“Mutual affection? Ha!”

Julian’s laughter slammed into the rafters—sharp, brittle, furious.

“My daughter is young and naïve. You dazzled her with sweet words!” he barked.

“Why did you sneak into Jade Immortal Manor and get close to Rania? What are you after? And Quentin’s sudden disappearance—was that your doing too? Speak!”

His thoughts churned violently. Quentin’s mysterious vanishing. The Turner brothers’ eerie deaths. And now this sudden, enigmatic Jared. In Julian’s mind, the pieces locked into a single narrative.

A shadow of conspiracy and looming danger closed in around him.

“Father, Jared isn’t a villain!” Rania cried.