Chapter 4

Every head whipped toward the entrance.

It was my disabled father.

He wheeled his chair forward with astonishing speed, moving as smoothly as if he were walking on flat ground. Rushing straight up to me, he kicked out with his foot, knocking me down.

I stared at his perfectly mobile leg, a cold realization settling in my mind.

"Who gave you permission to lay a hand on my son? Lucas is going to inherit this entire company! If he gets so much as a scratch, your worthless life won't be enough to pay for it!"

A hollow laugh escaped my lips, filled with pure bitterness.

My dear father. From beginning to end, his love was never meant for me.

In my past life, I couldn't accept losing everything to an impostor. I went out and got a DNA test, proving with absolute scientific certainty that I was their biological flesh and blood.

Yet even when faced with irrefutable proof, my father still sided with Lucas.

To clear the path for Lucas to inherit the entire fortune, he conspired with Jessica to tamper with my car.

On the day I went to visit my mother in the hospital, my brakes failed. I slammed head-on into a massive tractor-trailer.

After I died, the media blamed my driving, saying I had it coming.

When my mother learned of my death, her fragile condition worsened, and within three days, she breathed her last breath.

Lying on the floor, I pointed at Lucas, my voice shaking. "Dad, I am your biological son! I share your blood! The person who was supposed to take care of you when you're old is me, not him!"

My father stared at me as if I had told the funniest joke in the world, his whole body shaking with ridicule. "If you're suffering from delusions, I can refer you to a good psychiatrist. Don't go around calling every powerful man you meet your father."

He leaned forward, looking me dead in the eye, spitting out each word: "I have only two children. One is Jessica Sterling, and the other is Lucas Sterling. You don't even carry the Sterling name! Don't you dare daydream about worming your way into my family. You aren't even worthy of being a dog at our doorstep."

His words struck a chord with the crowd.

"Right! This is the Sterling family. Why would an outsider with a completely different last name inherit anything?"

Vice President Miller chimed in with venomous speculation: "He keeps claiming to be a Sterling, but his last name is Vance! Could it be that Mrs. Sterling was seeing someone else behind the Chairman's back?"

I could endure their insults against me, but I would never let anyone drag my mother's honor through the mud.

I grabbed Miller by his collar and yanked his heavy frame straight up off the ground. "Miller, back when you were delivering takeout in the freezing rain with a sick toddler strapped to your chest, my mother took pity on you and gave you a respectable, stable career! Is this how you repay her?"

Miller shoved my hands away, completely devoid of shame. "This company belongs to Chairman Sterling! The Chairman only gave Mrs. Sterling a few token shares because he loved her. Who knew she'd let her bleeding heart get the better of her and take in a parasite like you?"

My father slammed his hand onto his armrest. "You unfilial trash! Even if we didn't birth you, we raised you! And now you dare turn my company's gala into a circus? You insult our senior executives, and you slander the legitimacy of my own children!"

"Get down on your knees right now. Beg Jessica and Lucas for forgiveness! Otherwise, I'll make sure you understand the full weight of the Sterling family's power!"

I swallowed the bitter taste in my mouth, giving my father one last long, piercing look. "Even a beast doesn't devour its own young. Are you truly choosing a thief over your own blood?"

"You're the only thief here! Whoever strips this mad dog bare and tosses him onto the street gets a hundred-thousand-dollar cash bonus!"

As the guards brandished their batons, closing in on me from all sides, I swallowed the pain and yelled at the top of my lungs:

"My father was nothing but a penniless deadbeat who married into my mother's fortune! And I am the sole, legitimate heir of Apex Horizon!"

Having his decades-old secret exposed in broad daylight turned my father's eyes blood-red with hatred.

"Beat this lying dog to death! A million dollars to whoever finishes him!"

Just as the mob was about to tear me apart, a clear, commanding voice sliced through the hall from the grand entrance.

"Stop right there! The Sterling Group was never yours to command, outsider."