2024-10-09 20:53:06
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CHAPTER 633
Tedmond turned away from the mirror, and for the first time in three days, a slow, boyish grin spread across his face, a look that was almost more unsettling than his coldness.“Oh, she didn’t bring me the silver trays, Persis,” he said with a light shrug. “She used the servants’ crawlspace behind the wardrobe. Apparently, she found a way to slide snacks and takeout through a gap in the wood.”Persis gaped at him. “Takeout? Snacks? Tedmond, where would a five-year-old get—”“She must have hidden a stash,” Tedmond chuckled, his eyes dancing with a brief, rare flash of warmth. “While you were all mourning me as if I were already in the ground, that little rascal was smuggling in chocolate bars and cold sandwiches she swiped from the pantry. She told me I looked ‘grumpy’ and needed to eat my feelings.”He let out a short laugh, shaking his head.“So no, Mary doesn’t need to cook a feast. I’ve lived on sugar and Bianca’s ‘secret’ rations for seventy-two hours. I’m quite fueled.”Persis r
CHAPTER 632
He paused.“Have you identified all the locations where women could be sold?”Wherever they had sent his mother, whatever they had done to her, he would find her himself and make sure she came home.After being gone for so long, he knew one thing: if she had regained her memories and been free, she would have found a way to contact Thomas. The fact that she hadn’t meant there were only two possibilities.Either she had regained her memories but was being held captive without access to a phone, orOr she hadn’t regained them at all.Persis and Thomas exchanged a quick, worried glance. They had far more to tell him, not only about the search for Mill, but about the collapse of the Griffin line he had left behind.“Eat first, Tedmond,” Persis said, her voice soft but firm. “Then we’ll talk. There’s… quite a lot to catch up on.”Tedmond nodded and headed toward the dining hall with a brisk, measured stride.“Fine. But keep it brief. I have a hectic afternoon ahead of me.”As they descen
CHAPTER 631
Three days had passed since the gunshot in the courtroom shattered the world.Three days since the name Mill Washington had been dragged from the shadows of a dead man’s throat.Inside the sprawling estate, the air felt stagnant.The staff moved on tiptoe, their eyes constantly drifting toward the heavy oak doors of the master suite.Tedmond had not left his room.Food was placed on silver trays outside the door, only to be collected hours later, cold and untouched.Behind those doors, there was no sound at all, only a crushing, absolute silence.Tedmond was a prisoner of the realization that he had mourned a ghost for twenty years while his mother was likely suffering in a cage Harold had built.Persis stood in the hallway, her hand hovering inches from the door handle.The only thing separating her from Tedmond was that door, and she had been standing there for a long time, wanting to knock, unable to find the courage, endlessly deciding what to do.She wanted to give him space to c
CHAPTER 630
Persis stood her ground until the last of her breath was spent, chest heaving, eyes still burning.The brothers crumbled under the weight of the room’s collective scorn, faces pale, eyes darting.Just as the chaos reached its peak, a heavy hand landed on Persis’s shoulder.She jumped, turning to see Thomas. He had returned from the car, his expression unreadable but his presence grounding."It's enough, Miss Persis," Thomas said quietly. "You’ve said what needed to be said. He needs you now."Persis glanced at the broken remnants of the Griffin family, then back at Thomas. The fire in her eyes dimmed, replaced by weary exhaustion. She nodded once, tucked a stray hair behind her ear, and let Thomas lead her through the throng of shouting police and angry spectators.*****The cool, damp air of the parking garage was a sharp contrast to the courtroom’s suffocating heat.As Thomas opened the rear door of the black sedan, Persis sank into the leather seat, adrenaline finally draining f
CHAPTER 629
Back in the courtroom, the gunshot’s echo finally died, replaced by a silence so dense it felt as if it were crushing the air from the room.Harold’s body lay slumped on the floor, his final act of spite complete.He had died as he had lived, sacrificing everything to ensure he had the last word.Tedmond stood frozen, his hand still reaching into empty air.“Tedmond!”Persis broke through the crowd, her face ashen. She grabbed his arm, her touch finally grounding him.“Tedmond, we have to move. The police are calling a lockdown.”He turned his head slowly. His eyes were hollow, reflecting the red and blue flashes of emergency lights through the high windows.“He did it,” Tedmond whispered, his voice cracking. “He killed the only map I had.”“We’ll find another way,” Persis said fiercely, pulling him toward the side exit as bailiffs shoved the shouting press back. “Thomas is already on the phone. We’re not giving up.”As they passed the defense table, Tedmond’s gaze caught on Frank a
CHAPTER 628– Harold’s Backstory I
The courtroom floor was cold, but the memory that flooded the void in the wake of the gunshot burned white-hot.Before the mansions, before the Griffin Group, before the corruption, there was a seven-year-old Harold.He wasn’t a monster then. He was just a boy living in the shadow of his mother, Vivian Griffin.The memory unfolded in the sprawling, manicured gardens of the old Griffin estate.Back then, they weren’t billionaires, but they were the elite of the county.Harold’s best friend wasn’t a Griffin.It was Leo, the son of the estate’s head stableman.They were inseparable.Leo was bold and charismatic, with a laugh that made Harold’s stiff, disciplined life feel bearable.“We’re brothers, right, Harold?” Leo had asked one afternoon, perched high in the branches of an oak tree. “When we grow up, we’ll run this place together.”“Brothers,” Harold had whispered, looking up with genuine adoration.But the core memory that broke Harold came during the Griffins’ annual Autumn Gala, th
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