Chapter 774

Evelyn glanced at her buzzing phone and deliberately ignored it.

The small balcony was her sanctuary, its floor covered in plush white carpets so soft they felt like floating on air.

Yet Evelyn remained confined to her wheelchair.

Leo wasted no time claiming Evelyn's favorite spot. The AI tiger sprawled on its back, paws in the air, belly exposed to the starlight.

Its mechanical face somehow conveyed pure bliss as it gazed at the cosmos.

Everyone agreed Leo had remarkably refined tastes for an artificial intelligence - this stargazing hobby being proof.

Evelyn powered off her phone and looked up. The specially designed glass dome magnified the Milky Way into breathtaking clarity.

The distant stars appeared close enough to touch. Outside, the rain created a mesmerizing spectacle as enlarged droplets slid down the curved surface.

Sophia sat quietly in the living room, listening to the heated argument between Reginald Blackwood and Nathan echoing from the upstairs study.

Since returning to the Blackwood family, Sophia had transformed completely. Those months of working menial jobs had humbled her.

She now realized how foolish she'd been - believing her status as a Blackwood heiress entitled her to respect and privilege.

Her reckless confrontations with Evelyn had only brought repeated humiliation.

Being cast out by her brother Nathan had been the final blow.

At first, Sophia had begged and pleaded desperately.

But no one listened. Cut off financially, she found every door to the Blackwood estate barred against her.

That terrifying period taught her the true meaning of desperation.

Now that she'd clawed her way back into the family, Sophia would never return to that life of scraping by on commission checks.

Upstairs, Nathan's voice turned icy. "Was this your doing?" He stood rigid, radiating dangerous energy.

Under the study's warm lighting, Reginald's expression darkened at his grandson's accusatory tone.

"Since when do you address your elders this way?" Nathan's voice was rough with barely contained fury.

"I checked with Horizon Media. Tonight's press release went out under my name, but I never authorized it. Care to explain, Grandfather?"

Reginald's lips curled into a mocking smile, his aged eyes glinting sharply.

"Explain? You run the entire company. Shouldn't you be questioning Harrison about security breaches among your staff?"

Nathan's glare turned murderous at his grandfather's evasion.

With a sudden kick, he shattered an antique vase worth millions against the study wall.

"That vase was part of a matched set!" Reginald's grip on his chair turned white-knuckled, veins bulging beneath paper-thin skin.

"Harrison wouldn't dare cross me after all these years." Nathan's voice dropped to a dangerous growl.

Reginald abandoned all pretense. "You've already investigated everything. Why bother asking?"

The old man's good mood had evaporated completely.

Nathan was systematically dismantling Reginald's control over Blackwood Industries.

The family's power structure had shifted irrevocably in the grandson's favor.

But Reginald wasn't ready to surrender just yet. 'Let the boy think he's won. I'll remind him who truly pulls the strings in this family.'