What shocked Maurice more was that he felt a surge of warmth in his veins when Edward forced his head to lower apologetically at Darius. He rolled his eyes before ultimately giving in, adopting a sincere and formal tone as he declared aloud, “Don’t worry, Mr. Reid. I can attest to everything Mr. Elliot, who I’m making my mentor now, has said. Alongside what he promised, I swear this under God’s witness—I’m pledging loyalty to you now. If I ever harm you or your family, the Lord is free to condemn me with eternal punishment.”The 15-year-old boy’s promise rang out clearly and with great strength.Darius gradually opened his eyes, turned his head, and shot a raised brow at Maurice. It shocked him to receive such an intense promise because he had never thought about training Maurice Anderson or other strangers to become the Reid family’s bodyguard. Thus, it took him aback to hear Maurice willingly wanting to become his bodyguard. “Not to mention, this kid is swearing his future away to

#No matter what happened during the rest of the drive, Felix kept his attention on driving the car ahead safely and swiftly.Like the former, Maurice was in equal distress throughout the drive. He sat in the backseat with both hands on his knees, gripping his jeans tightly while his gaze remained downcast. Only through doing that could Maurice hold back from asking the many questions in his mind. He even felt Edward’s gaze lingering on him several times, but he dared not raise his head to speak to the latter. Edward initially knitted his brows with concern at the boy, but after some time, Edward would turn away quickly and silently while his shoulders trembled. Moments would pass before he looked ahead again with reddened eyes.Of course, Maurice knew the reason behind that—Edward was not crying out of worry for Maurice. Instead, it was because he found Maurice hilarious.Maurice pursed his lips, not knowing what to do as he could not pinpoint why Edward was laughing. His doubts con

Maurice and Edward’s eyes locked on like magnets for the longest time. As Maurice was about to speak up, he suddenly heard a disdainful snort from the passenger seat ahead.Felix had remained silent the entire time but secretly thought, “Hah! That Edward is practically a dummy at this point. I doubt he’ll respond to Maurice.”Maurice’s heart almost fell out of his chest when he reached to touch Edward’s shoulder. As soon as he detected an abnormality with the latter, he retreated two steps away and withdrew his hand. “Y-You! W-What on earth are you? How did you possess Mr. Elliott? H-He was just sitting next to me a moment ago!” he muttered. His voice tremored so much that it took Edward a long while to understand what he was saying.As Edward thought about how to respond, new emotions and speculations arose in Maurice’s mind. When Edward finally composed himself, prepared an adequate response, and turned to look at the boy, he found the latter retreating while curling into a ball li

Edward’s tone did not fluctuate much. It felt like he was commenting on the weather on a bright, sunny day to his neighbors.On the other hand, Maurice stayed unmoving in the backseat and only raised his head, perplexity clouding his eyes. He did not understand what Edward was implying, so he looked around awkwardly and wanted to clarify with the latter. However, Edward did not allow the boy to ask any more questions. He opened the car door and took one step out before speaking in a gentler voice than before. “There’s no rush for you to learn anything, be it in formal classes for kids your age or other life aspects you should know. You don’t need to feel pressured into starting those things. What you currently need to do is connect with yourself and your environment instead of being detached.”He then exhaled lightly before strolling to the hotel’s front doors. When he entered, Erin was standing by the door, looking down to emphasize the annoyance on her face. Next to her was a gorg

Alicia noticed Erin’s actions but did not leave. Instead, she joined the latter in waiting by the door. However, that only lasted a few seconds before Erin could not help whipping her head in Alicia’s direction, annoyance flickering in her eyes. “I think you should improve your wits if you wish to stay in West Atlantics Int’l or serve by Mr. Reid’s side. For instance, you shouldn’t be standing here! Your continued presence beside me is getting on my nerves! Not only that, but you’ve also used plenty of my time and still insist on staying here even though you already got the answer you wanted!”Several guests, hotel staff, and security members stood in the lobby. When they heard Erin telling Alicia off, they collectively cast a confused look at the latter.Being the center of everyone’s attention made Alicia’s face turn as red as beets. It also dimmed the sparkle in her eyes as she took two steps back and bowed. “My sincerest apologies.” With that, she did not stick around; her feet

