The Heiress's Comeback-Chapter 320: [ Volume 1] Chaper - Madman

The old man’s head snapped toward her, his brows furrowed. "What?"

She pointed at the monitor. "The camera in the east passage. It just flickered."

Rei quickly focused on the feed, zooming in on the dimly lit corridor. The camera flickered again, and this time, a faint shadow moved at the edge of the frame. It was brief—no more than a split second—but it was enough to make her stomach drop.

"There’s someone there," she said, her voice rising.

The old man leaned forward, his eyes narrowing. "Zoom in," he ordered, his tone sharp.

Rei obeyed, adjusting the feed until the shadowy corner filled the screen. Her heart pounded as the flicker stopped, leaving the passage bathed in a heavy, unnatural stillness. She scanned the area frantically, but the figure was gone.

Suddenly, the camera feed from another room—this time closer to Esme’s location—flickered. Rei’s fingers trembled as she switched to the new feed. On the monitor, the faint outline of a figure moved again, just barely out of sight.

Kai’s footsteps echoed faintly in the dimly lit corridor, their rhythm uneven, like a heartbeat struggling to steady itself. His once-pristine attire was a disheveled mess: his shirt untucked, sleeves wrinkled and pushed halfway up his arms, and his tie hanging loosely, as if he’d stopped caring halfway through. His dark hair, usually sleek and tidy, stuck out in disarray. But it was his eyes—those vacant, lifeless eyes—that told the story.

"Brother... brother..." 𝚏𝕣𝕖𝚎𝚠𝚎𝚋𝚗𝐨𝐯𝕖𝕝.𝕔𝐨𝕞

The whisper fell from his lips like a broken record, a haunting melody that carried through the silence. His voice, low and hollow, sounded as though it had been drained of all vitality.

In the surveillance room, the old man sat hunched in his chair, his face bathed in the pale glow of the monitors. His sharp, calculating eyes followed Kai’s aimless wandering. Though his expression remained stoic, the faintest hint of a smile played on his lips, a predator’s smirk as it watched its prey stumble blindly into its trap.

Beside him, Rei’s hands trembled slightly over the keyboard. She couldn’t shake the unease that had settled deep in her bones. As someone who had seen countless criminals and solved the most twisted of puzzles, she recognized the look in Kai’s eyes. This wasn’t the gaze of a man lost to grief. No, it was something far more dangerous.

The old man’s lips curled into a sneer as he watched Kai stumble down the corridor, his disheveled form a pitiful shadow of the man he once was. But the sneer wasn’t born of pity—no, it was laced with disgust and hatred. These brothers, these so-called mers, were nothing short of lunatics in his eyes. He’d known it since they were child, and the years had only solidified his belief.

"Madmen," he muttered under his breath, leaning back in his chair, his sharp eyes never leaving the screen.

Even as children, their bond had been unnatural—suffocatingly tight, like a noose tying them together. Born on the same day, they clung to each other with a devotion that made the old man’s stomach churn. Brothers were supposed to compete, to fight for dominance and carve their own paths. But not these fools.

What kind of brothers married the same woman? What kind of twisted bond made them share a wife without jealousy or discord? It was sickening, revolting, an affront to everything normal. They didn’t even care about property or inheritance. The old man’s hatred burned hotter as he recalled his countless attempts to sow division among them.

When they were young, he’d whispered lies into their ears, planting seeds of doubt. "Why does Ray get all the property in his name? Doesn’t that bother you? Shouldn’t you fight for your share?" He had expected greed to take root, for the brothers to turn on each other like rabid dogs.

But no.

Instead of fighting, those lunatics had banded together, drafting a power of attorney that ensured if anything happened to one of them, the rest would inherit everything. No arguments, no suspicion—just blind trust. It had been a slap in the face, a brutal reminder of the unbreakable unity he so desperately wanted to destroy.

The old man’s fingers drummed against the table, his sneer deepening as memories of their wife, that crazy woman, surfaced. Esme. Her name was venom on his tongue.

She was as insane as they were—maybe even worse. When she entered their lives, he’d thought she would be his weapon, the wedge to finally drive them apart. But she had done the unthinkable. Instead of tearing them down, she became the glue that bound them even tighter.

And now, Ray had gone and burned his ace, his foolproof plan, leaving him scrambling for another way to break them. Her madness had infected them completely, driving them to this point—deranged, reckless, and dangerous.

On the monitor, Kai stopped before the family portrait, his trembling hand reaching out to trace Ray’s face. His lips moved soundlessly, and tears streamed down his face in eerie silence. It was a pathetic sight, yet it filled the old man with a twisted sense of satisfaction.

Let them mourn, he thought bitterly. Let them suffer.

But deep down, he knew this wasn’t enough. Breaking their spirits would take more than grief; it would take precision, manipulation, and cruelty. They needed to fall apart piece by piece, their precious bond shattered beyond repair.

Kai’s shoulders sagged as he stepped back from the portrait, his tear-streaked face void of emotion. The old man’s eyes gleamed as he leaned forward, his mind already working, plotting.

He didn’t just want them broken—he wanted them destroyed. And this time, he would make sure they couldn’t piece themselves back together.

Kai’s steps faltered. He stopped abruptly in the hallway, his head tilting slightly as if listening to a sound only he could hear. His vacant stare lifted, locking onto something just beyond the camera.

Rei froze, her breath catching in her throat.

"Could he...?" she thought but dismissed it immediately. Yet her fingers hovered over the controls, ready to switch the feed.