“Don’t hit my mom!” It was dead silent at the entrance of Dynasty Hotel. The crowd froze as if time had stopped. Only Brenda’s heart-wrenching cries pierced through the air. “Don’t cry, Brenda. No one can hit your mother on my watch.” A tender voice belonging to a man rang in the girl’s ear. Brenda felt a gentle stroke on her head. She opened her tearful eyes and saw Kaze before her. “Godfather!” She exclaimed with joy before whining to him, “A mean lady is trying to hit Mom!” “It’s okay, Brenda. I punished the mean woman,” Kaze said with a smile. He glanced at the woman on the ground with her hand over her cheek. Woah! Only then did the stunned onlookers seem to come to life. The scene erupted into chaos.They stared at Lyn who had collapsed to the ground. The high and mighty woman threatened to slap Winnie. Now, she lay on the ground with a swollen cheek. One of her heels fell yards away. Lyn looked like a mess. A figure jumped in when Lyn trie
“Bastard! You don’t even have the guts to say your name. “Don’t think for a second you can hide because you withhold your name. Once I find out, I’ll kill you!” Lyn glared at Kaze and gnashed her teeth. The onlookers kept mum about Kaze’s identity. They refused to tell Lyn his name and there was nothing she could do about it. “You don’t have to know my name to kill me.” By then, Kaze had learned the whole story. He glanced at Lynn. “You’re just a lapdog if you need to know who I am to kill me. You only bully the weak.”The crowd knew Darcy’s loser husband could fight, but they did not know he had a mouth on him too. “How dare you call me a lapdog!” Lyn went ballistic. “Shut up if you’re too scared to kill me.” Paying her no attention, Kaze pointed at Juno. “Did you knock my goddaughter over?” “What? Are you trying to scam me for money?” With a raised brow, Juno said curtly, “Well, you’re barking up the wrong tree.” “I’m not scamming you for money.” Kaze a
“Chrysant’s belle, my ass. My wife’s prettier.” It was dead silent at the entrance of Dynasty Hotel. Kaze’s words lingered in everybody’s mind. Yume was the princess of the Vinlands and the most beautiful woman in Chrysant. Yet, Kaze called bullshit on it. That was not the only thing. It never occurred to anybody that he would slap Yume in the face. Kaze got right down to it. The fact that Yume was a woman did not stop him. How could he hit a delicate woman? The crowd stared at the red handprint on Yume’s cheek. They felt bad for her. “How dare you hit me!” Yume lost her cool. She stared savagely at Kaze. Everybody could read the fury in her voice. Kaze had enraged the Vinlands’ princess. “I mean, she was asking for it, but the idiot is done for. No one can save him after the stunt he pulled.” “He won’t be charged for assault, but the Vinlands have a million ways to make him suffer.” “Yeah. No one can face the wrath of the Vinlands.” Many gave Ka
“Call the security officers. I want him to regret this day for the rest of his life!” Yume hissed through clenched teeth. Her voice was chilling. She was on the edge of losing it. As the princess of her family, she was loved and favored. Even the older members of the family would not raise their voices at her, much less hit her. Yet today, Kaze slapped her in public. She had never been so humiliated. Many turned pale, startled by her remark. They could read the resentment in Yume’s tone of voice. The threat was directed at Kaze. Instead of shivering in fear, Kaze approached Yume with a smile. “Before that happens, should I hit you a few more times?” Everybody gasped sharply. The idiot knew no boundaries. “Go to hell!” Yume gnashed her teeth and slinked back. “We should just go, Yume. I heard that the man is crazy, so we can’t charge him for assault. We’ll sort him out later. There’s no need for us to get into it with him now. Let’s not give anybody somet
“I had the rainbow snow cone, Godfather. It was delicious. Do you want one too?” Brenda asked innocently. Her hands were still over her eyes. “Hear that? My goddaughter wants a rainbow snow cone.” Kaze stepped on the hundred-dollar bill and pushed it toward Juno. “Buy one. You can leave after you get the ice cream.” Juno’s head was still spinning from the slap. The crowd thought Juno would make Kaze pay. To their surprise, Juno grabbed the hundred-dollar bill and staggered to his feet. The onlookers gave way to him. They believed Kaze knew how to hit where it hurt the most. Kaze made Juno buy ice cream for the child. The young man must feel too proud to carry out Kaze’s request. It was true that Juno found it beneath him to do so. He intended to walk out and never come back.“If you slip away, I’ll give each of your friends a slap, and that includes Yume,” reading his thoughts, Kaze said indifferently. Yume and the others gritted their teeth and glared at Kaz
Samus spoke aloud. His voice drew the attention of the guests in the venue hall. The guests made strange faces. The former Quints’ collective pleas to change their last name had made them the biggest joke in Lilyrose. Speaking of which, some criticized the former Quints forgetting their roots while others sneered at them in disdain. The former Quints were losing their backbone. They represented the Vinlands in attending to the guests. As a show of respect, the attendees did not say a word about the last name change. However, Samus grilled Darcy’s family in public for not changing their last name. “How could you turn your back on your family lineage, Vinland? How could you be proud of that?“You should thank Darcy. At least, she will carry on the bloodline.” Amid the crowd, an individual taunted the former Quints to stand up for Darcy’s family. The individual used Samus’ new last name to tick him off. “Hahaha!” The air broke out in laughter. Samus and the ot
