The crowd gasped in shock, Jared most of them all. His golden Victoria was worth 600,000 dollars, but now, Asiel’s verdict meant that the little trinket’s price dwarfed the value of his pure-gold Victoria!“Impossible! He’s useless! He’s literally a good-for-nothing! There’s no way he could even buy something so beyond his means. This has to be a fake!” Jared cried. His disbelief was so great that he accidentally said that part out loud. Asiel shot him a look. “Please. Do you know the immense historicity and meaning behind the Fleur-de-lys, hmm? It’s the favored symbol of monarchies. It’s used by both royalty and saints. It’s religious, political, dynastic, artistic, emblematic, and symbolic. A favored emblem of royalty…It’s not something to be emblazoned on any item willy-nilly!” he pointed out. “And of course, what can we deduce from the liberal use of gemstones, especially in the past, when few people had access to such things? Diamonds, rubies, and pink diamonds…Do you honestly
Javier welcomed the man. He had only known Asiel for a while and he was already impressed. After he showed the man to his seat, the two of them began to chat. A few pleasantries later, Asiel finally asked the real question he wanted to ask. “How did you know that there was a pocket watch hiding in the mantle clock, Mr. Kersey?”Javier flashed him a smile. “I take no pleasure in keeping secrets, Mr. Langdon, but sorry. I'd rather not say.”Asiel nodded appreciatively. He was equally impressed by Javier’s attitude and would rather not get an answer than to be lied to. Javier’s answer was not satisfactory, sure, but it was also not irritating to hear. Antique and art appraisal were a race for the players, as each individual relied on their own secret techniques to out-compete one another. That way, they could maintain their prestige and income. Asiel did not ask any more questions; there was no point. He just threw in some small talk before taking his leave. The banquet was a merr
There was no way Evanna’s mother would make Javier hard, no matter how little she was wearing. He did, however, feel burning flames in his groin for Evanna. He had to be inside a beautiful woman like that, or it would feel as though he had wasted this fake marriage. He returned to the bedroom and turned the knob. To his surprise, Evanna had locked the door! He received a text message from the woman on the other side of the door. Her message was simple and brutally clear: Javier was to sleep on the couch tonight. “Please. You really think I can be stopped by a mere locked door?” Javier murmured to himself. He instinctively looked for a paperclip to unlock the door, though he gave up before he really acted on it. Evanna was only doing this because she was clearly not ready. Fine, then. Javier could wait. He left the door alone and went out of the house. All this energy should be spent elsewhere, though not exactly purposelessly. Jared claimed he had “helped” Javier at the ban
Pain shot up from the driver’s groin, causing the man to snap out of his blackout, only to let out a few yelps of anguish before plopping back on the bed and fainting again. The agony was just too much!His screams woke up Rosemary, who opened her eyes to see Jared, his father, and her own naked body. She was baffled. Why were these two here? A more terrifying question hit her a millisecond later: Did this mean…that the thing between her and the driver…?!Rosemary immediately defended herself by blaming it all on the driver. “Honey, you gotta believe me! I had nothing to do with this—he forced me! It was him! He—”“Darling, you’re really hanging him out to dry, huh? Just like you did your lingerie, I bet!” The older Griffin snapped at her with a mirthless smile. “He forced you, you say? Then the surveillance footage should prove it!”The mention of the camera mortified Rosemary, who fell down on her knees and begged for dear life. The older Griffin, though, had a steely glare t
David was stunned! Baffled! Stupefied! He had decades under his belt, but still, he had never seen so much money before in his life.Just the reminder that all of this had been transferred into his account the moment Javier had ended his call sent a chill down his spine. He stared at Javier with renewed respect and intrigue. This guy…Holy sh*t, he needed to abandon every past judgment and opinion of his. Now, he really had to know who he was. This grandson-in-law had been doling out surprise after surprise like there was no tomorrow!Lord Almighty, David had to find out who this Javier really was. Why would he marry his granddaughter? Why would he join their comparatively humble family? Why—“I don't have time for small talk!” Javier interjected. He was in no mood for all this chit-chat. “I just wanna know where Daniel Dennison is!”His brother? So this guy was after his brother? But why?David snuffed out any curiosity he felt the moment he met Javier’s piercing gaze. It was li
How could Javier possibly let Evanna witness something like that? He had to pick the right course of action. He could try desperately to dampen her curiosity, say there was nothing to see there, and yank her away from the spot. Unfortunately, the sweetest fruit was forbidden fruit. The more he tried to pull her away, the more curious she felt. Evanna took advantage of a millisecond when Javier was distracted and struggled out of his hold.She lunged at the window and peered inside, resting her head on the sill. She then saw her mother gripping the edge of the table, her features glowing in enjoyment. Wilson was behind her, his hands on her hips as he thrust forward over and over again. Evanna’s cheeks turned scarlet. What the hell?!Maybe she should jump off the building right now…She glared at Javier in embarrassment, turned around, and ran. Helpless, Javier followed her. “Why did you glare at me? I didn’t say ‘Look, Evanna, come on! You gotta see this!’ to you. I kept tryin
Practicing the Grimoire of Five had given Javier the ability to sense what was to come, regardless of whether it was grave or trivial. What he did not expect was to be able to predict the trouble caused by three garden-variety punks. Javier was…speechless. Should he be happy about his prediction sensitivity? Or should he be annoyed by how overly sensitive he was?Not that he had any time to dwell on it. Those three punks were adamant to get straight to business. “You, with the whole I-am-f*cking-fly face! You’re Javier-f*cking-Kersey, right? Come on. We have been looking for a fourth ranger to chit-chat with. It’ll be a shame if you don’t accept the invitation,” the leader said, sidling up to Javier before prodding his back with the tip of his pocket knife. “It’d be a shame if this knife went right through you, yeah? Come on, get in this nice car. Don’t be shy.”Javier smiled. “Okay!”He passed his key to the sidekick before climbing into the backseat with the leader. The ca
Javier yanked Eliott’s collar and dragged him to the railing at the top of the building.“Last chance. Like you said before, get on your knees and apologize to me.”Eliott did not know why he needed to apologize to a piece of trash.“F*ck you, you think I’d be scared of you after you beat me up? I’m not scared of anything!“You’re asking me to apologize to you? You piece of trash, you can f*cking dream on! Don’t even think about—AH!”Eliott did not even get to finish his audacious claims when his body was flung through the air and pushed away from the railing. His legs flailed and kicked, but there was nothing for his feet to find purchase on.Other than the hand grabbing his collar, there was nothing else keeping him tethered.It was when Eliott saw how calm Javier looked that he became aware that the latter was not scaring him. He was really going to kill him! And he was only one step away from falling off the building and dying!“Javier! Javier, calm down. Come on, we don’t