Back to Claim What’s Mine

Chapter 005

The atmosphere in the Lynn family residence shifted from confusion to a suffocating, palpable shock. Every pair of eyes in the room, wide with disbelief, locked onto Julian Reed.

Caroline Lynn’s face drained of all color. She raised a trembling hand to cover her mouth, her voice barely a whisper, cracking under the weight of betrayal. “Julian… was it really you?”

With the collective gaze of the family bearing down on him like a physical weight, Julian Reed’s complexion oscillated violently between a flush of shame and the pallor of fear. Panic flared in his eyes, but his survival instinct kicked in. He forced a stiff, unnatural smile onto his face, spreading his hands in a gesture of innocence.

“How could it possibly be me?” Julian stammered, his voice rising in pitch. “I’m Caroline’s boyfriend! Arthur Lynn is my future father-in-law. What possible reason would I have to harm him? It doesn’t make any sense!”

The family hesitated. His logic, though desperate, held a grain of truth. Why would he sabotage his own ticket to wealth? Their gaze drifted back to Marcus Sterling, who was currently dragging himself off the floor, his face a mask of blood and bruises.

Marcus wiped a streak of crimson from his chin. He knew that to survive the wrath of Conrad Stone, he had to offer up a sacrifice. He had no choice but to throw Julian to the wolves.

“It was… him,” Marcus wheezed, pointing a shaking finger at Julian. “He told me to do it. He made Arthur Lynn drink the poison to stimulate a heart attack, and then… he stole the cardiac medication. It was a calculated plan to ensure the old man would die without recourse.”

Whoosh.

The revelation sucked the air out of the room. A collective gasp rippled through the gathered relatives.

The members of The Lynn Family felt as though they had been struck by a sledgehammer. Caroline Lynn stood frozen, her eyes glazing over as her mind struggled to process the enormity of the deception. The man she thought she loved was a murderer.

“No… tell me it isn’t true,” she murmured, her voice hollow.

The shock was brief, quickly replaced by a rising tide of fury. The initial confusion curdled into hatred. The family members, faces dark with rage, began to close in on Julian.

“Julian! We trusted you!” one of the cousins shouted. “And this is how you repay us? You traitor!”

“Why would you do this?” Martha Pierce screamed, her composure shattering. “What did our family ever do to you to deserve this?”

Conrad Stone stood silently to the side, his expression unreadable, though a glint of cold, lethal intent flashed in his eyes as he looked at Julian.

“Screw your mother!” Julian screamed at Marcus, realizing his cover was blown. “You sold me out!”

But the bravado evaporated instantly as the Lynn men rolled up their sleeves. Julian’s knees knocked together.

“No, wait! Listen to me! It wasn’t me… the mastermind is him!” Julian pointed frantically at Marcus, then at the family, retreating backward. “It wasn’t me! Help! Save me!”

Panic overtook him. Julian spun around and bolted toward the open front door, scrambling like a desperate animal.

“Stop him! Don’t let him run!”

The men of the Lynn family shouted, preparing to give chase, but they were too slow. Julian was already at the threshold.

Conrad Stone, however, did not move a muscle in his legs. With a flick of his wrist, a motion so fast it blurred in the air, a silver needle—slender as a hair but deadly as a bullet—shot from his fingers.

It whistled through the air and buried itself completely into the back of Julian’s skull.

Julian had just cleared the main gate of the estate when his body went rigid. Momentum carried him a few more steps before his knees buckled, and he collapsed onto the pavement like a sack of wet sand. He didn’t twitch.

“This…”

The room fell into a deathly silence. The suddenness of the violence stunned everyone into immobility.

“What… what happened to him?” Bella Pierce stuttered, clutching her pearl necklace. She nudged her husband. “Barney, go check on him. Quickly.”

Barney Lynn swallowed hard, his face pale. He walked tentatively toward the prone figure of Julian Reed. He knelt, placing two fingers under Julian’s nose to check for breath.

Barney recoiled as if burned, falling back onto his rear end.

“He… he’s dead.”

“What?!”

The scream tore through the room. The result was catastrophic. The Lynn family stood paralyzed, mouths agape, unable to form words. They looked from the body to the stoic man standing in the living room.

Conrad Stone, ignoring their horror, turned back to the sofa where Arthur Lynn lay. He continued his treatment, adjusting the remaining needles with surgical precision. He had removed the threat; the cleanup was not his concern.

“I… I told the truth. Can I go now?” Marcus Sterling asked, his voice trembling as he looked at Conrad’s broad back.

Had he known Conrad Stone was this terrifying—a man who killed with the flick of a wrist—he never would have acted so rashly.

Conrad didn’t answer.

Taking the silence for consent, Marcus began to creep toward the door, moving as softly as a ghost. He reached the threshold, his heart pounding with the hope of escape.

Just as he stepped out of the Lynn residence, a voice, lazy yet laced with absolute authority, drifted from behind him.

“Did I say you could leave?”

Marcus froze mid-step. His body went rigid. He turned slowly, his face a mask of despair. “What else do you want? I’m just a nobody. Even if you kill me, my sister won’t come to save me.”

“I know,” Conrad said calmly, not even turning his head. “Wait outside.”

Having witnessed Conrad’s lethal method, Marcus dared not disobey. He hung his head and walked out the door, waiting by the steps like a chastised dog.

Thud!

