“How dare you talk about my mother like that?” Tedmond demanded, pinning Max against the table.
No matter how much they had talked about him, he hadn’t retaliated, but today they had gone too far. No one could talk about his mother now. That might have been possible in the past, but not anymore.
“What are you doing?” Maxine questioned. “How dare you hit your elder brother?”
Glaring back at her, Tedmond snarled, “You think of him as my elder brother now, don’t you? Why didn’t you say something when I was being insulted?” He released Max and stepped closer to Maxine.
Maxine trembled but stood her ground. ‘How can that bastard get so strong in just a day?’ she wondered. However, she quickly regained her composure.
“Why are you doing this to him when he just asked if you could afford to eat at the restaurant?!” Maxine yelled, switching the topic as fast as she could to make herself look less bad. “We all know you’ve been kicked out of the family without a penny! How can you afford to eat here?”
A smirk crossed her face as she spoke. “Isn’t that right? He was just offering to lend you some money so you could afford to eat here, and you insulted him!”
Tedmond paused, his glare unwavering. He wasn’t surprised she would say that. If the four boys couldn’t afford the restaurant, they wouldn’t have invited him.
‘So he can’t pay for the food here?’ someone from the crowd murmured. ‘I just heard him say his mother was a maid in their house.’
‘He’s not even grateful that they cared about him, even though he’s just the son of a maid who served them.’
Max rose to his feet, rubbing his face, which had been injured from being slammed against the table. Blood dripped from his face, staining his white shirt. Lisa hurriedly brushed past Tedmond and held Max.
“Are you alright?” Lisa asked Max before turning to glare at Tedmond. “How dare you hit Max? Who do you think you are? Are you jealous that I chose him instead of you? So jealous that you followed us here! You must’ve known he’d ask if you could afford to eat here!”
The murmurs filled the place.
‘That’s two people who have said the same thing. Why is he here if he can’t pay?’
‘We should kick him out.’
‘Where’s the security?’
Maxine grinned widely as she stepped closer to Tedmond. “You’ll be thrown out of this place like the trash you are.”
“Where’s the owner? I’d like to meet him!” Tedmond yelled.
Max, Maxine, and Lisa stared at him, eyes wide in shock and disbelief. But the moment of surprise was short-lived as laughter erupted around them. All three burst into laughter.
“You?!” Maxine mocked. “How can you ask to meet the owner of this restaurant?”
“Is that a joke or something?” Lisa asked. “You and I both know you couldn’t afford to buy me a meal here, even after saving up for three months. Who are you trying to fool?”
“Do you think doing this makes you look cool?” Max questioned, stepping closer to Tedmond. “Why would the owner of the restaurant come here in person?”
“You must be daydreaming.”
“What do you want to meet the owner for?” Maxine demanded, her lips curling in a mocking smile.
Tedmond returned her grin. “What else would I want to meet him for, except to ban the Griffin family from this restaurant?”
Hearing his words, Maxine’s grin widened. “Ban us from the restaurant?” She laughed. “How can someone like you convince the CEO to do that? Who do you think you are?”
Lisa was amused by his audacity to tell such a lie. Max, on the other hand, grinned from ear to ear.
“I’ll wait to see if the owner shows up for you!” he yelled. “You’re delusional! Has kicking you out of the house affected your mental health? Doesn’t living on the streets do that?”
Tedmond shook his head before pulling out his phone. He dialed the housekeeper’s number. Curious eyes lingered on him as he spoke.
“Tell the owner of Hans Restaurant to meet me here,” Tedmond ordered. “Give him ten minutes, or he won’t want to know what happens.”
“Okay,” Thomas replied.
The murmurs around the place increased as Tedmond ended the call.
“Did you just make a fake call?” Maxine taunted. “I didn’t know you’d stoop so low to get our attention.”
Just then, the manager hurried into the restaurant, his gaze trailing from Tedmond to Max.
