Chapter 45: You Left Me Here…. Alone

I let my body relax back into the chair, a new, different smile—thin and edged with challenge—touching my lips as I meet my brother’s cold stare.

As if nothing in the world is wrong.

“Well,” I say smoothly, “what a surprise… big brother.”

Silence.

“Please, sit, Big Brother,” I say, my voice soft as silk.

Zyke doesn’t move. He just stares, a glacier in a tailored suit. Then, his arm whips forward. A file slams onto the desk between us, the crack of paper against wood a gunshot in the silent office.

I don’t flinch. I just look down at it. “What is it, Big Brother?”

He doesn’t answer. Instead, he finally takes the seat Deniz just vacated, the air turning several degrees colder. I blink, looking at the file. Now what does he want?

But this time, I’m not the scrambling, desperate little brother. This time, I’m prepared.

I calmly pick up the file and open it. My eyes scan the dense, legalistic pages—property deeds, old partnership clauses, highlighted sections asserting hereditary rights. I turn a page. Zyke’s angry eyes are boring into me, a physical pressure.

“This,” he says at last, voice low and dangerous, “is proof that I hold half the rights to Kael Holdings. The empire you like to call yours.”

I keep turning pages, my face a perfect, unreadable mask. Inside, a different kind of heat simmers. He ruined my mood. I was flirting with my future wife. And like a bad smell, he always shows up.

I sigh, a sound of profound weariness, and set the file back on the table. “Big Brother, I thought you came here to see me. To maybe… make things good between us. But you’re still hanging on this topic.” I meet his glare, a study in disappointed innocence.

He says nothing. His silence is his weapon.

I sigh again, leaning back in my chair with a lazy, almost insolent grace. I let my voice drop to a whisper, just loud enough to slice through the quiet. “Seriously, brother. You have your own, very successful business in another country. So why are you so obsessed with meddling in mine?”

He watches me in silence before answering, tone sharp. “It’s the family’s main business. You don’t get to take everything.”

I look at him, then blink, wide-eyed. “Family? What is that?”

His eyes narrow to slits. “What nonsense are you saying?”

I lean forward, planting my elbows on the desk, my voice dropping to a calm, chilling deadpan. “Big Brother, I don’t know that word. ’Family.’ Because I have none.”

Something flickers in his eyes. A crack in the glacial veneer. The air in the room shifts. It thickens, grows heavy, laced with the bitte

—his negative pheromones. He’s doing it again. Trying to crush my will, to make me weak and pliant.

His pheromones. Again. Always the same trick.

I take a slow, deliberate breath, fighting the instinctive dread coiling in my gut. I reach for my phone on the desk, unlock it with a smooth swipe. A soft smile touches my lips—a real one, this time.

“Big Brother…”

“Since you’re here,” I say lightly, unlocking it, “let me show you something.”

I place the phone on the desk between us and slide it toward him. His gaze flicks from my face to the screen.

His calm disintegrates.

It’s CCTV footage. The Kael Holdings executive meeting room. Clear, high-definition. His pheromones crush the air and blood spills from my nose.

I lean back, steepling my fingers. “You know, after this… attack… my pheromones went completely unstable. My nose wouldn’t stop bleeding.”

I tilt my head thoughtfully. “Doctors said I nearly died. But luckily, I survived.”

Zyke is frozen, his eyes locked on the damning loop.

I tap my chin thoughtfully. “I’ve been thinking… what would happen if this footage leaked?

I smile faintly. “Your name. Your status. All ruined. Arrested for attempted murder of your own little brother.”

He moves faster than I expect. His hand snatches the phone and hurls it across the room. It shatters against the wall with a horrific crash.

The sharp sound echoes, then fades into a ringing silence.

I don’t even look at the debris. I keep my calm gaze fixed on him.

He’s on his feet, fury rolling off him in waves. “Zyren!” he snarls. “What are you trying to do? Blackmail me?”

I blink, once, letting all pretense of innocence melt away. I lean forward again, my smile turning sharp, cold, and utterly devoid of warmth.

“Brother,” I purr, “isn’t it you who said you liked my devil version? That innocence didn’t suit me?” I let the smile widen, a predator’s grin. “So I’m just giving you what you demanded, my dear Big Brother.”

I stand up, my movements fluid, unhurried. I pick up a different, older file from my desk—its edges worn, its paper a faded cream. I open it calmly as I walk around the desk to stand before him.

“Here,” I say, my voice a soft contrast to his shattered anger. “You should glance at the old records, too.”

Zyke snatches the file from my hand, anger sharp in the movement. His eyes scan the pages rapidly.

My posture relaxed, voice steady. “Big brother… you and our parents—”

I pause, then correct myself without emotion. “I mean your parents.”

His eyes flicker.

“You left this country,” I continue calmly.

You abandoned this ’main business’ when it was standing on the edge of bankruptcy. You know that time better than anyone. So you cut your losses. You started another company overseas and moved there.”

I let the silence hang, filled with the ghost of old sirens and the smell of impending ruin. “You left me here. Alone. To sink or swim.”

I take one step closer.

Zyke’s grip tightens on the file.

“And I survived,” I say softly. “I worked. I rebuilt everything. I turned this company back into the number one business in the country.”

Our eyes meet—locked, unflinching.

“So now,” I finish slowly, “you’re telling me you have rights?”

Zyke doesn’t answer.

Silence settles between us—heavy, final.

For the first time, the great Zyke has nothing to say.

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