"Raymond, you bastard!" he shouted. "You can’t fire people however you like, especially not a Black! We are the owners of this company!"
Raymond suddenly struck the table with his palm.
The loud bang made several executives jump in their seats.
"A true Black wouldn’t waste company funds," Raymond said coldly.
His gaze shifted toward Lucas.
"But in his case, I understand. Soone who grew up like he had never seen money before would naturally spend it carelessly."
The insult hung heavily in the air.
"It’s only a bastard with no right to the Black na who behaves the way you do," Raymond continued rcilessly. "Pretend all you want, you will never be a real Black."
Gerald’s eyes widened in shock.
Lucas completely lost his temper.
"You bastard!" he roared as he lunged across the table to attack Raymond.
Before he could reach him, however, the conference room doors burst open.
Security guards rushed in imdiately, summoned earlier by Liam.
Even though they recognized Lucas as a mber of the Black family, none of them dared hesitate. Because they fear Raymond more than they fear any mber of the black family
They grabbed Lucas and restrained him.
Lucas struggled violently.
"Let go of !" he shouted.
Gerald rushed forward in outrage.
"No! You can’t do this!" he yelled. "Lucas is a Black! You can’t throw him out of this company!"
Raymond didn’t even blink.
"I believe I can," he said calmly. "And I just did."
He looked toward the security guards.
"I don’t want to see him inside this building again until I say otherwise."
Lucas and Gerald were forcefully escorted out of the eting hall while Lucas continued shouting angrily.
The rest of the executives sat frozen in their seats.
And just like that, Gerald Black and his son Lucas Black were thrown out of the eting because Raymond refused to tolerate their behavior any longer.
Raymond turned back to the stunned room.
"This eting is adjourned," he said.
Then his cold gaze shifted to the design departnt.
"And for the design team, I don’t want a repeat of today. If you cannot provide a better design, outsource the project to soone competent."
"Sir... if I may speak," one of the designers said cautiously, raising his hand.
Raymond nodded.
"Sir, there is actually a well-known construction designer in town. The young woman responsible for the famous Love Triangle building design has recently been identified."
Raymond’s expression darkened imdiately.
"I believe we can hire her to work on this project."
The more the man spoke, the colder Raymond’s face beca.
Liam, standing quietly beside the wall, simply shook his head slightly as he watched the situation unfold.
"I never realized I paid you all such huge salaries," Raymond said slowly, "only for you to rely on outsiders for a project as trivial as this."
The designer froze.
"You have until tomorrow," Raymond continued. "If I don’t see a new design draft, I will be docking your entire departnt’s salary for this month."
The poor man was stunned.
Wasn’t it the boss who just suggested outsourcing the design?
But he didn’t dare question Raymond.
It was obvious the CEO was in a terrible mood.
Raymond stood up.
"Since you all seem to have plenty of free ti," he added coldly, "I want a full report from every departnt, down to the PR division, on my desk by tomorrow morning."
"Failure to comply will result in penalties."
He picked up his cane.
"That will be all."
"You are dismissed."
The executives scrambled to gather their papers and leave the room as quickly as possible.
Within seconds, the eting hall was empty.
The door closed behind the last person.
Liam’s eyes slowly shifted toward Raymond, his brow raised in such a way that it seed he was asking Raymond "what is your problem?"
Raymond shrugged and sat down heavily in the chair. "They are all incompetent. I need better employees," he said flatly, glancing at Liam’s raised brow and creased forehead.
"What?" Raymond asked, his hands flaring up in mild irritation. "Why are you giving that look?"
"What look?" Liam responded calmly.
"The one you have on now," Raymond said, pointing directly at Liam’s face. For soone who rarely spoke, Liam seed to have spoken more than required today, and Raymond was already irritated enough without being scrutinized.
Liam leaned back slightly in his seat, studying him.
"You do know your grandfather is not going to like your actions here today, right?"
"I don’t care." Raymond waved a dismissive hand.
