“No need.” My tone was cold. “I came today to take my sister with me.”
Martha shrieked, “No! She belongs to the Foster family!”
“Belongs?”
I loomed over her short, plump frame.
“If she’s human, why do you treat her like a dog?”
Daniel quickly interjected. “Brother, you’re misunderstanding us! This is for her own good. She’s mentally unstable, she might hurt others—or herself. Keeping her locked up is the safest way—”
“Shut up!”
My roar made them both stumble back.
“This is the last time I’ll ask. Will you let her go?”
Daniel’s fake smile slipped, venom glinting in his eyes.
“Alexander, don’t push your luck. This is the Foster estate. You can’t throw your weight around here.”
He whipped out his phone, threatening, “With one call, I’ll have security toss you out. Leave now, or—”
“Or what?” I sneered. “Throw me in the kennel too?”
Martha screeched, “Son, stop wasting time! Call security and throw this meddler out!”
As Daniel raised the phone, I clamped down on his wrist.
He cried out in pain, dropping it to the ground.
“Daniel,” I said coldly, “it seems you’ve forgotten a lot while I was away. Forgotten that you’re just a live-in son-in-law. Forgotten that this mansion was Emily’s dowry. And forgotten my old title—Alexander the Reaper.”
Fear flickered in his eyes, though he tried to mask it with a mocking smile.
“Alexander, do you think it’s still the past? Reed Corporation is already mine. The board is under my control. You and that crazy woman are nothing.”
Martha chimed in smugly, “That’s right! Emily was already kicked out of the company. All her shares belong to my son now. You siblings are nothing but strays!”
Daniel snatched up his phone and barked into it, “Security! Get over here, someone’s making trouble!”
But no response came.
His face darkened. Sweat broke across his brow.
“What’s going on?” he muttered.
I pulled out my own phone with a cold smile.
“Thompson, bring them in.”
Within a minute, the mansion gates slammed open.
Mr. Thompson, the old butler, strode in with more than twenty men in black suits. They flooded the garden, surrounding it completely.
Daniel and Martha went pale as death.
Thompson shot Daniel a disdainful glance before turning to me. “Young Master, as you instructed, the men are all here.”
I nodded, my eyes sweeping over Daniel’s contorted face. His arrogance had vanished, replaced by trembling legs.
Martha cowered behind her son, lips quivering.
“Do it.”
At my command, the men spread out, launching a thorough search of the mansion.
I turned back toward the kennel, every step weighing heavy as lead.
My sister was still curled in the corner.
Hearing footsteps, she instinctively shrank tighter into herself.
Murmuring through her lips, “Don’t hit me… I promise I’ll be good…”
My heart bled.
I slowly crouched down and called softly, “Emily, it’s your brother.”
“I’m here to take you home.”
She lifted her head; a faint ripple crossed the vacant look in her eyes, but fear quickly swallowed it again.
She shook her head violently, a sob escaping her throat.
I reached out and gently pushed aside her tangled hair, revealing that haggard face.
Her skin was paper pale; dried blood still stained the corner of her mouth.
I forced down the rage inside me and spoke in the gentlest voice I could muster.
“Emily Reed, Alexander is back.”
“Alexander swears—no one will ever hurt you again.”
She stared at me blankly; the fear in her eyes slowly gave way to confusion.
I carefully unfastened the iron chain at her neck.
When my fingers brushed those savage wounds, her body shivered violently.
“Don’t be afraid,” I soothed quietly. “Alexander is taking you away from here.”
I scooped her up horizontally; normally she had a perfectly normal figure, but now she felt as light as a feather.
Daniel Foster charged forward at the sight, screaming hysterically, “You can’t take her! She’s my wife!”
One look from me and two bodyguards leapt forward to hold him down.
He could only watch, eyes wide, as I carried my sister toward the door, then collapse into a sobbing roar: “Alexander! Don’t get smug!”
“I won’t let you off!”
I didn’t look back. I only said one thing: “Kick them out. Do not let any of them set foot on the estate again.”
Once in the car, I gently laid my sister across the back seat and covered her with a blanket.
Her gaze remained empty, but her fingers clutched the hem of my coat as if afraid I might vanish.
I took her cold hand and said softly, “Sleep for a while. When you wake up, everything will be better.”
Under my soothing, she finally closed her exhausted eyes.
Even asleep, she murmured “brother” under her breath, and it stabbed my heart.
The driver asked in a low voice, “Young master, where to?”
My eyes grew cold. “Back to Reed Corporation.”
“I want to see who’s bold enough to kick my sister out of the company.”
When I arrived at Reed Corporation headquarters and pushed through the revolving doors, the blast of air conditioning made the sister in my arms flinch.
I patted her back to comfort her and strode to the reception.
“Do you have an appointment?”
Two unfamiliar young women sat behind the desk. Their makeup was immaculate, but their tone carried an air of haughtiness. They appraised me from head to toe; when their eyes landed on the tattered figure in my arms, disgust flashed across their faces.
“No appointment.”
“I’m Alexander Reed, son of the founder of Reed Corporation.”
“I want to see your chairwoman.”
The two receptionists exchanged a glance and suddenly laughed. One picked up the internal phone with a careless tone. “Security? There’s someone causing a scene in the lobby—please send someone to handle it.”
I narrowed my eyes. The other woman, leisurely, warned, “Sir, please leave immediately. This is Reed Corporation, not a place for you to cause trouble.”
Before I could lose my temper, a strong perfume reached us and the sharp click of high heels followed.
The woman who stepped through the door made my pupils contract.
She was the same woman from that video—the one entwined with Daniel Foster. She wore a sharply tailored white suit, and around her neck hung the Reed family’s heirloom Family Ruby Necklace.
