Chapter 262

Chapter 262

Just then, the ballroom doors exploded open from the outside.

Every head in the room snapped toward the entrance.

Lucinda stood there in all black, her eyes so cold they seemed devoid of any living warmth.

She cradled a portrait draped in black cloth, and with each step forward, the suffocating rage radiating from her grew heavier.

Behind her, Reginald shadowed her every move, protective and unyielding.

In front of everyone, Lucinda spoke slowly. "Grandma is dead."

The room erupted.

"What? Dead?" Gemma's eyes widened. "How dare that old hag die now? What about her shares? The mansion? What about our debts?"

"Exactly! If she's dead, we'll never get our money!"

In their eyes, Cleo's death meant nothing. All they cared about was whether they could still get their hands on those hundreds of millions.

"We barely touched her!" Gemma spat blood onto the floor. "And she just died? Useless old waste! Even in death, she's dragging the Wipere family down with her! She deserved to die alone!"

Watching this grotesque display of callousness, Lucinda's fingers whitened around the portrait frame.

This was the daughter Cleo had devoted forty years to raising. This was the Wipere family Cleo had fought so hard to protect.

"You all deserve to die." Lucinda slowly lowered the portrait and pulled away the black cloth.

Cleo's kind, smiling face was revealed—utterly out of place in this room reeking of corruption.

Before anyone could react, Lucinda's figure blurred toward the stage.

A shrill scream tore through the air.

Lucinda's palm connected with Gemma's face in a vicious slap.

The crack of shattering bone echoed as Gemma was sent flying.

"Kneel." Lucinda stared down at Gemma, who lay crumpled like garbage.

"Why should I kneel to her! She was just some country nobody!"

Allegra panicked, stumbling in her tattered wedding dress toward Marshall for cover.

Lucinda's eyes flashed with fury. She grabbed the metal microphone from the table and hurled it.

A sickening thud.

The microphone smashed directly into Allegra's heavily made-up face.

Blood sprayed. A gaping wound split open across her forehead, and she collapsed screaming, clutching her face.

"Keep talking, and I'll shut you up myself." Lucinda raised her foot and stomped down hard on Gemma's chest.

The crack of breaking ribs rang out clearly.

"Help me! Preston, help!" Gemma writhed under Lucinda's boot like a dying dog, coughing up blood.

"Still won't kneel?" Lucinda looked down at Preston, her eyes flooding with murderous intent.

"Lucinda! This is illegal! What about the law!" Preston trembled, shouting with false bravado, but he didn't dare approach.

"The law?" Reginald let out a cold laugh. "Aiden."

"Yes, Mr. Lancaster!" Aiden stepped forward with two black-suited bodyguards.

Without a word, Aiden raised his boot and drove it down hard into each of their kneecaps.

Three sickening cracks. Three simultaneous screams.

All three Wiperes collapsed as their knees shattered, writhing in agony until the bodyguards pinned them down.

Finally, they knelt in a row before Cleo's portrait.

Reginald stood beside Lucinda, looking down at the Grayson family and the crowd below.

His voice was ice. "Today, anyone who moves dies. The Graysons—want to try?"

The entire ballroom fell silent.

No one dared intervene. No one dared speak.

"Bow. Apologize." Lucinda stared down at the three wretches kneeling at her feet.

Gemma's face dripped with sweat. Under the threat of death, fear finally broke her.

She coughed up blood while slamming her head into the floor. "I'm sorry... Mom, I was wrong! I'm trash! I'm not even human!"

Preston and Allegra completely crumbled. Before over a thousand elite guests, they bowed until their foreheads bled.

The heavy thuds of their kowtows echoed through the hall.

Only when all three were bleeding from their foreheads did Lucinda finally look away.

"Call the police," she said flatly.

Five minutes later.

Sirens wailed closer.

Dozens of fully armed officers stormed into the ballroom.

When they saw the surveillance footage—ironclad evidence—and the scene before them, the lead officer's face turned ashen.

"Take them all in!"

Cold handcuffs clicked shut around the wrists of all three Wiperes.

They were dragged out like garbage.

One hour later.

Wipere Group Headquarters.

News of the Wipere family's arrest for attempted murder spread like wildfire. The entire company descended into chaos—executives scrambled to cover themselves, employees whispered in panic.

The chairman's office door swung open.

Lucinda had changed into a clean black suit, her long hair pulled back sharply. She radiated absolute authority.

She strode across the room on long legs and sat directly in the chairman's seat.

Reginald settled naturally on the sofa beside her, his presence suffocating.

"Who... who are you? Who said you could sit there?" Several remaining board members turned pale, shouting in outrage.

Lucinda said nothing.

Her slender fingers tapped once on the desk.

The lawyer behind her immediately stepped forward and slammed two thick documents onto the conference table.

The first was a contract showing all the shares the Wipere family had recently sold off at bargain prices—now all in Lucinda's possession.

"Look closely." Lucinda's voice cut through the room. "I hold 51% controlling interest in Wipere Group."

The old board members' faces drained of color.

"The second document." Lucinda's gaze dropped. "Grandma's notarized will, executed on her deathbed. Her remaining 30% of shares, along with all her assets, go entirely to me. Her sole heir."

Two documents.

81% ownership.

Lucinda leaned back in the chair, hands folded, her cold gaze sweeping over every executive in the room.

"As of today, Wipere Group belongs to me. Every remaining asset of the Wipere family—I'm taking it all back."

In that moment, she was a queen on her throne.

Seaside City's wealthiest empire had just changed hands.

And the justice she and Cleo deserved finally came to light—forged in blood and fire.