Chapter 22 - The Traitor of the Same Blood
Carter sprinted aggressively through the expansive, glass-walled corridors of the executive floor, his tailored suit jacket flying open, his breathing heavy and rapid after receiving the terrifying, blaring emergency alert from the internal security mainframe. He had just concluded a grueling, incredibly late strategic session with the board of directors when every single light in the towering Millard skyscraper violently flickered and died, instantly replaced by the sickening, blood-red glow of the emergency backup generators. The suffocating, terrifying darkness had once again aggressively invaded the beautiful corporate empire he had painstakingly reclaimed with absolute morality and exhausting, agonizing patience.
When Carter violently kicked open the heavy oak doors to Dylan’s Vice President of Philanthropy office, an absolutely horrifying, deeply cinematic tableau was illuminated by the flashing red emergency lights. His newly reformed brother was forcefully pinned to his knees on the polished hardwood floor, a suppressed, high-caliber pistol pressed aggressively against his sweating temple. The person ruthlessly holding the weapon was none other than Margaret Lin—the highly respected Chairwoman of the Board who had previously, publicly championed Carter's incredible crusade to overthrow Ray Millard. She stood there with absolutely terrifying, unnatural composure, her designer glasses eerily reflecting the violent red strobes of the alarm system.
"Margaret?" Carter froze completely in the shattered doorway, his dark eyes widening in absolute, profound disbelief as he stared at the trusted executive. "What the hell are you doing?"
"I am simply conducting the true family business, Carter," Margaret replied, her voice incredibly smooth but possessing the lethal, razor-sharp edge of a seasoned syndicate assassin. "Did you honestly believe that an immigrant woman could effortlessly ascend to the absolute pinnacle of a billion-dollar Southern corporation without the massive, violent backing of a global shadow syndicate? Ray Millard was an incredibly arrogant, deeply pathetic puppet. Arthur Thorne was a remarkably crude, unrefined money launderer. But I... I am the unblinking, absolute Eye of the Family within this massive enterprise."
Dylan trembled violently on his knees, looking up at Carter with deeply terrified, tear-filled eyes. "She... she just showed me the classified medical documents, Carter. Do not trust a single word she says!"
Margaret sneered aggressively, violently tossing a thick, heavily sealed medical dossier onto the glass floor. The heavy manila folder slid rapidly across the smooth surface, stopping precisely at the tips of Carter’s leather shoes. "Go ahead and read the absolute truth to your beloved brother, Dylan. Tell him the exact reason why Ray Millard spent thirty years fiercely despising Carter, yet constantly protected and enabled you, even though you were an incredibly useless, arrogant fool your entire life."
Carter slowly reached down, never taking his eyes off the suppressed weapon, and carefully opened the heavy dossier. The bold, undeniable genetic sequencing data printed on the official laboratory documents violently assaulted his eyes, completely and utterly destroying the foundational reality of his entire family history. Dylan was absolutely not Ray Millard’s biological son. Dylan was the deeply hidden, fiercely protected offspring of the supreme boss of the European mafia syndicate, secretly given to Eleanor Millard decades ago to be raised as a highly valuable collateral asset, ensuring absolute compliance for their massive money-laundering operations.
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"You did not successfully overthrow Ray Millard in the noble name of justice, Carter," Margaret whispered lethally, her finger slowly, deliberately tightening on the cold steel trigger. "You simply acted as a highly convenient, incredibly naive pawn to completely sanitize the corporation, perfectly paving the golden road for the true, legitimate heir of this criminal empire to finally ascend the throne. And now, Dylan must make his ultimate choice: finally become the undisputed King of the global underworld, or die right now as a pathetic, useless Millard."
Dylan slowly lifted his head, the profound, agonizing terror on his face suddenly vanishing, violently replaced by a deeply chilling, incredibly arrogant smirk that looked horrifyingly identical to Ray Millard's darkest expressions. He stared directly into Carter's deeply shocked eyes, aggressively swatted Margaret's suppressed barrel away from his temple, and easily snatched the weapon from her surprisingly yielding grip. "I am truly sorry, Carter," Dylan whispered, aiming the lethal weapon directly at his brother's chest. "But blood is fundamentally thicker than water."
