Faye’s heart skipped a beat.Six large men walked out of the crowd led by a man with the pudgiest face she had ever seen, a big frame, and a very prominent beer belly. He looked to be about 200 pounds. His friends sported very similar physical attributes too, and all of them possessed large swathes of tattoos.It was telling that their lives revolved around the criminal underworld—especially so when they emanated the aura of a cutthroat. Many onlookers who had joined the crowd looked on fearfully as they carefully kept their distance between these newcomers and themselves. Those who had taken to snapping pictures and recording videos made sure to be a lot more subtle about their actions too.“Sky Lord, oh, you’re here! I’m saved!” Charlotte exclaimed and dove into Skyler Moore’s arms before bursting into audible sobs that were hideously dramatic. “I was so scared of being beaten to death by these thugs! Sniff, sniff…”Skyler patted the young woman on the back with his large hands a
Zayn’s expression darkened. This man was unbelievable! “What, you’re saying you’re above the law?”Skyler laughed. “Good, good! You’re catching on. This is my turf, dumbo, and I’m the boss around here I am the law!”He sounded so domineering when he asserted his rule that his five companions joined in on the boisterous cackles. In an instant, the air was filled with a terrible mire of lawless tyranny, causing many of the onlookers to back away in fear.“Hey, isn’t that Sky Lord? Why are you here?” Suddenly, a man had walked forward from the crowd of people.It was Howard Carter. He was looking at Skyler with pleasant surprise on his face.Skyler, too, was a bit bemused at his appearance. “Howard? Didn’t think I would see you here, punk.”Howard stepped forward and lit up a cigarette before passing it to Skyler. “What’s the matter, Sky Lord?”“Nah, nothing big. Just two blind dumb*sses provoking my baby girl. Of course, I’m gonna teach them a lesson!” he answered smugly.Seeing
Just as everyone was expecting Zayn to wet his pants in fear, he shocked them by showing no trace of fear. Instead, he flashed a smile.An unexpected word left his lips, and uncanny silence filled the air around them. The crowd widened their eyes and stared at Zayn in palpable shock. No one had thought that Zayn would not only refuse to beg for mercy, but also insult Skyler to his face.If this was not an act of suicide, then what was? Skyler was the leader of a gang—he had wealth, power, and manpower. Any businessman would know better than to raise his ire, but this sorry excuse of a son-in-law had the b*lls to call him a buffoon?!The muscles around Skyler’s lips twitched. His face was visibly turning red.Ruby almost fainted at the height of her fury. Was Zayn a straight-up moron? How could he have looked at the situation that they were in and thought it was a good idea to say something like that?! He had doomed them—the idiot had doomed them all to death!Ruby was beyond livid
Ruby did not waste another second launching into her next vitriol. “Zayn, you suicidal idiot! How could he think it’s alright for him to hit him?! Was his brain smooth? Or was he so blind that he had no idea what he was looking at! Well, isn’t this just dandy! He’s pissed someone off, and now there’s no way we can recover out of it. We’re doomed! We’re dead! The entire Carter family is gonna be dragged through hell because of a single person’s dumb decision!”“Can you just stop it already, Mom? No matter how useless Zayn is supposed to be, he’s still your son-in-law. You shouldn’t disparage him like that, you know?” Faye replied, frowning.“Son-in-law? Son-in-law, my as*! He has always been just a glorified slave to the family! Also, the two of you never consummated your marriage anyway. You two are only married on paper! How does that make him my ‘son-in-law’?” Ruby retorted.Faye opened her mouth to defend him—only to realize she could not. Ruby was right. Faye had never consummat
“Hell no!” Skyler cried, swinging his hands wildly in an attempt to dismiss his claims. “Come on, brother! I was only joking around! Heh-heh… Ha-ha-ha..?”The way he cracked his jaw wide for a forced fit of laughter somehow looked even worse than if he just broke down and cried. After all, when had Skyler ever been so humiliated before? The looks the crowd was giving him right now peeved him. It summoned a spring of rancor in his head.Today was the day that he finally knew how it felt to mess with the wrong guy.Either way, a wise man would know when to retreat—to Skyler, this was the time. He would pretend to relent this time around, but once he was safe, he would find another chance to return Zayn this brutal humiliation!Zayn could tell exactly what was going on in his head, but he would not deign himself to the mindset of a scum of society and give a damn about what Skyler thought. “Get out of my sight,” he said brusquely. “And don’t ever let me see your face again. Or else… I
Even when they were on their way home, Ruby’s grating billingsgate never once stopped. She kept whining about how much trouble he had gotten themselves in, or why Zayn should have just let the thugs rearrange his face, or how irritating it was that Zayn chose to showboat his skills ‘just because it looked cool’, and now he had offended Skyler Moore and everything was going down to the drain.Her philippic against Zayn never once ceased. In fact, she kept arguing that Zayn should go back and apologized to Skyler right now. Regardless of his methods, Zayn was not supposed to drag the Carters into this feud.Zayn had gotten so chaffed by her endless vitriol that he finally snapped, “Mom, seriously—can you just shut up already? I’ve said I won’t drag the family into this, for crying out loud! What’s the point of your drivels if nothing of that sorts was gonna happen anyway?”Unfortunately, his retaliation only served to enrage her. “Oh, so this is what happened! You useless piece of tra
Four years ago, before the Larsons manufactured a calumny that ended up exiling him, Zayn used to be a well-known figure among the upper crusts of society. Only the most capable talents and minds could ever be privileged to be of Zayn’s acquaintance; one did not simply know him just because he was a pretty boy with some money to spare.“From what I heard, this William Brown fella wants you—and you specifically—to make coffee for him before signing that contract. Do you know him, Fifi?” Waine asked.Zayn’s ears perked up, his eyes darting towards Faye. “I thought Howard was the man behind this contract. Why would William want to ‘have a drink’ with Faye instead?” he asked, frowning.Ruby caught on to the suspicious undertone hidden behind the request. “Gotta admit, he’s right. Fifi, why should you need to make coffee for William? I hope this isn’t one of Howard’s many schemes again!”Faye shook her head. “Mom, you’re overthinking again. I’m one of the company's most valuable assets
Half an hour later, the pair reached a villa instead of an office, which prompted Faye to frown. “I thought we were supposed to discuss the terms of a contract. Why are we here instead?”Howard parked his car while answering, “The contract’s already finalized. The only thing that’s missing is his signature; we get that, and the contract is in effect. Mr. Brown’s here, so we have him sign it here. What’s so weird about any of this?”“Why would Mr. Brown choose to sign it here? If it’s an important, official business, shouldn’t he do it in his office?”“How should I know? This is Mr. Brown’s decision, not mine. He’s a guy who’s worth more than 150 million dollars—he can do whatever he likes and a plebeian like me would never understand why,” Howard replied before suddenly dropping his voice to a whisper as though he just remembered something, “By the way, once you’re in there, do not ever call him by his name. You can only ever refer to him as Mr. Brown, you got that?”Faye stayed qu