The moment Marcus stepped fully outside, a shadow moved. A swift chop to the back of his neck rendered him unconscious instantly.

Inside, Conrad focused entirely on the acupuncture. The atmosphere in the room, however, remained heavy and morose.

Barney Lynn, the second uncle, sat on the adjacent sofa, his face a portrait of misery. He shook his head repeatedly. “Great. Just great. Big brother isn’t waking up, and our promising son-in-law is dead. What are we going to do about the bidding this afternoon?”

“He’s right,” Howard Lynn, the eldest uncle, sighed heavily, despair clouding his eyes. “The bidding for the partnership with The Zenith Tower’s leading corporation, Regency Global, is today. Every enterprise in Haven City, big or small, will be there.”

“We were counting on Julian Reed to pull some strings for us,” Howard continued, putting his head in his hands. “Now that hope is gone.”

No one noticed the slight tremor in Conrad Stone’s hand when the words ‘Zenith Tower’ were spoken.

“It’s do or die,” Bella Pierce said, unable to sit still. “The bidding is our last hope. If we fail, even our subsidiary companies will be bankrupted by Isabella Sterling.”

“That’s true, but how can we compete?” Martha Pierce lamented, trying to comfort a sobbing Caroline while looking utterly defeated herself. “And the Sterling Family is watching us closely. Rumor has it Ascension Corp will be representing the Sterlings at the auction.”

Silence descended. The mention of Ascension Corp was the final nail in the coffin. That company had originally belonged to the Lynn family before it was stolen.

“It looks like the Lynn family is truly finished…”

“That’s not the worst part,” Howard Lynn suddenly shifted his tone, pointing an accusatory finger at Conrad. “We can survive bankruptcy. We can get jobs. But now we have a parasite in the house that we have to feed!”

Hearing this, Barney’s anger flared. He glared at Conrad, who was still administering treatment. “Stop acting! Do you really think you’re some kind of miracle doctor? Get away from him!”

“We never expected him to cure Arthur anyway,” Bella Pierce rolled her eyes. “If his medical skills were actually good, he wouldn’t be unemployed.”

“It’s almost done,” Conrad said quietly, not turning around.

The dismissal only made the family’s faces turn a deeper shade of purple.

“Ignore him. We aren’t feeding him,” Bella Pierce declared, nudging her sister. “Martha, don’t bother with him. Let him rot on the streets.”

“We never planned to support him anyway,” Martha scoffed.

Whoosh.

Just as Martha finished speaking, Conrad stood up abruptly. The sudden movement made everyone jump.

“What? Did I hurt your fragile ego?” Bella Pierce sneered, recovering her composure. “I’m right. You have hands and feet. Begging on the street is better than leeching off us.”

“Did I ever ask you to support me? It seems like you’ve been having a conversation with yourself,” Conrad said coldly. “I stood up because Dad is cured.”

“Keep acting,” Bella laughed, her voice dripping with sarcasm. “Caroline, go check if your father is awake.”

Caroline Lynn didn’t speak. She shot Conrad a look of pure ice before walking over to the unconscious Arthur Lynn.

“Well?” Bella asked.

Caroline shook her head. “He’s the same. Still out.”

Bella burst into laughter. “See? I told you. This guy doesn’t know the first thing about medicine. He’s just putting on a show.”

“You. Come with me.”

Caroline’s face suddenly hardened. She grabbed Conrad by the arm and dragged him toward the door.

Once they were in the courtyard, away from the others, Caroline released him, her voice trembling with rage. “How long are you going to keep up this charade? Do you have any idea how much of a clown you look like?”

Tears stained her cheeks, but her eyes were cold, devoid of the childhood warmth they once held. “Look at the state of our family. We don’t have the energy to deal with you. Just go. Leave. Don’t ever come back.”

It was a cruel dismissal. Caroline expected Conrad to be angry, to shout, to beg. Instead, his expression remained placid. A faint, sad smile touched the corners of his lips.

“Caroline. regarding everything I’ve done, I have a clear conscience.”

“That’s just what you tell yourself.”

“I can leave the Lynn family,” Conrad said softly. “After all, I owe the Lynn family nothing.”

He raised his hand, intending to wipe a tear from her cheek—a gesture of an older brother comforting a sister—but he stopped halfway and let his hand drop.

“In the future, choose your boyfriend more carefully,” he said, his voice sincere.

Caroline trembled, her defenses hardening. “That has nothing to do with you.”

Conrad nodded. Without another word, he turned and walked out of the main gate.

Waiting at the curb was a sleek, black Rolls-Royce. Conrad opened the door and slid into the backseat.

In the driver’s seat sat Phoenix, dressed in her signature black leather jacket. Her eyes, visible in the rearview mirror, were cold and dangerous. “Supreme Commander, they have no right to treat you like that. Should I go in and—”

“Enough.”

Conrad cut her off. He glanced at the unconscious Marcus Sterling slumped on the floor of the car, his gaze indifferent. “ is the investigation complete?”

“Yes, Supreme Commander,” Phoenix replied, her tone shifting to professional reverence as she eased the car into traffic.

“Celeste Lynn works at The Zenith Tower. She is the founder and CEO of the Regency Global cosmetics brand. Her household registration is in the capital.”

Phoenix paused for a split second.

“She also has a five-year-old daughter.”

Boom!

The words hit Conrad with the force of a physical blow. His entire body shook violently.