“Hahaha!” The guests laughed out loud. They had not realized before, but Darcy’s loser husband had quite the mouth on him. The attendees who had witnessed the earlier drama outside the hotel were not surprised, though. “Shut up, Kaze!”“I’m going to kill you!” Samus and his family went ballistic. “Don’t waste your breath on him.” A sneer was heard. Logan swaggered his way in and glared at Darcy’s family. “You can get out since you won’t change your last name. Don’t bother attending the party. “Call the security, Samus. Throw them out,” he said in a chilling voice. “That’s right. Kick them out! They are getting themselves humiliated in public.” The rest of the former Quint family members resented Darcy, so they started clamoring. Darcy’s family turned pale with rage. The former Quints had no compassion for them at all. Although Kaze did not care about some party, he did not want to see his wife’s family kicked out. He said curtly, “The Vinlands formally inv
Following the security officer’s reaction, the attendees in the hall looked at Kaze in surprise.They had no idea what was with Darcy’s dimwit husband. Kaze managed to instill fear in the terrifying security personnel. “You must think highly of yourself, Kaze. They recognize you because you’re the village idiot of Lilyrose,” Samus sneered. He waved his arm. “Don’t just stand there. I’m ordering you as a member of the Vinland family to beat the idiot up and throw him out. Don’t forget to toss his wife’s family out too.” “Are you taking orders from him?” Kaze looked at the security officers with a pretentious smile. “Mr. Lee, um…” The security guards were dumbfounded. Cold sweat rolled off their foreheads. The attendees stared at Kaze in horror. Even Darcy was in disbelief. Samus was issuing a command in the name of the Vinlands. However, these security personnel dared not carry out his order.They had to wonder if Kaze possessed something more fearsome than the
Kaze watched as the senior citizens took off. The place was quiet as usual, and many things in the unit were left uncollected. “Mr. Lee, does this arrangement work?” Arthur awaited Kaze’s orders. “It will do for now.” After being out for the day, Kaze had seen some stuff. Business was all about making money, but some lines should not be crossed. As long as things remained within reason, there would not be scrutiny or blame. It was astounding the lengths Jet would go to. “The area will be demolished after a while. I want all of the Frosts’ projects on hold. Don’t approve any of them.” One word from Kaze could shake the very foundation of the Frosts’ business. “Alright. My team is on it. “But the Frosts will ask questions and find out who is behind this.” Arthur looked at Kaze worriedly. “They can’t find anything.” No one would know who Kaze was without his permission. It probably never crossed Jet’s mind that Snow had a powerful friend. Otherwise, he woul
Kaze was confused. Surely, the authorities would not disregard human lives and demolish the place by force. “Well, we tried to relocate them, but they refused our services. If they are still not on board, they will be sent to the retirement home tonight.” That was all Pax knew. The retirement home was just another place for the senior citizens to await death. “Is there nothing else you can do? So you signed the contract without thinking about the consequences? Karma will get back at you.” Pax’s shamelessness shocked Arthur. Pax mentioned that he would put the demolition on hold. It had not been long, and now the rights to the land were handed over. “It’s out of my hands. Jet went to my superiors to seal the deal. We are not allowed to intervene. “We had been figuring out ways to reach reconciliation for these senior citizens, but Jet was determined to make them pay.” It was the best Pax could do. He was just an employee, working to make a living. He did not have a say
“I want to see the person in charge of the demolition project now.” It was not a matter of time before the area was bulldozed, but Kaze hoped to delay it. Generally, it would take a large amount of capital to launch a project. Any delay would cause massive losses. Jet had several projects that had been put on hold, and it was a heavy blow to him. If Jet could not fix things quickly enough, all his money tied to the projects would be gone. He would be forced to ditch some projects to cut his losses. “I’ll get him here right now.” Arthur went out to make phone calls. He believed Kaze did the right thing as the senior citizens had nowhere to turn to. The senior citizens could only survive with some help. “Thank you, young man. Why are you helping us?” The senior citizens were old, but they could tell that Kaze genuinely wanted them to be okay. “I don’t think it’s right to bully you.” Kaze looked at the senior citizens earnestly, feeling sorry for them. Jet lack
