Hearing Asher's demand, Lemira carefully placed her floral tribute before stepping back.

The brothers followed suit, honoring their memory one by one.

Once the somber ritual concluded, the tension in the room instantly shifted as everyone gathered back around the sofas.

Asher's brow was deeply furrowed. "Lemira, you didn't answer my question. Standing in front of our parents, you cannot lie to us."

Rowan interjected smoothly, "Can you tell us exactly what happened back then?"

Lemira shot Asher a cold glance before speaking. "Everything you already know about the crash is accurate. It matches my recovered memories perfectly. But the person who pulled me from the wreckage, the boy who tried to go back into the flames to save Mom and Dad... it wasn't Evelina's father. It was Orion Everhart."

Dead silence fell over the sprawling living room.

She swept her gaze across her brothers, a bitter, mocking smile playing on her lips. "Hilarious, isn't it? You spent years telling me I owed my life to that man. But the savior you worshiped wasn't him. It was Orion."

The brothers exchanged looks of profound discomfort.

Asher cleared his throat, his tone defensive. "How were we supposed to know?"

Lucian rubbed the back of his neck. "Yeah... I never would have guessed it played out like that."

Rowan offered a faint, calculating smile. "It seems the Langston family owes Orion Everhart a massive debt of gratitude."

Caspian crossed his arms. "Well, we're saving his mother's life right now. That makes us even. Our family doesn't need to owe the Everharts anything anymore."

Lemira caught the subtle shift in Rowan's demeanor and pressed on. "As long as Amanda is fully cured, the Everhart Group will pull back the pressure they've been putting on the Langston Group."

Lucian smiled with obvious relief. "That's great news."

But Asher let out a harsh scoff. "The Langston Group is bleeding out right now, and Orion Everhart is directly responsible for that. You think just 'pulling back the pressure' is enough to fix the damage he caused?"

"Then what exactly do you want?"

Asher leaned forward, his eyes gleaming with ambition. "You know what our company desperately needs right now. If the Everhart family is willing to inject a massive investment into our portfolio, then we can call it even."

Lemira actually laughed out loud. "An investment?"

"Exactly. Isn't that the least they can do?"

Lemira looked at him with pure disdain. "If you ask me, The Langston Al Initiative is a bottomless money pit. Why should anyone waste millions of dollars bailing it out?"

"Lemira, what the hell is that supposed to mean?"

"It means exactly what I said. The techware is vastly inferior. Pouring capital into it is financial suicide."

Lemira had reviewed the technical specs for the Langston project previously. The architecture was an absolute joke.

Asher's face flushed with anger. "If you hadn't walked away, the project would have launched successfully by now!"

Lemira met his glare with a chilling, half-lidded stare. "Walked away? I didn't touch your precious project."

"You're a Langston! Why are you always siding with outsiders against your own blood?"

Lemira raised an eyebrow. "Are you implying I should have stayed and developed the tech for you?"

"Obviously!"

"Have you conveniently forgotten

how I was treated when I lived in this house? Even if I had engineered a flawless system, the second Evelina shed a single tear, you would have handed my patents directly to her. I would have bled myself dry for this family and received absolutely nothing in return."

Her voice grew sharper, edged with fury. "Furthermore, my intellectual property

belongs to me. I'll partner with whoever the hell I want."

Asher was trembling with rage. He

snapped his head toward Rowan. "Do you see this? You're bending

over backward to help her, asking for absolutely nothing in return And look at her! She has never once cared about the survival of this family!"

Lemira's expression instantly froze. She turned to Rowan. "What are your conditions?"

She refused to believe Rowan was doing all this purely out of the goodness of his heart. It was better to get the extortion out of the way now.

Rowan's face immediately contorted into a mask of deep hurt. "Lemmy, I swear to you, I don't want anything. I'm doing this because I want to help you."

Lemira's eyes remained guarded and cynical. "Nothing comes for free

in this world. Let's put a price on it

now so you don't accuse me of being an ungrateful parasite later. Even family needs clear boundaries."

Asher shouted, "So what if he asks for something in return? I thought you and Orion were so invincible! Yet here you are, crawling back to beg your brothers for help!"

Caspian abruptly stood up, his chair scraping violently against the floor. "That's enough! Asher, you're so far out of line it's disgusting!"