After grinding in the Hidden Realm for the better part of the day, all five of them were feeling the exhaustion. They said their goodbyes and logged off one by one.

  Kael stayed online a bit longer, checking the administrative logs for Starlight Village. He saw that in just half a day, the copper and iron ore income had already surpassed the previous day’s total by several dozen times.

  It was amazing what a crowd could accomplish. It seemed like every miner in Crescent was flocking to their territory. Once the blacksmith’s questline was complete, he could start upgrading some of the other shops.

  Kael logged out and went down to the dining room. Lila was already at the table eating, with Gable standing behind her, a stern expression on her face.

  "Hey," Kael said, greeting them both.

  Gable quickly brought Kael's dinner over to his place at the table.

  Lila just nodded in acknowledgment, not saying a word. She was clearly weighed down by something. Kael knew she was thinking about the Whitmore family, so he didn't press her.

  He ate while scrolling through the news on his phone. Unsurprisingly, the Whitmore family scandal dominated the headlines.

  With Edmund's arrest, any company associated with the family was in for a world of hurt. The first and most immediate impact was on the financial markets.

  The Whitmore family’s own five publicly traded companies had announced an emergency suspension of trading, so their drop in market capitalization wasn't visible yet. However, analysts estimated their value would plummet by at least 80% upon reopening.

  The most obvious victims on the market were several of the Whitmore’s key corporate partners. Those with minor ties saw their stocks tank for a day or two; those with deeper connections had been in freefall for a week.

  As the investigation deepened, the public began to see that the Whitmore empire was a house of cards. The family heir, Seth, had racked up hundreds of billions in gambling debt in Las Vegas. He’d been robbing Peter to pay Paul ever since, leaving the Whitmore Group riddled with debt and on the verge of collapse.

  All signs pointed to the Mordant family as the architects of this downfall. As for the Mordants, their situation was mixed. The termination of their partnership with the Carrington Family had severely impacted their biomedical subsidiary, forcing them to sell it off at a loss.

  But that was a relatively minor blow; the Mordant family's core business was finance. They had been quietly shorting Whitmore stock for a long time, and with the family's implosion, the hedge funds controlled by the Mordants had made a killing.

  That result surprised Kael. He had expected the Mordant family to be crippled as well, but it seemed they were thriving.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

  Twenty minutes later, Lila finished her meal. She looked at Kael's pensive expression and sighed softly.

  "Can we go out tomorrow?" she asked quietly.

  "Huh?" Kael had been so engrossed in his phone he hadn't heard her.

  "I said, I need you to go somewhere with me tomorrow."

  "Oh, sure. What's up?"

  "...It's the anniversary of my mother's death."

  "Oh." Kael immediately felt like he'd said the wrong thing.

  After dinner, he scrolled through the news for a while longer. Just as he was about to log back into the game, his phone rang. It was Ben.

  "Hello?"

  "..."

  .....

  Kael hung up, got a set of car keys from Gable, and headed out the door.

  The next morning, a light drizzle was falling. Gable drove, with Kael and Lila sitting in the back, an unspoken tension between them.

  Kael wanted to crack a joke or say something to lighten the mood, but given where they were going, he knew it wasn't the right time. He turned his head to watch the rain-streaked scenery go by, his mind drifting to what Ben had told him the night before.

  The cemetery was a long way out, nearly a two-and-a-half-hour drive. It was in a remote, quiet area. Kael held an umbrella over them as he helped Lila out of the car.

  Clutching a bouquet of white chrysanthemums, Lila walked to a lavish, polished gravestone. The inscription read: "Here lies Becky, beloved wife of Edmund Whitmore."

  Becky. That was the name of Lila's birth mother.

  Lila gently placed the flowers at the base of the stone and just stood there, staring. She bit her lip, fighting for control, but it was a losing battle. A single tear escaped, then another, tracing a path down her cheek. The dam broke. She wasn't holding back anymore, and a raw, ragged sob tore from her throat.

  "Mom, I miss you so much."

  "I'm so sorry... I never imagined Edmund was the one who killed you."

  "Mom..."

  She collapsed against her mother's tombstone, overwhelmed by grief. Suddenly, her sorrow turned to rage. She lunged forward, slamming her fist hard against the engraved name "Edmund Whitmore." The sharp stone tore the skin on her knuckles, and blood trickled down her arm.

  She raised her hand to strike it again, but Kael caught her wrist.

  Lila struggled wildly. "No! I won't let that bastard's name stay on my mother's grave!"

  Kael wrapped his arms around her, holding her tight. She thrashed against him for a long moment before finally going limp, clinging to him and weeping uncontrollably.

  "Hahahaha. Cry all you want. It'll be your last chance."

  A mocking voice cut through the sound of the rain.

  Lila froze, her head snapping up. She knew that voice all too well. It belonged to the woman who had been her stepmother for over a decade—Paige.

  Lila quickly wiped her tears and stood up straight.

  Seth held an umbrella over his mother as they approached.

  Lila glared at her. "What do you mean by that?"

  Paige ignored Lila, her eyes raking over Kael instead. "You must be Kael."

  Kael just stared back, his expression grim.

  "Before her wedding, Lila said she was giving you the villa," Paige continued. "I thought you were just some sleazy gigolo who knew how to sweet-talk women. I never imagined you'd be the one to team up with the Carrington siblings and put my husband in prison. I really underestimated you."

  Kael's body tensed. He knew they were here for trouble.

  Paige turned back to Lila. "Twenty-two years ago, your father and I met and fell in love. We even had a son in secret."

  "Do you have any idea what those years were like for me?"

  "I had to raise Seth all by myself, living with the whispers and the ridicule of others. For three long years."

  "If Edmund hadn't been so obsessed with your mother's research, we would have been together long before!"

  Kael couldn't take it anymore. "You shameless bitch!" he snarled. "You were the other woman, a homewrecker, and you dare stand there talking so self-righteously?"

  "That's bullshit!" Paige's voice shot up an octave. "Edmund and I were in love! That bitch Becky was the third wheel in our relationship! My son is older than Lila, and that's all the proof I need!"

  Kael let out a bitter laugh. "Are you serious? Becky and Edmund were married, but she was so dedicated to her research that they postponed having children. You used that time to seduce a married man, got pregnant with his son, and even that wasn't enough for you. In the end, you had Becky murdered. And you have the nerve to stand here and say she was the problem?"

  Paige's face flushed crimson. She opened her mouth to argue but couldn't find the words. Her expression shifted several times, from rage to indignation, before finally settling into a venomous smile.

  "Enjoy it while you can, you little bitch and your pretty boy. After today, you won't be smiling anymore."

  Lila's voice was low and dangerous. "What are you talking about?"

  Paige just chuckled and waved her hand.

  In an instant, more than a dozen figures emerged from the surrounding trees, encircling them.

  "My meaning is simple," Paige said, her smile widening.

  "It's time for you to have a family reunion. With your mother."