Chapter 490

"How dare you show your face after the Quincy family has been crushed by the Laurents and Sullivans?"

Reginald Quincy slammed his palm on the mahogany desk, rattling the teacups. His burning gaze locked onto his son, whom he hadn't seen in three years.

"How many times did I reach out? Yet you abandoned us for that worthless woman!"

Xander Quincy kept his eyes downcast, fingers trembling slightly. The word "worthless" cut through him like a blade.

"Bianca was just a Luck Charmer, yet you treated her like treasure!" Reginald's voice rose, veins bulging at his temples. "If she hadn't run away, our family wouldn't be in ruins!"

The venomous words made Xander look up. His father's twisted expression was unrecognizable—as if possessed by something sinister.

"When I find her..." Reginald licked his lips, smiling in a way that chilled the blood. "I'll make sure she suffers beyond imagination."

A cold dread seeped into Xander's bones. Was this greedy, raving man truly the stern patriarch he remembered?

Obsession. Superstition. A rabid hunger for power. These traits had consumed Reginald whole.

"Speak!" Reginald kicked over the coffee table. "You'd choose some outsider over your own father?"

Amid the shattering glass, Xander remained silent. He suddenly recalled Ethan Sullivan's calm eyes in captivity, his heart squeezing violently.

Too late.

The realization had come too late.

His mother's illness. The family crisis. All lies. What his father truly craved was the thrill of absolute control.

Seeing his son's defiance, Reginald stormed out, his furious footsteps echoing down the hall.

"Ethan..." Xander whispered, nails digging into his palms. He would get him out. Even if—

The thought twisted his lips into a bitter smile.

Meanwhile, Reginald paced his study like a caged beast. With Ethan as leverage, he could bleed the Sullivans dry.

"Bankrupt? Impossible!" He tore through drawers before sweeping everything onto the floor. "That phone! I never should've discarded it!"

As Reginald plotted his extortion, Evelyn Laurent sat in a café across town. Her eyes turned glacial while scrolling through her phone.

"Xander's vanished too..." Her fingers tapped the table before curling into a smirk.

With swift strokes, she pulled up dossiers on every Quincy enterprise. Whoever dared touch what was hers would pay dearly.

The clink of her coffee cup marked her departure. By the time she stood, her gaze had hardened into lethal resolve.