Chapter 5 - The Purge of the East Wing
By midnight, Reed House had undergone a surgical extraction.
The forty-seven guests had been quietly escorted off the property by federal-grade security operatives, their cars searched, their phones wiped of any unauthorized photos or recordings of the evening’s events. The message was clear: what happened in the Kang estate stayed in the Kang estate, and anyone who spoke of it would find their business interests dismantled before sunrise.
In the second-floor private study, the heavy oak doors were locked from the inside.
Grace Kang sat stiffly in a leather wingback chair, staring straight ahead at the dark windows. Jason and Vivian sat on the sofa opposite her, looking like beaten dogs.
Daniel sat behind the massive oak desk, his shirtsleeves rolled up to his elbows, examining a thick file of financial printouts that Miller had placed before him.
Nia stood beside him, her hand resting on the back of his chair.
“The wire transfers to the Park family’s shell corporations total four point two million dollars over the last six months,” Daniel read aloud, his voice devoid of any human emotion. He looked up, fixing his cold gaze on Vivian. “You used household procurement accounts to fund your family’s real estate acquisitions in Seoul, Vivian. You thought because I was busy expanding the shipping lanes, no one was looking at the ledger.”
Vivian shrank back into the sofa, her face pale, her perfectly manicured hands trembling. “Jason... tell him. It was for the family—”
“Jason didn't know the half of it,” Daniel interrupted, sliding a second folder across the desk. “Jason was too busy trying to prove he was smarter than me by leaking our customs routes to the New York syndicate.”
Jason’s head snapped up, horror dawning in his eyes. “That’s a lie! I never—”
“Miller pulled the IP logs from your personal laptop two hours ago,” Daniel said flatly. “You sold us out to our primary rivals for a seat on their regional board. You traded your own blood for a title they were never going to give you.”
Grace closed her eyes. The realization that her favorite son—her golden boy—was not only incompetent but a traitor hit her harder than any physical blow could have.
“What do you want?” Grace whispered, her voice cracking for the first time. “Are you going to kill us? Are you going to throw us out into the street?”
Daniel stood up slowly. He walked around the desk, stopping in front of his mother.
“You taught me that blood is the only currency that matters,” Daniel said quietly. “You taught me that weakness is a sin and that loyalty is the price of survival.”
He reached down, taking the heavy diamond signet ring of the Kang patriarch off his right index finger—the ring Grace had forced his father to wear, the ring she had used to symbolize her control over every member of the household for decades.
He placed it on the corner of the desk.
“You will pack your bags tonight,” Daniel said. “All three of you. You will be relocated to the ancestral estate in South Jeolla Province. You will have a monthly allowance, a driver, and absolute medical care. But you will never step foot in Chicago again. You will never hold a corporate title in my empire again. And you will never, under any circumstances, speak to my wife again.”
Grace opened her eyes, staring at the ring. The fight had completely drained out of her, leaving behind only an old, broken woman trapped in the ruins of her own ambition.
“And if we refuse?” Grace asked bitterly.
Daniel leaned down, his face inches from hers.
“Try,” he whispered.
May you like
Twenty minutes later, the private elevator descended to the underground garage, carrying Grace, Jason, and Vivian toward a black van waiting in the rain.
They were gone.
