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By the side of a hospital bed surrounded by dozens of high-tech medical machines, a dark-haired man with an unkempt, scraggly black beard clutched the palm of his comatose wife like a drowning man on his last straw.
“Don’t worry, Allie, don’t worry. You have to believe in me, everything others told you was a lie, you know? Just wake up, and I promise to prove it to you.”
The secretary standing by the door clenched his fists tightly as he listened to the words of his clearly deranged boss, just as he had hundreds of times before.
“Our son’s not dead, you know? In fact, just because some people tried to kill him doesn’t mean anything. He’ll be perfectly fine after some time, you know? He’s my son, after all.” The man chuckled. “What treatment can’t I afford in this world, Allie? Tell me, how can my son die? You’re just not waking up because you’re upset with me, eh?”
The man beside the door grit his teeth before finally making up his mind. “Sir!”
“… Have you lost your mind? Can’t you see I’m talking to my wife? No matter who wants to talk to me right now, they can—”
The secretary rushed forward before doing something he never thought he would have the guts to do — slap his boss across the face.
The smacking sound echoed through the room even louder than the man’s heartbeats did in his ears, but since he’d already made up his mind, the secretary didn’t let any of it distract him.
“Sir, you can’t keep doing this anymore!”
Sanders slowly turned his head back to stare at the secretary, his gaze icy cold. “… What do you mean by this? You better speak carefully before I tear your tongue out.”
The man shivered in fear, but still refused to back down. “Sir… w-we have to escape. I-If we continue staying here anymore, t-they will definitely catch us.”
Naturally, the only reason he was able to make such a bold move was because the man realized his boat had long since been tied to that of his boss, and once it sank, no one would be able to save him or his family.
Unfortunately, however, his move was still a bit too late, as the moment his boss seemed to be on the verge of coming back to his senses, the door to the hospital room slammed open, and something dark and heavy crashed into the machines.
Glass and sparks exploded from the collision under their stunned eyes, and it was only when he felt a drop of something wet and sticky sliding down his palm that Sanders woke up from his daze.
Blood… there was blood!
“Allie, No! Allie!”
Sanders didn’t even pay attention to the fact that his secretary had run towards the window in a panic as he tried to gingerly pluck out the pieces of shattered glass that were now lodged into his wife’s skin, but his actions were rudely interrupted by someone clutching the back of his head and ruthlessly slamming his face down on the floor.
“Finally got you, you dog!”
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“Looks like some old friends of our dear ‘father’ got here before us.”
Kicking away some of the bloodied debris, Jasper gave his sister a pat on the back before going forward to check the breath of the dead man by the window. “This guy’s still barely alive. Oh well… Emilia did say we could keep him if possible, so it’s not the end of the world if we can’t.”
As he turned to stare at her expression, however, he instantly realized that something wasn’t right.
“What’s wrong? Don’t tell me you’re feeling some familial love awaken now? After all that he’s done to us…?!”
Jasper swore that if his sister was to go soft on that bastard now, he would definitely remind her of all the suffering and torture they’d been through regardless of how much he hated recalling it himself.
𝑜𝓋𝗅xt.𝗇𝓔t
Ginny sighed. “It’s not that… I was just thinking… they’re really something else, aren’t they?”
Her brother couldn’t help but frown. “… What do you mean? I don’t understand.”
Patting him on his back in a way that almost mimicked his actions from before, she chuckled. “Why, while we were still busy consolidating power and messing around, someone from Emilia’s side seemed to have snuck a bug right into our dear father’s beloved wife.”
“You mean…?!”
“That’s right. Now they know exactly where the remaining higher-ups of our father’s faction are hiding.”
Of course, with how obsessed the man was with her, he would never allow anyone but himself to ‘check’ his woman under normal circumstances… except for the doctors and nurses.
As the best hospital in the country was the only place where he would take his comatose wife, the location of the man was obviously no secret, but getting rid of him now actually served little purpose for Ginny and Jasper.
The ‘loyalists’ on their father’s side had already long since decided to support the two of them after they saw that the man had lost his mind, and what remained of the ‘resistance’ they had towards complete control of the Gray Wolfe Corporation now was just the ‘rebels’, or their father’s ex-comrades.
The man was no longer involved in their struggle for power ever since he’d lost his mind, and killing him might just turn away many who had previously chosen to support Ginny and Jasper. But for the ‘rebels’, the situation was already desperate.
From their perspective, it was only a matter of time before Ginny and Jasper killed their ‘father’ and really got full control of the Gray Wolfe Corporation, and once they did, wouldn’t any ‘rebels’ be just fish on the chopping block?
As their father’s old partners, they were naturally aware of how much weight his words could carry when used right. Only by using his political weight correctly could they see any hope of maneuvering out of this tumultuous situation… and so they took the bait.
It was one thing to be unable to find where these rats were hiding on their own, but now that they already had a clear location, Jasper and Ginny felt pumped up like never before.
In a situation where the stability of the whole country was in question, and they still needed the Gray Wolfe under their thumb to support Emilia, there was no way they could afford to make any mistakes.
“What are we waiting for then?! Let’s go!”
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