“What’s happening here?” the manager questioned. “I was informed by an employee that someone here wants to meet the owner. If we’ve done anything to offend you, I’ll offer compensation.”
Max gritted his teeth. “Don’t you recognize me?” he growled at the manager.
Hearing Max’s voice, the manager was stunned. “Ah, Mr. Griffin! What happened to your face? Who did this to you?”
Max smiled, pointing his finger at Tedmond. “He did it. He punched me when I tried to pay for his meal. He can’t afford to eat here but tries to act all boastful.”
The manager’s head snapped in Tedmond’s direction. “Who are you? How dare you hit Mr. Griffin, and why are you here if you can’t afford to pay for our food?!”
Tedmond frowned. “Hey! Do you want to lose your job?” he threatened. “Why don’t you find out what happened before you judge?”
The manager flinched under Tedmond’s gaze and scanned him from head to toe. Seeing that Tedmond had no luxury on him, he concluded Tedmond was a nobody compared to Max.
“How dare you? I don’t need to know what transpired between you two! You’re a lowlife; you’re probably at fault!” the manager yelled. “Are you threatening me? Do you know who Mr. Griffin is?!”
Tedmond shrugged. “He’s just my former half-brother. Now, I don’t have someone as stupid as him as my brother.”
“Half-brother?” The manager paused, his eyes darting between Tedmond and Max. ‘They don’t look alike.’
Max glared at the manager. “Are you not doing your job? That boy is only a bastard! Kick him out, or you’ll be fired!”
The manager didn’t hesitate to call security, and when they arrived, he ordered, “Throw him out of the restaurant, and he is hereby banned!”
The security headed for Tedmond, but he began counting. “I told the owner of this restaurant to arrive in ten minutes.” He glanced at his wristwatch. “He’ll be here in three, two, one…"
As soon as Tedmond finished counting, the others hadn't had time to react when the door of the restaurant swung open. A man in a tailored creamy suit hurried in, followed by three others, with sweat dripping down his forehead.
Everyone’s gaze turned to the man who had just walked in, and the security guards froze in their tracks.
“What is going on?” Max demanded, glaring at the manager. “Throw him out!”
Blood drained from the manager’s face as he stared at the man. “He really came!” he yelled. “The owner of the restaurant is really here! How is that possible? I messed up!”
Latest Chapter
CHAPTER 642
Tedmond peered at Marek.Though Marek was a formidable fighter, he had always preferred force over finesse, and it had worked for him more times than he could count.“I suggest using the head you spent five years training,” Tedmond replied, his voice cold and sharp.While Marek focused on the physical barrier, Tedmond’s eyes traced the faint thermal signatures lingering on the keypad. His mind honed by years of analyzing complex systems and patterns saw the code before he ever touched the panel.Without his earpiece, without Thomas whispering the sequence in his ear, he relied on instinct.His fingers, rough yet astonishingly precise, moved with mechanical speed.He didn’t kick; he manipulated.A thin needle tool from his belt shorted the proximity loop, and he entered the four-digit sequence, guided only by the heat signatures.With a soft, melodic chime, the seal hissed open.Tedmond looked at Marek, expression flat.“Brute force is for the climb. Intelligence is for the kill. Let’
CHAPTER 641
Marek’s grin turned sharp and jagged as his hand openly gripped the hilt of his blade.“Now that is a plan I can follow,” he rumbled, voice thick with dark satisfaction. “After you, Young Master.”Inside, relief surged through him.For hours, Thomas’s cautious logistics and Albert’s digital hand-holding had felt like wearing a suit two sizes too small. To Marek, safety was secondary; effectiveness was everything. He’d been waiting for Tedmond to stop playing the obedient student and start acting like the predator he’d trained him to be.The safe route was for men who feared the dark. This raw, improvised chaos was where real power was tested. He was glad the boy had finally stopped listening to the voices in his ear and started listening to the pulse in his veins.Tedmond paused, gaze shifting to Marek. He noticed the change immediately: the loosened shoulders, the lethal joy dancing in the older man’s eyes. Not for the first time, he wondered how many risks Marek had taken to gr
