Chapter 4

Watching the motorcade disappear, Julia and Sophia finally let out a long breath.

Julia waved and called out, "Leo, come on. Get in the car."

Sophia added, "You helped me get rid of Liam—consider that a favor I owe you. I don't like owing people. I'll take you back to the city."

Leo offered no argument. He simply turned and slid into the backseat.

As Julia looked at the nephew she had watched grow up—the one she had always adored—she suddenly felt a strange sense of distance, as if she were seeing a stranger.

"Aunt Julia, what's wrong?" Leo asked with a soft smile.

She shook her head. "It's been five years. I knew you'd change, but I never imagined you'd change this much. Leo… what was that back there?"

He smiled faintly. "I met a man inside. A master. He taught me things. The old man you saw was my senior brother. My master called him six months ago and told him to be here today."

"A master? In prison?" Sophia said with open disdain. "What kind of upstanding citizen ends up in a place like that? What could he possibly teach you?"

Leo replied evenly, "He taught me how to stay alive in a world where the rules are written in blood. 'Good' and 'bad' are perspectives, Sophia. The law isn't divine, and prison walls don't define a man's soul. Only the willfully blind believe otherwise."

Sophia's cheeks flushed, but the retort died on her tongue. For once, she had no cutting reply.

Julia reached over, her trembling fingers brushing his forehead. "Oh, Leo… these five years… you must've suffered terribly."

He took her hand. "The Kirk family will answer for every second of it."

Five years ago, Leo was the golden second heir of Kingston's Sterling Group—charming, respected, never without an entourage.

At his first love Scarlett Kirk's family birthday party, he'd gotten drunk—a rare lapse for a man with his tolerance. He'd woken in a guest bedroom, Scarlett naked and weeping beside him, the sheets marred with spots of blood.

Even at that point, the situation could have been easily resolved. They were dating; they could have gotten engaged or married. Even if they didn't, the Sterling family could have simply compensated them.

But Scarlett started crying hysterically, drawing a crowd. Someone even took photos. She sobbed to everyone that Leo had forced her, showing them her supposed injuries.

Under the Kirk family's insistence and the pressure of public opinion, Leo was sentenced to five years.

A crime like that should've put him in Kingston's Raden Penitentiary at most. Instead, he was sent to the infamous Alcatan Penitentiary of Sanctum State—the place that evoked a primal shudder in every criminal in the country. A place of pure, unregulated hierarchy, where the worst of the worst were caged together. No visitation rights. No mercy.

No one knew how he survived the first year.

Inside, your crime was your rank. A convict of Leo's charge was at the very bottom. He was less than human. A target.

For nearly a year, the self-appointed six "Lords" of Alcatan and their followers broke his bones, beat him until his skin was a continuous tapestry of bruises. He slept on cold concrete, unable to even climb onto the bunk that was technically his.

He would have died there if not for the blind old man in Cell Six.

Perhaps it was Leo's sheer, dogged refusal to die that caught the old blind man's attention. Whatever the reason, he took Leo in. Taught him. Initiated him into a world Leo never knew existed—the disciplined, brutal path of internal cultivation.

Over the next four years, Leo didn't just survive. He ascended. He hunted down every man who had ever laid a hand on him. Of the six original "Lords" of Alcatan, he killed four.

Some inmates, long tortured by the six "Lords" of Alcatan, stepped forward to take the blame for him. A few were already death-row convicts and didn't care about additional charges. If anything, they thanked him for avenging them.

Half a year ago, the old blind man had declared his time was up. His cultivation was complete. During a yard period, under a suddenly roiling, thunderous sky, a single, precise bolt of lightning struck him dead where he stood.

Only Leo knew the truth. It wasn't death. It was ascension. A shedding of the mortal coil.

All the old man left for his final disciple was the padparadscha sapphire signet ring… and one final, gravely serious warning:

"Boy, in cultivation, nothing is more dangerous than untamed masculine energy. Your talent is your greatest strength and your fatal flaw. You must find a woman of a rare constitution to balance your inner fire. If you cannot find one… then find many. Let quantity compensate. Otherwise, the fire will consume your mind, and you will become a beast."

Leo shook off the memories. There was no point dwelling on the past. Now that he was out, he needed to focus on reclaiming everything the Sterling family had lost.

He turned to Julia. "Aunt Julia, tell me—how did my mother and my brother really die? Evelyn didn't want me losing control inside, so she never told me the truth."

Julia drew in a painful breath. Though she didn't want to relive the nightmare, she forced herself to speak.

"The second year you were in prison, Bryan Kirk—who was the group's legal consultant back then—brought out secretly recorded evidence and sued your brother Ralph. He was charged with all kinds of crimes.

"During the arrest, Ralph panicked and ran. A car hit him. He survived for three months in the hospital… but in the end… he didn't make it.

"Your mother… she couldn't take the blow. Her mind broke. When no one was watching, she jumped off the company's rooftop."

"When your sister Jade and I went to the police station to deregister their household records, we were kidnapped under the bridge by a group of unidentified men. They tried to assault us. We jumped into the river to escape. I was rescued… but Jade… to this day, she still hasn't…"

Covering her face, Julia sobbed uncontrollably.

Leo's expression darkened. He gently pulled her into his arms.

The faint fragrance of her body seemed to unsettle him. He closed his eyes, forcing down the restless heat rising within.

"Leo, I'm sorry…" Julia cried against his chest, feeling as if she had finally found a solid place to lean on. "I was useless. I couldn't protect our family's legacy.

"The Kirk family used every dirty trick they could. They forced me to sell all of Sterling Group's shares for next to nothing. Even the villa on Beryl Street—they took it too. All that's left is the old house on Tourmaline Bay."

Leo wiped away her tears with his fingertips. "Don't worry, Aunt Julia. Whatever the Kirk family stole from us, I'll make them return—with interest."

Sophia snorted. "Easy to say. The Kirk family has roots, money, connections. You just walked out of a cell with nothing but a fancy ring and a story. You need capital. You need a plan. Come back when you have a few million in the bank—then maybe you'll have the right to challenge them."

A wave of icy energy seemed to radiate from Leo, dropping the temperature in the car several degrees.

"You'll find out soon enough," he said icily, "whether I only have words—or the power to turn those words into their ruin."