A Crown of Strength

---- Chapter 2 The next morning, | boarded a ferry heading to the open sea. At my feet, a trembling man was bound tightly. "Lorraine, | was wrong! Please spare me, | beg you!" | sneered and kicked him hard in the stomach. "Kory, when my mother and | begged you like this, what did you do? Didn't you still throw us into the sea for those shares?" | recalled that day. The seawater was freezing, and my mother held me tightly, warming me with her body. It was the first time | ever saw her cry. Her once-youthful face turned haggard as she wept. "Lorraine, I've dragged you into this.

If you survive, | only hope you stay away from conflict and live safely and healthily with someone you love..." Her words now pierced my heart like a knife. | thought of Xander's cold, almost icy gaze, and | gave a bitter laugh. "Mother, you were wrong. A man's love isn't reliable. Only power lasts forever." The man | once loved, the one | thought was my salvation, used me as bait to lure his enemies and then detonated the bomb without hesitation. ---- He even cursed why | didn't die with them when | survived. If that was how it was, | would take back everything that belonged to me.

| bent down, grabbed Kory Curtis's hair, and forced him to look up at me. "I regret not killing you sooner." He no longer had the arrogant air he once carried. His voice was hoarse, tears streaming from his eyes. "Lorraine, I'm your uncle, your only family in this world! You can't do this tome!" | scoffed and slammed his head onto the deck. "So you remember you're my uncle." Ignoring his wails, | ordered my men to throw him into the open sea. Just before he went under, Kory cursed at me. "Lorraine, you think killing me will make the company yours?

Keep dreaming!" Under his shocked gaze, | held up the board's appointment letter in front of him. "Die in peace. The company is mine." | laughed wildly. A few young bodyguards trembled, their eyes showing a mix of fear and awe. Satisfied, | clapped my hands and had Kory dragged by the ferry into the deep sea. The black water was oppressive, and blood seeped from the ---- wounds where the ropes cut into him. As expected, he would soon become a shark's feast. Sure enough, not long after the ferry moved away, | heard Kory's gut-wrenching screams. To me, they were nothing short of music.

| scanned my men and said in a low voice. "I don't tolerate betrayal. | hope you understand." | ran my fingers over a photo of Xander. "You're next..."