?Chapter 1524:


    Everything changed the day Amon abducted Ste, intending to force William into an impossible choice — rescue her or retain his position as heir to the Briggs family.


    Amon found no satisfaction in that moment. Staring at Ste bound to the chair, he recognized something disturbingly familiar, as though he were gazing at a reflection of his own trapped existence.


    rity descended upon him from that point forward.


    He recognized the necessity of living for himself rather than for his father’s ambitions. With Alonzo imprisoned, no one remained to verbally assault or physically abuse him — the time had arrived to construct his own future.


    So he fled that life entirely. He epted Nina’s calls, manufacturing the illusion of cooperation while systematically extracting intelligence about her schemes with Marc, then delivering every detail directly to William. Marc proved too ipetent, however — William required no borate tactics to dismantle him. This realization only strengthened Amon’s resolve to align himself with William. Risking his life for an inheritance he genuinely did not desire made absolutely no sense.


    “Amon, I recognized your cowardice from the moment of your birth — you have never deserved to be called my son. Time has proven me absolutely correct!” Stripped of all leverage, Alonzo could only resort to verbal attacks.


    Amon ended the call without hesitation, rose from his seat, and offered a shallow bow to the man who had once held the title of father. “This marks my final visit. You have ceased being my father.”


    With those words delivered, he walked out of the prison. Warm sunlight bathed him as he stepped outside, and he drew a long, slow breath into his lungs. Free from Alonzo’s relentless pressure and constant berating, he felt the sensation of an enormous weight lifting from his shoulders.


    Once settled back inside his vehicle, Amon studied the steering wheel for a moment, reached a decision, and redirected his route toward an entirely different destination.


    Inside the bar, he examined Marc seated across from him and said bluntly, “You remain exactly the same pathetic failure.”


    Marc had absorbed simr assessments from countless people recently, rendering him nearly immune to the insult. He lifted his gaze toward Amon and released a hollowugh. “What distinguishes you from me, exactly? You are just another failure who could not defeat William.”


    ??i???????е?? ??????????n g?????? о?? ??a??n????е???.??o??


    Theparison did not bother Amon in the slightest. “What has Nina shared with you? Are there aspects of your ns I am unaware of?” Since Nina’s departure overseas, hermunications with him had dwindled to almost nothing. If he intended to keep rying intelligence to William, Marc was his sole remaining source — he needed to extract whatever fragments of information the man still possessed. Questioning Nina directly risked triggering her suspicion.


    Marc copsed forward across the table. “Haven’t you two brilliant strategists been keeping in contact?” He saw no superiority in Amon and Ninapared to himself. If they genuinely possessed suchpetence, they would not have allowed his failure.


    Amon’s brow furrowed as he stared down at Marc’s thoroughly intoxicated form. “My patience wears thin. Understand this clearly — either Nina or I could obliterate your current studio with minimal effort.” Not just the studio; even destroying the previous Walsh Group would not be difficult. Despite his conflicts with William and his previous entanglement with Erebus, he remained, ultimately, a member of the Briggs family.


    A tremor ran through Marc’s frame as he hauled himself upright. “She revealed very little. Only that William’s emotional state would be extremely vtile during this period, and that I should exploit that instability to get Ste back.”


    Amon’s eyes narrowed. “What makes her so confident about William’s emotional instability?”


    Marc squinted hard, his vision splitting Amon into duplicate images. “What else could exin it? Drugging people remains that woman’s preferred method, doesn’t it?”


    Amon’s heart performed a violent lurch. Nina had arranged for someone to drug William? She was operating from overseas, and William kept no close associates connected to her. How had she managed it?


    A face materialized suddenly in his mind. He recalled Nina’s recent call instructing him to extract their operative embedded within the Briggs Group — that individual had been responsible for administering the drugs.


    Everything assembled itself into coherent logic. Nina’s flight overseas and her sudden withdrawal of that operative from the Briggs Group made perfect sense now. She feared that William’s dramatic deterioration would attract attention, potentially triggering an investigation that could trace directly back to her.


    Having reached this understanding, Amon saw no reason to remain. He rose to leave.


    The moment he turned away, however, Marc’s hand shot out and seized the hem of his shirt. “Amon, you share blood with William. Don’t you know his vulnerabilities? Doesn’t some weakness exist that could destroy him in a single decisive strike?”


    .


    .


    .