Chapter 461

Richard Langley's wrinkled hands trembled uncontrollably.

Tears welled in his clouded eyes as he clutched Ethan Sullivan's sleeve with desperate strength.

"Mr. Langley..."

The old man choked on his words, voice breaking.

Ethan gently patted his bony hand. "Uncle Zhang, White Rock Village deserves this."

Richard approached slowly, his face still pale.

"The Sullivan family will also fully support White Rock's development." His quiet voice carried unshakable conviction.

Zhang's knees buckled, nearly sending him to the ground.

"Don't!" Both men caught the elderly villager simultaneously.

Richard's throat worked. "If not for you all..."

He couldn't continue.

The image of Evelyn Laurent's battered body in that ravine flashed through his mind.

His knuckles turned white.

Ten years.

The mastermind still walked free.

The "accidents" that befell his six sons. Evelyn's disappearance. Sophia's switched identity.

No coincidences.

"Uncle Langley?"

Ethan sensed the sudden lethal aura radiating from the usually composed patriarch.

Richard snapped back to the present.

"Just remembering the past." He forced a strained smile.

Zhang wiped his eyes. "When that girl first arrived, there wasn't an inch of unbruised skin..."

The old man rambled about those painful memories.

"That stubborn child never cried when the village bullies tormented her. Just grabbed a stick and fought back..."

Ethan's knuckles whitened.

Dark currents swirled in Richard's eyes.

Both men listened in suffocating silence, chests weighed down by invisible stones.

Ethan glimpsed Richard's tension-hardened profile from the corner of his eye.

The legendary strategist of the Langley family now wore an expression that chilled the blood—was that... bloodlust?