"Lucas is not only incompetent but a pain in my ass. He put in charge, so he’ll just have to deal with it."
Liam remained silent for a mont before speaking again. "I thought this was always a ga to you. The thrill of the hunt. You take your ti, let your prey think they are getting away before you show your hand and corner them."
Raymond did not reply.
"What happened to you?" Liam finally asked, concern creeping into his voice. "You have never lost control this badly before. Are you sure you are okay?"
"I’m fine. I just..." Raymond sighed and rubbed his temple. "Forget about it."
"Are you sure you don’t want to talk about it?" Liam pressed gently.
"No. It’s okay." Raymond pushed himself to his feet. "I’m going ho. Cancel the rest of my etings for the day."
With that, Raymond picked up his cane and walked out of the hall without another word.
As he made his way toward the elevator, the workers on the floor imdiately scrambled around. So pretended to be busy while others buried their faces in paperwork as if they had suddenly beco the most hardworking
employees in the building. No one dared to look directly at him.
Raymond did not even notice their reactions. His mind was elsewhere, clouded and restless. He stepped into the elevator and descended to the lobby in silence.
Soon he was seated in the back of his car, driving back to the mansion that had beco emptier than it already was.
This had been his life for years, cold, quiet, and hollow.
Until Lena ca in and changed everything.
He tightened his grip on the steering wheel slightly as the thought crossed his mind.
Soon his phone started ringing.
Once.
Twice.
Three tis.
The ringing continued nonstop.
Raymond tried to ignore it, but the sound kept echoing through the quiet car until he finally glanced at the screen. The mont he saw the caller’s na, his jaw tightened.
He picked up the call.
"I understand," he muttered into the phone after a brief pause.
Without another word, he turned the car around and drove toward his grandfather’s estate.
—
By the ti he arrived, the evening air had grown colder.
Raymond parked his car and stepped out, his cane tapping lightly against the ground as he walked into the large house.
The servants greeted him nervously, but he ignored them and went straight toward his grandfather’s study.
When he pushed the door open, he found exactly who he expected to see.
His father, Gerald, was seated stiffly in one chair.
Next to him sat his stepbrother Lucas, his face lowered and sulking like a scolded child.
Raymond looked at them both with open disgust.
"You..." Gerald began imdiately, his voice sharp with anger. "You have the guts to show your face here after the embarrassnt you brought to the Black na today?"
Raymond did not even glance at him.
Instead, he walked further into the room and greeted his grandfather respectfully before taking a seat in the empty chair across from them.
He was not in the mood for Gerald’s theatrics.
"Raymond," Grandpa Black said calmly, though the weight in his voice was unmistakable. "Explain yourself. What happened today at the company?"
He leaned forward slightly.
"Why am I hearing that you threw your father and your brother out of the company?"
Raymond remained calm.
"I never threw Gerald out," he replied evenly. "I only threw his incompetent son, Lucas, out before he continued disgracing the family na."
Lucas’s head snapped up at that.
"What do you an by that, Raymond?" Gerald asked angrily. "Why can’t you even show your father respect? After all these years you still call by my na. And you wonder why I prefer Lucas to you."
Raymond slowly turned his head and looked directly at him.
"I can never show you respect because of what you did to my mother," he said coldly.
The room suddenly felt heavier.
"You know I was there when it happened," Raymond continued, his voice steady but laced with sothing dark. "You might think I was too young to rember. That I didn’t see anything."
He leaned forward slightly.
"But I saw everything."
Gerald stiffened.
"You pushed her," Raymond said quietly.
Lucas shifted nervously in his seat.
"You think I don’t know you were bringing Lucas’s mother into the house and even into the company?" Raymond continued, rising slowly to his feet.
His eyes had turned bloodshot.
"I know everything."
His voice grew harsher with every word.
"Every night she cried while waiting for you to co back. I heard it all."
His fists clenched.
"I watched her cover the bruises on her face with concealer from the places you hit her."
Hatred burned fiercely in Raymond’s eyes as he stared at Gerald.
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