Chapter 1

Blood trickled down Howard's cheek and dripped onto his expensive bespoke suit.

Everyone stared at us in shock. The reporters were the first to react, and camera flashes went off one after another.

Samantha finally snapped out of it and shoved me violently aside, shielding Howard behind her.

"Glenn Hatfield, have you lost your mind? Do you have any idea what you just tore up?"

I looked at her coldly and dropped the pen, its nib now stained with blood, onto the floor. It made a sharp clattering sound.

"Of course, I know." I swept my gaze around the room, my eyes finally settling on the faces of the board members and shareholders, who were caught between shock and suspicion.

They were the foundation of Hatfield Group and also the force I needed to win over today.

"What I tore up was an indentured contract, one that tried to 'gift' everything my mother left me to Samantha."

From the flurry of paper shreds, I picked up the largest fragment and held it high. The word "gift" was crystal clear under the lights.

"I barely had time to go through my mother's inheritance, and you already want me to hand it over on a silver platter? Samantha, Howard, you're even more shameless than I thought."

A collective uproar erupted from the crowd.

How did the inheritance document turn into a gift agreement?

Samantha's face went deathly pale. She hadn't expected that I'd be able to uncover the contract she'd buried under layers of deception.

But Howard's reaction was lightning fast.

I had underestimated him, a man who had clawed his way up from the bottom and would stop at nothing to latch onto a wealthy family.

His eyes instantly reddened. Biting down on the agony, he still stood tall, his back straight as ever. He didn't turn his blood-streaked face toward me but toward the countless dark, gaping media lenses below the stage.

In a voice thick with suppressed hurt and shock, he said, "Glenn, I know you've always looked down on my background and felt I wasn't good enough for Samantha, but how can you slander us like this?"

At this point, he cast me a pained look. Then, he pressed his hand against his wound and drew a deep breath, as if struggling to contain his emotions.

"We were only trying to help you. Mom left the company to you, and we were afraid you'd be overwhelmed, so we wanted to share some of the burden. What did we do that was so wrong?"

Samantha immediately caught on. She shielded him tightly behind her and cast me a pained, conflicted look. Seizing the opportunity, she put on the act of a heartbroken elder sister in front of the media.

"We were left with no choice but to resort to this. Yes, our mother left everything to Glenn, but his mental state has long been highly unstable. And he has serious violent outbursts, as I'm sure everyone here just saw for themselves.

"How can a man like that run such a conglomerate? Normally, we wouldn't air our family's dirty laundry in public, but we simply couldn't bring ourselves to disregard the interests of all our shareholders."