Chapter 106: You All Failed 3

Words : 1028 Updated : Sep 17th, 2025

Chapter 106: You All Failed 3 The study was quiet again. It was too quiet, but with the way things turned out, it would have been weird if the place had not been quiet. Now only two sons remained standing, both keeping their heads slightly lowered, not daring to meet their father’s eyes unless spoken to. Mr. Grayson leaned back in his chair, his fingers steepled in front of him. He didn’t speak right away. Instead, he was thinking about how he had not taught anything to his two oldest sons. He just stared at the closed door where Thomas had walked out minutes ago. Then, slowly, he shifted his gaze to the third son. "Darren." The young man looked up quickly. His expression was calm, a little tired, but not shaken like the others. He was the most composed of the four brothers. Quiet. Strategic. The kind who never raised his voice, never panicked. The kind people thought they were always five steps ahead. Which was exactly why Mr. Grayson had given him the hardest target. "You were assigned Isabella Nocturne," Mr. Grayson said evenly. "And for a while, I had hope. You didn’t make any waves. You didn’t draw attention. You kept everything in the shadows. Just the way I wanted." Darren nodded once, hands clasped neatly in front of him. "Yes, sir." Mr. Grayson’s voice dropped. "So tell me... how did she flip your entire operation without even lifting a finger?" Darren didn’t answer immediately. He looked down. His lips pressed together. Mr. Grayson stood up slowly, walking around the desk again. He didn’t slam anything. Didn’t yell. His voice was soft. But cold. "You weren’t supposed to approach her directly. I told you to move through her networks. Test her reach. Find the weak points. Slowly." "I know," Darren said. "I followed the plan." "You didn’t follow it well enough," Mr. Grayson snapped. "Because three of your fake clients are missing. Two of our shell companies have gone dark. And one of our major underworld partners pulled out of a contract yesterday, and all this happened one after the other, so I highly doubt that this was a coincidence." Darren said nothing. Mr. Grayson stopped in front of him. "She saw through it. From the start." He dropped a thin file onto the side table near Darren. Inside were screenshots. Transaction records. Leaked audio files. All of it tied back to Darren’s attempts to probe Isabella’s network. "She didn’t just catch you," Mr. Grayson said. "She watched you. Let you think you were ahead. Then, she sent your entire operation to one of her underground allies and had them quietly dismantle everything. No noise. No trace. Just gone." Darren’s voice was quiet. "She’s better connected than we thought." Mr. Grayson let out a humorless laugh. "She’s more than better connected. She’s running circles around half the global underground. The only reason she’s not known publicly is because she doesn’t want to be." He leaned in a little closer. "She’s younger than you. Doesn’t have a military title. Doesn’t run a public company. And yet, she handled you like a bored cat toying with a mouse." Darren looked away. Mr. Grayson walked slowly back to his desk, his voice hardening as he spoke. "You were supposed to learn from her. Not give her a reason to shut us down. You know how long it took to set up those shell companies? Do you know how many years I’ve spent building that pipeline?" "I underestimated her," Darren admitted, his voice low. "You didn’t just underestimate her," Mr. Grayson said. "You treated her like she was running a hobby. Like she was just another spoiled heiress with some money and hired muscle." He slammed his hand down on the desk suddenly. The sound echoed. "She runs assassins, Darren." The room went quiet again. "People disappear under her name," Mr. Grayson said more quietly. "Not even governments touch her deals. And what did you do? You tried to run fake supply routes under her radar. You thought you could bait her into biting, then flip it into leverage." "I didn’t think it would escalate," Darren muttered. "She didn’t escalate," Mr. Grayson said. "She eliminated, she dismantled, silently. And then? She left a message." He pulled out a folded card from the drawer. It was plain white. Unmarked. He tossed it across the desk. Darren picked it up, unfolded it, and went pale. Inside was a single sentence. "Try that again, and I’ll use your spine to stir my coffee." There was no name. No signature. But everyone in their world knew who it was from. Mr. Grayson sat back down and stared at his son. "She was toying with you. Every step of the way. And now? She’s warning us not to play again." Darren didn’t reply. There was nothing he could say. Mr. Grayson let out a long breath and tapped his desk again. "Vincent failed with Seraphina. Thomas embarrassed us in front of Liliana. And you..." He pointed a finger at Darren. "You gave a teenage girl more reason to hate this family than she already did—and in doing so, you cost us years of influence." Darren’s hands curled into fists. "I can make it right." "No," Mr. Grayson said sharply. "You can’t. You’re off this project too." "But—" "Out." Darren paused. Then turned and walked out the door. The silence that followed was deep. Only Lucas remained now. The youngest. And in a way, the most dangerous. Because unlike his brothers, Lucas hadn’t approached his target with politics or business. He’d gone head-to-head. Against Ethan. And now? He was the biggest failure of all. Mr. Grayson didn’t speak. He just stared at the door. Then looked at Lucas. And for the first time that day, his voice dropped even lower. "You. Sit down." Lucas obeyed, jaw clenched tight. His fists resting on his thighs. Because he already knew what was coming. He had failed worse than all of them. And there would be no excuse good enough to explain it. Not to his father. And definitely not to the legacy he had just shattered.

Chapter 106: You All Failed 3

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