Chapter 236

Chapter 236

"Calm down!" Zack grabbed his assistant by the collar, eyes wild with madness. "Even if he gets rescued, he'll be useless! The Carter Family is in my hands now!"

He shoved the assistant away and pulled several overseas black cards from the safe.

"Since I can't keep it, nobody gets to have it easy." Zack's face twisted with malice. "Tell the finance department to immediately transfer all 30 billion dollars of liquid assets into overseas accounts!"

"Also, destroy the core lab's R&D data and cut off funding for the construction projects! I want Ethan to come back to a complete mess!"

The assistant swallowed hard. "What about you?"

"Arrange a boat to Phoenixia." Zack put on a baseball cap, hiding that face identical to Ethan's. "With 30 billion dollars, I can make a comeback anywhere."

2 AM. The Carter Group's financial system was running at full speed.

Zack sat in his office, watching the progress bar jump to 90%, a smug smile crossing his face.

Once it hit 100%, the funds would be secured. Even if Ethan came back and exposed him, there'd be no way to recover them.

Suddenly, a red warning flashed on the screen.

[Transaction Failed! Account Frozen!]

"What's going on!" Zack frantically pounded the keyboard.

Then all the transfer windows grayed out—the system was completely locked down.

His phone rang shrilly. It was an internal line.

"Mr. Carter, this is bad! Mrs. Carter sent lawyers and police to seal off the building!"

"What?" Zack froze.

Elizabeth—bedridden and unconscious—was awake?

Carter Medical Center.

Elizabeth sat upright in her hospital bed. Though her face was pale, her eyes remained sharp.

The room was packed with board members, legal counsel, and police officers.

"Mrs. Carter, all fund transfers have been intercepted. Zack didn't get away with a single cent," the butler reported.

Elizabeth closed her eyes, her voice hoarse. "What a tragedy. I had to watch brothers destroy each other and pretend I knew nothing."

Five months ago.

When "Ethan" returned safely with Christina, everyone was overjoyed.

But Elizabeth had watched Ethan grow up.

Despite their identical appearance, Zack couldn't hide his darkness.

At first, Elizabeth thought Ethan was just traumatized.

But after several interactions, she became certain the man before her wasn't Ethan—it was Zack, the one who'd been taken. To protect Ethan's life, she didn't dare alert Zack. She could only pretend to be ill.

For five months, she pretended to be bedridden and helpless, enduring Zack's performance and tests.

Even when he pricked her fingertips with needles, she bit back the pain.

In secret, she used the Carter Family's final trump card—the founder's veto power—to change asset codes and lock down the system.

She was waiting. Waiting for the truth to come out.

Half an hour ago, Brice sent word that Ethan had been rescued, but his legs were severely injured—he might be disabled for life.

Elizabeth coughed up blood but held herself together.

She pulled out her IV and stood back up.

Even an old lion is still king.

"Butler." Elizabeth's gaze was fierce. "My orders."

"At the airport, the docks, and every exit out of the city—station people at all of them!"

"Today, I'm dealing with Zack myself!"

The night wind scattered the clouds around the top floor of the Carter Group building.

Inside the executive office, chaos reigned. SWAT burst through the bulletproof door, guns trained on the man by the window. "Freeze! Drop your weapon!"

Dozens of officers poured in. Zack gripped his pistol, backing toward the window's edge.

Wind whipped his suit. That face identical to Ethan's was twisted and savage.

The crowd parted. Elizabeth sat in a wheelchair, pushed forward by the butler.

Her face was deathly pale, eyes locked on Zack.

"Put down the gun, Zack." Elizabeth's voice was raspy. "You've lost. Overseas channels are closed. You can't take the Carter Family's money."

"Shut up, old woman!" Zack aimed his gun at Elizabeth, eyes bloodshot.

WAT officers raised their weapons, red dots fixed on his forehead.

"Back off! If anyone comes closer, I'll take her with me!" Zack screamed, body shaking uncontrollably.

He stared at Elizabeth with a cold laugh. "You played your part so well. Five months in bed—I stuck you with needles and you didn't make a sound. In your eyes, only Ethan is Carter Family blood. I'm just trash!"

Zack tore open his collar, revealing a chest covered in old scars—burns, knife wounds, whip marks... horrifying.

"Why? We're twins. He's the golden child, and I'm the outcast? He was groomed to take over since he was a kid, and I was just there to make him look good?"

"Later, when I was taken to save him, the Carter Family abandoned me, let Mother take me away. But she hated Father, hated the Carter Family, hated me. She was crazy—beat me, cursed me every day, made me eat rotten food. I couldn't take it anymore. I had to run."

"I fought homeless people for scraps, slept in sewers. At fifteen, I was sold to an underground fight club, beaten and tortured every day. This Carter Family fortune—half of it should belong to me! But I lived like this!"

Silence fell.

Tears streamed down Elizabeth's face. She extended a withered hand.

"Zack, you're wrong."

"I'm wrong? You're still trying to lie to me?"

"Nobody favored Ethan." Elizabeth's body trembled. "Back then, we groomed him as heir because you were naturally cheerful and outgoing, while Ethan was calm and reserved. I asked you if you wanted to study finance and management. You refused."

"You hated numbers, hated being locked in the study learning all that complicated stuff."

"All these years, your share was never taken. If you check now, you'll see your dividends—Zack's share—sitting in the bank all along."

"When your mother wanted to take you away, we tried hard to stop her. But she was your birth mother. We couldn't prevent it."

Zack froze, pupils contracting. "You're lying! Then why didn't you look for me all these years?"

Elizabeth looked at him, voice bitter. "We've been searching since you disappeared. But after you vanished, your mother went completely insane. We had no leads. I sent people to find you, and later when your brother took over, he kept searching. I don't believe you didn't know."

Zack stepped back, his gun hand shaking violently. "Impossible..."

Of course he knew Ethan was looking for him.

But by then he'd built his own power. Aside from revenge, he had no desire to see anyone from the Carter Family.

Zack stood frozen. The gun clattered to the floor.

All those years of hatred and perceived favoritism—it was all a misunderstanding.

Zack fell to his knees, screaming.

For revenge, he had kidnapped Ethan's wife and child and broken Ethan's legs.

He'd wanted to destroy the Carter Family, only to discover he was the joke.

"I'm a joke..." Zack laughed through tears, standing and turning toward the window.

His eyes were vacant, heart filled with despair. Suddenly he turned, spread his arms, and fell backward.

"Zack!" Elizabeth's terrified scream nearly made her faint.

Just as Zack was about to plunge, the sound of wheels and rushing footsteps came from the doorway.

"Don't you dare die!" Ethan rolled forward and grabbed Zack's wrist with an iron grip.

The massive downward force wrenched his body, pulling him half out the window.

Christina rushed over in a panic, and together with Joshua and the police, they held onto Ethan desperately.