank card beside him.
The note carried a single line: Keep your mouth shut. There’s thirty grand on the card—for medical bills.
Adrian knew exactly who had sent them. Felix was about to get married—to the chairman’s daughter. He needed silence, and this was how he bought it.
Felix didn’t just shatter Adrian’s arm; he shattered his future. From thousands of employees, Adrian had risen to represent the company next month at an international programming competition. He was confident he’d place, and with that, finally catch the eye of the top brass. Felix ruined all of it.
“If not for this bead, I might never have found the courage to expose him,” Adrian muttered now beneath his cap, fingers worrying the violet bead that hung against his chest.
That night, after dialing emergency services through the pain, he’d slipped in and out of consciousness—and in the haze, felt a sudden heat sear from the heirloom bead at his sternum.
“Felix Irving, you like to play? Then let’s play.” Adrian tugged his cap lower, melted back into shadow, and opened his laptop.
He’d been tinkering with hacking since he was a kid; it didn’t take long to seize control of the venue’s giant screen.
The hotel staff were none the wiser.
On stage, Felix—hair slicked, suit pristine—strode toward the bride with a smile that flashed for the cameras. At the first table on the right sat Hailey and their coworkers, applauding, cheering.
Hailey wore the diamond ring Felix had bought her, smiling with a stiffness she couldn’t quite hide.
Relatives and friends beamed, blissfully unaware.
“Before us stand the two most important men in the bride’s life,” the emcee boomed. “Before all these witnesses, they will complete the sacred handover of their love. A trust passed from heart to heart!”
The bride fell into her father’s arms, tears streaming.
Felix drank in the moment, basking in the sea of friendly faces. After today, he would be the Hill family’s son-in-law. His rise was assured.
He had waited too long for this day.
A sudden feminine moan sliced through his reverie. The sound—so familiar—sent a jolt through him.
He turned. On the massive screen, a man and a woman were in the throes of sex.
“Damn! Did the hotel forget to close their p**n video feed? That’s… intense,” one guest laughed.
“What is this? Where’s the staff? Turn it off! Playing trash like this at a wedding? We’ll file a complaint!” a relative on the groom’s side snapped.
Then a voice rang out from the crowd: “Isn’t the man on screen the groom?”
Heads jerked up from their plates as if pulled by strings, all eyes snapping to the screen.
Boom.
The room exploded—catcalls, shrieks, the scrape of chairs—chaos spreading like fire on oil.
No one was more mortified than the groom’s own circle. Felix’s closest friends and family stared, stricken, at the obscene footage, skin crawling with secondhand shame.
The bride’s father let out a cold snort and released his daughter’s hand. Seeing his future father-in-law’s face darken to an iron shadow, Felix felt his stomach drop—and keep falling.
Latest Chapter
Chapter 273
Sensing the danger, Iris Lloyd stepped back two paces, his gaze locked onto the black miasma swirling at Source Spirit’s feet.His instincts told him this was no ordinary technique—it was something deeply sinister.The dark vapor coiled and gathered, forming two grotesque, undefined shapes that writhed in the air like clawing beasts before lunging toward Iris Lloyd.No one knew what they were, yet an overwhelming dread seized the crowd, forcing them to retreat.Leonard Newman swallowed hard. "Mr. Doyle… what is that? That guy—he’s not in danger, is he?""I don’t know. Let’s watch first."Even Adrian could not yet discern its nature, though the suffocating killing intent was unmistakable.Before anyone could react, the two strands of black smoke suddenly veered—not toward Iris Lloyd, but into the crowd.Among the onlookers were not only Adrian’s group and the Hinoku warriors, but also a few Novaland Republic citizens who had secretly returned.Among them were the young women clad in Hi
Chapter 272