CHAPTER 640
Tedmond studied the door, brows furrowing.The lock, a heavy biometric mag-lock, looked more suited for a vault than a kitchen entrance.Its cold, clinical surface reflected a flash of his own face for a moment.He glanced at his rough, calloused knuckles, then back at the high-tech mechanism.Five years ago, he might have waited for a locksmith or searched for a key.Now, his first thought was brute force: how many pounds of pressure to rip the frame from the stone, or where the wiring hid behind the plate so he could short it with a blade.He wasn’t just a scholar anymore; every object in the world was either a tool or an obstacle.‘Is she behind a lock like this?’ The thought hit his gut with a sharp pang of anticipation. ‘Does she hear the wind out here? Does she know I’m standing on the other side of the wall?’He pushed the feeling down. Thinking too much made you slow. Slow got you dead."Thomas," Tedmond whispered, low and controlled. "The lock, it’s a Grade 5 biometric. Can
CHAPTER 639
The rock was cold, not just chilly, but the kind of deep, biting frost that felt as though it were trying to fuse Tedmond’s skin to the slate.He reached up, his rough fingers finding a ledge barely wider than a credit card. He hauled himself upward, muscles screaming in a rhythmic, dull ache he had long since learned to find comfort in.Beside him, Marek climbed with the terrifying fluidity of a mountain lion. The man didn’t seem to use his hands so much as simply will himself higher.“You know,” Marek whispered, his voice hitching slightly as he jammed a boot into a vertical crack, “if you’d just bought a helicopter like a normal billionaire, we’d be having a drink on that balcony by now.”Tedmond grunted, a bead of sweat rolling down his temple despite the freezing wind.“A helicopter has a signature, Marek. And I’m not ‘normal’... you made sure of that. Besides, it would draw too much attention. I don’t want anything that could expose my identity or give them a reason to hide he
CHAPTER 638
Tedmond’s hands stopped.The silence in the cabin grew heavy, suffocating.He didn’t look up immediately. Slowly, he slid the magazine into his sidearm, a sharp, final clack before lifting his head.“You think this is about the result, Thomas?” Tedmond’s voice was low, vibrating with a settled, dangerous conviction. “That I spent five years turning my body into a weapon just to let another man pull the trigger?”He leaned over the table, his rough, calloused palms flat against the maps of the villa.“If money could have brought her back, she would’ve been home twenty years ago. If power alone were enough, my father wouldn’t be in a grave, and she wouldn’t be in a cage.” His eyes locked onto Thomas’s with a fierce, unbreakable light.“Some things in this world aren’t solved with a checkbook. They’re solved by the person who carries the weight of the debt.”He straightened, his silhouette casting a long shadow against the cabin walls.“It’s my mother, Thomas. Every bruise Marek gave me
CHAPTER 637
The drive into the jagged heart of the mountains ended at a secluded tactical base, hidden within a natural amphitheater of towering stone.As the SUV rolled to a stop and the engine cut out, the silence was absolute, broken only by the ticking of cooling metal.Tedmond was the first to step out.The air was frigid, sharp with the taste of pine and ancient snow.He walked to the edge of the clearing and looked out.From this height, the valley below lay bathed in the amethyst glow of twilight.A thin veil of mist clung to the treetops like spun silk, and the surrounding peaks were painted in strokes of gold and deep violet by the dying sun.To Tedmond, it was breathtaking.It felt as though the world were holding its breath, offering a moment of untainted peace before he descended into fire.“It’s beautiful,” Tedmond murmured, his eyes reflecting the vast, quiet expanse. “Hard to believe something so ugly is hiding in a place like this.”Marek stepped out beside him, gravel crunching
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