“We agreed on relocation because we would get a place to stay. “But these people were unreasonable. We were offered only one-third of what everyone else got.” The senior citizens were going to swallow their losses. They just needed the money to live their last days, and they did not have family, to begin with. Later, the same people had their eyes on their money and tried to put them up at an old folks’ home. The senior citizens refused to relocate and finally chose to protect themselves by contacting the media. These people sure left the senior citizens to die. Kaze was sympathetic to the senior citizens. He went back with them to a unit on the ground floor. The place was bare, with several beds placed together. The senior citizens must be sleeping in the same room. There was little to eat, only some water and dry provisions.The old residents did not have much savings. It was good enough that they had something to eat. “Have a cup of water, boy. We don’t have any
“Are you one of those people from the pier? Are you trying to get us to leave?” A grizzled-haired man looked at Kaze warily. “I was just passing by when I saw you struggling with the buckets. I came to help you.” Kaze explained patiently. He could understand why their guards were up. They must have been lied to many times before. “Are you here to help?” “Yes, I am. My companion has gone to get you some water. He’ll be back soon. There’s no need for you to fetch water,” Kaze said kindly. “We’ll pay you.” The senior citizens exchanged glances before accepting Kaze’s gesture. They could not handle the weight of the heavy buckets. “The building here is about to be demolished. Why are you still living here?” Pretending to be in the dark, Kaze asked. “This is our home. Someone is trying to take this land away.” The grizzled-haired man was upset. “What? I thought no one could demolish the building unless they had the residents’ permission.” “You’re right, but there
“Jet sure is bold to ensure business. Isn’t he afraid of shooting himself in the foot?” Kaze had never met a man like Jet. “He has done a lot to get to the top. His ruthless methods got him a lot of money. A lot of people are happy to support him.” Arthur was impressed with Jet’s tactics. However, his approach was too cruel for his liking. “Let’s head to the residential building.” Kaze just wanted to check out the area. He was happy to help when needed. The flashy, red sports car was eye-catching. However, the flamboyant car was uncommon in these places. Most workers would express their amazement, but they would not ask questions. The car pulled up outside a soon-to-be abandoned building. It looked desolate. The power lines and infrastructure were not visible either. Kaze knew that was one of the Frosts’ methods. Sometimes, nothing, not even demolition, was required. The goal was to get the residents out. All Jet needed to do was cut the water and electricity.
“Just tell me what you need, Arthur. You wouldn’t be calling unless you have received orders.” Philip was surprised to get a call from Arthur. Though they were acquainted, they had only communicated because of work. “We have just left Rising Sun. Don’t approve the films for now.” Arthur was blunt. “I can do that, but can I ask why?” Philip was caught in a dilemma because he had just promised Jet to release the films. Philip needed to know if the orders to delay came from a high power who could cover his ass. “Since you got a call from me, you should know that there are eyes on Jet. “You should know what you can and cannot say. Otherwise, you never know when you’re going to lose your job.” Arthur threatened. Philip was reluctant. He accepted Jet’s payment, and now he had to go back on his word. Nevertheless, Arthur was part of the Viper’s Den, and his status was rather unique. Arthur provided services to confidential individuals. These individuals were elites among t
A balanced, profitable dynamic had been developed among the ports in Butterworth. Jet spotted his chance in the lucrative port business. He covertly took out some money to invest in a dying port. The port was situated in a more remote area. Some businesspeople favored more accessible ports. This drove shippers away from the dying port. Jet snagged the steal and improved the logistics and facilities around the area. The port was up and running again. Business at the port was decent enough. As the Frosts would run their business through the port, the local economy took off too. It was a good thing. However, Jet set his sights on several residential buildings around the area. He needed space to accommodate containers. The land was required to make business at the port more profitable. This triggered a whole new thing. Jet could spend some money to buy the residents out of their homes. However, the residents preferred to stay put in their long-time homes. No a
“I’ll keep the bank cards for now. I’ll talk to our superiors and give you a decision. Since the man said that the cards are meant for us, they won’t be going anywhere.” Knox had no idea who Kaze was, but he knew Arthur was with the Viper’s Den. Arthur must be someone from high places. Eli soon put the little incident behind him. He got a call from Aloysius yesterday and was made aware of Jet’s plans. The films had been put on hold for far too long, and the people above Eli were anxious to get things moving. Though Eli was surprised by the review board’s visit, everything was still in his control. Eli left the matter at that without reporting the incident to the higher-ups. The flashy, red car sped along the road. Arthur kept looking back at Kaze, eager to find out about the next plan. Arthur brought Kaze out today to witness how Eli and his team operated. As it happened, Eli adopted such a shallow ploy. Arthur was not surprised, though. Eli’s methods were common.