The crowd on the field had not yet fully dispersed when Source Spirit made her move.The folding fan in her hand was delicate and lively, its vivid crimson hue like snow stained with blood.The cherry blossoms painted upon it seemed almost alive; as her fingers brushed across them, they bloomed with an aura of death.Blossoms drifted from the trees—at first only a few, then gathering into sweeping clusters that danced with the wind. Yet the falling petals never touched the ground.To Adrian and the others, Source Spirit appeared to be dancing, her movements so graceful they bordered on unreal—yet no one mistook this for a mere performance.A faint fragrance rode the breeze. Every petal seemed drawn by her motion, circling her body before converging at her fingertips.At this moment, they were no longer petals, but lethal weapons beyond resistance."What overwhelming killing intent!"Iris Lloyd’s expression hardened as he stepped forward.Before Adrian could stop him, he had already dr
Chapter 271
Seeing their leader struck down, the Hinoku martial artists hurried over to help him up.“Mr. Field, are you alright?”Granary Field bared his teeth in pain, his expression twisted as he glared in Iris Lloyd’s direction.“Kill him!”At his command, every Hinoku martial artist drew their katana and charged at Iris Lloyd with loud cries.Iris Lloyd did not retreat even half a step. He met them head-on, swinging his broadsword with nothing but raw strength.The clash of steel rang out again and again. One after another, the attackers were knocked to the ground, sent flying, or left wailing in pain. The worst off were those struck directly by the flat of Iris Lloyd’s blade.Out of restraint, Iris Lloyd held back—no one was gravely injured, let alone killed.Still, out of a personal sense of satisfaction, he made sure each of them left with bruises and bloodied faces—a rather striking sight.In no time, the plaza was littered with fallen Hinoku martial artists, while Iris Lloyd stood unhar
Chapter 270
“These bastards are vile beyond redemption—they deserve to die a thousand times over!”“They’re scum—and those Novaland Republic people who come here and shamelessly dress in Hinoku clothes are fools too!”“Why hasn’t their volcano erupted yet? I want to see it with my own eyes in my lifetime!”“I feel like strangling them all right now!”Leonard Newman and the others cursed furiously, each more incensed than the last—it was clear their hatred ran deep.The more they saw those oblivious people posing happily with Hinoku martial artists, the more their anger flared.At that moment, an infuriating voice cut through the air, drawing everyone’s attention.“Well, if it isn’t those brats who came here causing trouble earlier. What’s wrong—itching for another beating?”A burly Hinoku martial artist, his face full of menace, strode over with a broadsword slung across his shoulder.Adrian narrowed his eyes, while Iris Lloyd stepped forward at once, placing himself between them.The Hinoku mart
Chapter 269
“They can’t intervene? Why not?”At Adrian’s question, Leonard Newman pulled a long face and sighed.“I just called my dad. This ridiculous event even hired several martial artists from Hinoku as security. We’re no match for them, so I asked him to bring people over—but he said the event is funded by the Sakura Commerce Association.”“Even if the event is infuriating, the Sakura Commerce Association followed proper procedures to get it approved. It’s technically legal.”“Without a valid reason, my dad can’t just step in.”Jude Morvek nodded in agreement. “My father said the same.”“Mine too,” another added. “Mr. Doyle, we’re out of options. You’re the only one we could think of.”Adrian fell into brief contemplation. “The Sakura Commerce Association?”“What exactly is that?”He rarely involved himself in such matters and knew little about it.“It’s a major commercial organization from Hinoku—one of their most prominent, supposedly. They mainly handle international trade.”Among them,
Chapter 268
Instead of letting Iris Lloyd wait in the lounge, Adrian brought him straight to Daisy’s office. Seeing Adrian, Daisy was momentarily speechless—he had slipped away from work again, bold as ever.Adrian rubbed his nose and gave a sheepish grin.“Miss Daisy, I’ve brought you another excellent employee.”Noticing the young man standing behind him, Daisy frowned slightly.She was hardly short of assistants—counting Octavia, she already had three. Adrian himself was idle enough to slip off whenever he pleased; adding another would only mean yet another idle hand.As if reading her thoughts, Adrian quickly clarified, “Miss Daisy, I’m not recommending him as your assistant. I’m planning to assign him to the security department.”With someone like this on security, the company’s safety would be beyond question.Adrian felt rather pleased with his eye for talent.Daisy gave Iris Lloyd a measured look. The security department did need more staff, and this young man appeared dependable enough.
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