The Useless Heir Returns

Chapter 3: Surveillance

His uncle arrived and grabbed Lucifer's hand that was about to open the coffin, yanking it away. He quickly blocked him from getting close to the coffin while breathing heavily.

Lucifer observed his uncle carefully and noticed the extremely terrified look on his face. "Uncle Martin, what is wrong?" Lucifer continued, pretending to be confused.

"What nonsense are you trying to do?" his uncle asked in annoyance.

"I just want to take a look at my father one last time before you bury him," Lucifer said.

"Can you stop embarrassing the family in front of people?" Martin shouted at him.

"Uncle, I was just—"

"Shut up. Someone take this drunk into the villa! And make sure he doesn't come out until he is sober," Martin ordered. Within a second, the security guards arrived and grabbed Lucifer.

"Hey, don't touch me," Lucifer protested, struggling to break free from them, but he was no match for the three hefty men.

"Phewww..." Martin took a deep breath, then adjusted his coat and cleared his throat.

"I'm very, very sorry for that," he apologized to everyone, and the burial ceremony continued.

Lucifer was finally taken into the living room, and the door was shut behind him. He slowly raised his head; his eyes twitched, and his gaze turned icy cold. He walked towards the table in the middle of the living room and kept the half alcohol left in the bottle.

His eyes wandered around the living room until his gaze paused at the big frame of his father's portrait, which was placed on a stand beside the big-screen television. He slowly walked up to it and grabbed the edge of the portrait.

'It's already five years, and everything is still the same, but some people seem different now.'

His grip tightened on the edge of the portrait, and it began to crack. Lucifer quickly released it and took a deep breath.

"Lu... Lucifer!" a mature feminine voice filled with shock called him.

Lucifer turned his head towards the stairs with a deadly look in his eyes. His gaze met a woman descending down the stairs. Seeing the look on Lucifer's face, a shiver suddenly ran down her spine, and she almost slipped from the stairs.

"Ahh... Mom, careful," Lucifer said as he hurried after her. Luckily, she was able to use the railings by the side to stop herself from falling, but she had sprained her ankle in the process. Lucifer approached her and extended his arm forward; she took it, and he gently led her down the stairs.

"Mom, hope you're not hurt?" Lucifer asked, holding her wrist gently. He could feel her pulse and heart beating faster.

"Not really, just sprained my ankle, but it's fine. Thank you," his stepmom, Anabel, said as she pulled her hand out of his grip. "When did you arrive, and what are you doing here? I thought you were supposed to be outside?" she asked.

"I just arrived not long ago, so I came in to check something upstairs. I will be with you shortly—but can you walk?" Lucifer asked.

"Yes, I'm fine," Anabel responded with a smile.

Lucifer nodded, then walked up the stairs.

Anabel glanced at his retreating figure one last time before making her way towards the door.

Lucifer walked up the stairs and soon got to his room. By the side, James was already standing there waiting for him. Lucifer shut the door and walked towards the reading table by the side.

"Get me the laptop."

James quickly unzipped the bag on the table, pulled out a black laptop, and handed it over to Lucifer.

Lucifer logged in immediately. He tapped on his wristwatch and linked it to the laptop. In that instant, the video footage of what was currently happening outside began to show on the screen.

Lucifer sat back and quietly watched the footage. In the video, he saw his uncle arranging flowers around his father's coffin. His uncle picked up a flower, then suddenly opened the coffin slightly and put a flower inside. After that, he closed the coffin and took a deep breath.

Seeing that, Lucifer's brows shot up. He leaned closer to the table, his gaze piercing into the screen as he observed his uncle's movements. He noticed that something was wrong with the corpse inside the coffin, and he equally noticed the relieved look on his uncle's face after closing it.

"Something is wrong here. I don't think he was just putting flowers."

Lucifer rewound the footage and played it again. This time, he zoomed in and watched closely. When it got to the part where his uncle was about to open the coffin, he zoomed in even closer and watched carefully. Once his uncle opened it, he paused the video and stared at the corpse inside the coffin. Within a few seconds, his eyes narrowed at the screen, and his grip tightened on the edge of the table.

"That is not my father," he muttered, and his body trembled in rage. His eyes turned red in anger. He stood up and stormed towards the door. but when he got to the door, he suddenly stopped. he clench his fingers into a trembling fist. he exhaled deeply and controled himself.

"You all want to play games with me? Fine, let's have fun then. But anyone of you found to have a hand in this will have it coming." His eyes change instantly. he walked back to his chair and sat down.

"James."

"Boss." James, who had been standing by the side, stepped forward.

"Go outside and keep an eye on things. If you notice anything unusual, inform me immediately," Lucifer commanded.

"Yes, Boss," James said, then walked out of the room.

Lucifer checked the video footage of when he arrived at the villa earlier, but there was not much he saw. So he decided to check something on the USB drive. Just as he was about to skip the video, his eyes caught onto something.

He saw an old man with gray hair and a beard sitting at the far end of the garden, with three professional-looking security guards wearing black tactical combat gear standing behind him.

He was the only odd one among the crowd. He was wearing a white suit and black glasses, making him stand out among the rest of the people wearing black outfits.

In the video footage, he saw Mr. Harrington, Mr. Sterling, and Mr. Kingston, whom Roman had introduced him to earlier. The three men approached the man in the white suit and greeted him while bowing slightly in respect.

Seeing that, Lucifer's brows furrowed in confusion. 'Who exactly is he, to make these high-profile men respect him so much?'

Lucifer leaned back into the chair as he continued to stare at the screen in front of him.

Lucifer suddenly sat up, put his hand into his breast pocket, and brought out the USB drive the lady in the blue dress gave him earlier when he arrived.

He plugged it into the laptop and went through the files. It contained the profiles of the CEOs of the prominent car companies in the country, who could likely be his father's rivals.

★ Williams Harrington; The CEO of Marcellis Motors

★ Alexander Sterling; The CEO of Nexo Group

★ Edward Kingston; The CEO of Lumaris engine

★ Henry Caldwell; The CEO of Blue Clave

Lucifer went through the profiles carefully. He discovered that one person was missing. He had met three of these men, except Henry Caldwell, the CEO of Blue Clave.

"Seems like he didn't come."

Lucifer scrolled up a bit and saw another profile, but it was separated differently from the rest. He squinted his eyes at the screen as he noticed that there was no information regarding the man on the profile.

He then looked below and saw a voice message under the profile. He tapped on the voice note, and it started to play. It turned out to be the voice of the lady who gave him the USB drive.

"Boss, the four profiles up there are the names of the four industrial giants in the country, except your father. They are your father's strongest rivals. As for the profile below, the man is Fredrick Langston. I couldn't get much information about him because the security around him is so tight. Be careful, Boss; I don't think the man is that simple."

After listening to the message, Lucifer stared at the image of the man on the screen, and realization flickered in his eyes.

'Gray hair, white suit?'

Lucifer finally realized that it was the man he saw earlier in the garden. He went back to the video footage he saved and looked through it again, and indeed, the man in the picture was the one he saw from the footage.

He quickly switched to the live footage, connecting to the camera outside again. He slowly controlled the camera lens without anyone knowing, looking for the man in the video. But as the camera viewed the exact place where the man was a while ago, he was nowhere to be found.

'Mysterious indeed.'

"knock!－knock!"

A knock suddenly came from the door, and Lucifer calmly closed the laptop. He turned and face the door with a vigilant look in his eyes.