Asher was livid. "How am I out of line? I am trying to save the Langston Group!"

"You're trying to save the company, sure, but you're really just trying to save your own ego! Lemira is incredibly gifted, and we are the ones who drove her away and broke her heart. The fact that she is even giving us a chance to help her now is a gift. How can you sit there and demand she pay us for it? Do you have no shame?"

Asher slumped back into his seat, visibly humiliated. "A gift? Giving us a chance to perform for her? We don't owe her anything."

Caspian shot back aggressively, "We absolutely owe her everything."

Alaric nodded firmly in agreement. "Caspian is right. We owe Lemira."

But Asher simply couldn't let it go. His authority as the eldest brother had been directly challenged, and it stung. "But you can't expect Rowan to just work a miracle for free!"

Rowan finally broke his silence, his voice chillingly calm. "Caspian is right. Why would I extort my own sister for saving a life?"

Lemira stood up, keeping her eyes fixed on Rowan. "Business is business. You're treating Amanda Everhart, so if you have a price, name it. The Everhart family has no intention of being indebted to the Langstons."

Lucian looked up anxiously. "Where are you going?"

"I'm going upstairs to rest."

Lemira simply couldn't stomach being in the same room as them for another second.

Once Lemira disappeared up the stairs, Caspian turned a furious glare on Asher. "Are you genuinely completely blind to your own mistakes?"

Asher let out a defensive scoff. "I know we put Lemira through hell in the past, but we didn't know the truth! We were manipulated too! We're all victims here!"

Caspian's voice dripped with sarcasm. "Then leave Rowan out of your manipulative schemes. He hasn't asked Lemira for a single damn thing. Stop dragging him down to your level."

Seeing the two brothers about to come to blows, Rowan cut in sharply. "Enough." Asher looked at Rowan, seeking validation. "Am I really the bad guy here?"

Rowan's hands slowly curled into tight fists. "Asher, we made horrific mistakes. We finally have a sliver of a chance to make amends, and you are actively trying to destroy it. Why can't you just cherish this opportunity?"

"How am I not cherishing it? The rest of you are pathetic, walking on eggshells around her while she completely dismisses you! Does she even appreciate it?"

Asher crossed his arms stubbornly. "I refuse to grovel at the feet of someone who looks at me like trash."

Rowan's face was completely

devoid of emotion. "But we earned that look. You're losing your mind just because she's giving you the cold shoulder Imagine if you had to endure what she went through. He would you handle it?"

.net

Asher threw his hands up in defeat. "Fine! I'll shut up! Everything is always my fault!"

Rowan smoothed out his

expression, handle the funding

issue. The PZ Group has done business with The Aether Research Facility in the past. I'll reach out to their executives and see if I can convince them to drop the lawsuit and resume the capital injection."

Hearing that, Asher's rigid posture finally relaxed.

Rowan let out a hollow, bitter laugh. "You all really need to value this chance to fix things. Because living with the knowledge that you can never, ever make it right... that is a fate worse than death."

It was a suffocating agony he refused to ever experience again.

Upstairs.

As Lemira approached her old bedroom, she noticed Evelina standing diagonally across the hall. The heavily pregnant woman was glaring at her with venomous eyes.

Evelina let out a shrill sneer. "Did you tell them to lock me up in this room? To make sure I couldn't go anywhere?"

Lemira's tone was ice-cold. "You get

to live in a luxury estate with a

dedicated staff waiting on you hand

and foot

(or more mercy"

that is than you deserve. Do you hönestly

think you'll have a glamorous life waiting for you once you're finally kicked out of this house?

"If it weren't for me, you never would have gotten the evidence to clear your name!"

Evelina's face twisted in desperate fury. "My father already agreed to take the fall! I am not going anywhere until this baby is born! Tell them to stop treating me like a prisoner!"

"Take it up with them. It has nothing to do with me."

Refusing to waste another breath on Evelina, Lemira turned and reached for her door handle, intending to lock herself inside.

But without warning, Evelina lunged forward, violently grabbing the edge of the

heavy door. "Lemira, you are not walking away until we settle this!"

Lemira yanked the door inward to shut it, ignoring the raving woman.

Thrown off balance by the sudden movement, Evelina slipped, her feet scrambling uselessly against the hardwood before she collapsed heavily to the floor, a piercing scream of agony tearing from her throat.