Darius’ eyes narrowed to slits just then. Although he did not know why Edward would behave so abnormally, his instinct told him to trust the latter.Edward sprinted forward into the room. Once he got there, he glared daggers at Kate and Felix. The two responded differently, with Kate’s features blanking while Felix’s darkened. Felix slowly held the spot behind his neck while abruptly craning his head from side to side. The crisp sound of bones cracking then reverberated around the space.It was so jarring that even Darius’ heart skipped a beat. What happened next shocked him even more; although it sounded like Felix’s neck was broken, Felix still managed to raise his head as if nothing had happened. Darius did not bother hiding his disappointment at that instant, hardening his gaze before everyone there.Felix noticed it almost instantly and frowned. “Among everyone I know, you’re quite the arrogant man—”“Stand guard at the door for now,” Darius interrupted, turning to face Edward

Not only did Darius continue to approach Felix, but the former’s icy sneer did not lessen one bit. At that point, the two had just begun confronting each other, but Felix felt he had already lost to Darius. Thus, Felix fell so deep in thought that anyone could have heard the gears grinding in his head. He gathered every last drop of his strength to slam the table with his hands.The noise thundered throughout the room so much so that it jolted Kate and Edward. It took the two a moment to gather themselves, but even after, fear continued to burn like wildfire in their eyes. Contrarily, Darius did not even bat an eyelash despite standing opposite Felix, where the noise was the loudest. That baffled Felix so much that all the color vanished from his face. Since he got into the driver’s seat earlier, he’d studied Darius’ every move, hoping to find Darius’ weakness. Sadly, he failed even until now, and it crumbled every inch of his confidence. He took a few seconds to ponder his next m

All eyes were on Darius, including those of Felix, who was still searching for an escape route. Just as Felix glanced at the former, his pupils constricted in fear. He then watched as Darius held the checkbook with both hands, each pulling in the opposite direction until a loud rip rang through the air. Felix paled like a ghost just then. His gaze trembled as shredded pieces of checks rained onto the floor. Even the sound of the checks ripping disintegrated his heart into a million pieces. That was only natural since that was a custom checkbook from the bank. Still, one should note it was not willingly given to him by the bank; he had paid a massive price, sacrificing much of his wealth to obtain this singular checkbook.Felix’s fists balled when he recalled all the trouble he went through to have the checkbook made. His bloodshot eyes stared straight at Darius, taking in the latter’s calm smile.“There’s no use glaring at me like that. The only outcome you’ll achieve in doing that

From the corner of his eye, Darius caught Felix sighing in relief at Erin’s arrival. He raised a brow and shared the same suspicions Edward had earlier; his grandfather would not have selected a fool like Felix to serve by his side. Yet, that was what had happened, and Darius had no clue why. His doubts only multiplied in his gut when he saw Erin and Felix’s slight but significant interaction.“There’s no questioning it—Erin is 100 percent loyal to me. If so, what’s the problem here? Why does she seem to know Felix?” Darius thought while tapping his knuckles against the table. Seconds passed, but he still could not figure things out, so he spoke calmly. “Erin, take out one of my checkbooks—the one where each check is worth ten thousand dollars.”Erin’s eyes grew larger with shock, thinking, “Mr. Reid has never asked me to prepare that much money throughout the time I’ve served him!”Nevertheless, her startled look soon vanished as she snapped to her senses, reached into her pocket,

“He told me that you needed help but there weren’t many people in Almiron City that you could trust. Moreover, the Reid family hasn’t looked into the people in Almiron City for many years, which means that there’s no way to prove their loyalties still remained. However, one of them underwent and passed the test, so he could definitely be trusted—I’m referring to Felix. The man told me that Felix would appear before you at 1.00 am tonight and give you the help you needed.” Erin stopped here and glanced at Darius, trying to discern his feelings about this. Then, she cleared her throat and continued, “I didn’t think anything was wrong with that, so I agreed to it. Then, he told me that nobody knew you here and that he wanted to see how alert you were, so he decided to approach you as a stranger first. He needed my help for this, which is why he came to me.”She looked at him again, cautiously this time, wanting to read the emotions in his eyes. To her dismay, Darius had shut his eyes.