Chapter 496

Reginald Quincy's knuckles turned white as his fists clenched.

Veins bulged along his tense hands.

His dark gaze burned into the retreating figures with venomous fury.

"Dad..." Bianca Fairchild whispered timidly.

"Get out!" Reginald roared, smashing a teacup onto the floor.

Shards scattered in all directions.

Bianca flinched, her eyes instantly welling with tears.

Down the hallway, Xander Quincy's footsteps quickened.

"Ethan, I..." His voice trembled, his Adam's apple bobbing. "I swear I didn't know he would—"

Ethan Sullivan halted abruptly.

Moonlight streamed through the corridor windows, casting sharp shadows across his chiseled profile.

"Do you know what I despise most?" His quiet tone froze Xander in place.

Xander's lips parted soundlessly.

"Betrayal." Ethan turned, his gaze like a blade. "Especially from those I trusted."

Xander's face drained of color.

"I didn't!" He stepped forward urgently. "If I'd known he'd drug you, I'd never have brought you here!"

Ethan studied him with unfathomable depth.

"Xander." A humorless smile touched his lips. "Your father played you too."

The words struck like a sledgehammer.

Xander staggered back against the cold wall.

Yes. Even his own son was just a pawn.

His chest constricted as if crushed by boulders.

"So?" Ethan advanced. "Will you keep being his obedient heir?"

Xander's nails bit into his palms.

Memories surged—

At ten, burning with fever while Reginald planned Beatrice's birthday gala.

At fifteen, his perfect exam score met with "Still inferior to your sister."

At twenty, his dream of studying medicine ended with a backhanded blow...

"I—" His voice cracked.

Ethan waited in silence.

Their elongated shadows stretched across the moonlit floor.

Xander lifted his bloodshot eyes. "I want the Quincy empire."

Soft-spoken, yet each word carried crushing weight.

Ethan's lips curved faintly.

"Certain?"

"The day he exiled Bianca," Xander enunciated, "I should have decided then."

At the corridor's end, a figure melted into darkness.

Reginald stood in the shadows, his expression thunderous.