If I was the scar, my brother was the spotlight. He strode onto the terrace like he owned the air itself, wearing a bespoke Armani suit that probably cost more than a sergeant’s annual salary. In his hand, a crystal tumbler of Johnnie Walker Blue Label caught the light.
That lazy, arrogant smile was on his face, the smile of a man who had never been told no in all thirty-five years of his life.
My father abandoned his conversation with a sitting senator the instant he saw him. He practically sprinted across the patio, arms wide, voice booming with a pride he had never shown me once in my life.
“There he is,” Calvin bellowed. “The future of Vaughn Holdings. The prince has arrived.”
The crowd parted for them like the Red Sea. Malik soaked it in, basking in the worship.
As he passed my pillar, he didn’t stop, but he leaned in just enough to slam his shoulder into mine. “Still alive, Captain?” he whispered, his breath smelling of expensive scotch and rot. “I figured you’d be buried in a desert somewhere by now.”
My hands stayed at my sides, but my fingers curled so tightly my nails cut into my palms.
The cruelty in this family had long since stopped pretending to be subtle. Here, under the chandeliers, it was naked.
A sharp clink-clink-clink of a spoon against crystal silenced the murmurs. Calvin stepped to the podium, flushed and self-satisfied under the spotlight, and spent five full minutes vomiting up flowery words about legacy, discipline, and hard work. Hearing those words from him felt like swallowing ash. He was a man who measured human worth in stock options.
Then his eyes found me in the shadows, and the warmth drained from his face.
“Tonight I am handing full power to Malik,” Calvin announced, voice turning cold as steel. “As for Elena…”
He raised a finger and pointed straight at my face. It felt less like a finger than the barrel of a loaded gun.
“You are the greatest disappointment of my life.”
The sound system carried his venom to every corner of the estate.
“You chose to be a pawn on a battlefield because you knew you were too stupid for the boardroom. Let me make this clear. You will not inherit a single dime.”
Silence fell so hard I could hear the ocean below the bluff.
But he wasn’t finished. He wanted blood.