Chapter 172 | Strange Family Tradition

Chapter 172: 172 | Strange Family Tradition

"Hahahaha!"

Rosalind stared at her father in shock as his laughte rumbled through the entire study.

"This is excellent," Victor stood up as a hearty laughter bubbled in his chest."This is great news."

He walked out from behind the desk happily with his hands clasped behind his back.

"I knew she wouldn’t disappoint me," he said with pride.

He stopped at the window and looked out at the garden.

"To think she restored her meridians without relying on our family." He turned back to Rosalind, his eyes bright. "This is even better than I expected."

Rosalind’s face changed.

Her father had doted on her after Mira’s accident and she had received her fathers unconditional support for the past three years so she had expected her father to be furious that Mira had attacked his eldest daughter.

Instead, he was celebrating.

Her eyes flashed coldly as she immediately spoke.

"Father," she said carefully, "I asked her to come with me, told her about the Phoenix Flare Flower and the arrangement with Crowley."

"She said over her dead body."

Victor’s expression shifted slightly.

"She doesn’t want anything to do with the Calloway family. She said since she’s married to the Ashford, she is no longer a Calloway and belongs to someone else."

The words landed in the study like stones dropped into still water.

Victor’s face instantly ardened.

The pride faded and smile in his face faded as his face filed cold.

He remembered the contract.

The Death God Contract.

The ironclad, soul-binding agreement that the Calloway, Vance, Frost, and Ashford families had all signed. The contract that had been designed to trap the Ashfords but...

Recollecting this bad memory, Victor’s fist clenched as he slammed it against the deck!

"BANG!"

The desk cracked as spiderweb of fractures spread outward from the point of impact, splitting the polished wood surface.

Victor’s hair literally ignited into actual flames. Thin tongues of fire licked along the strands. The temperature in the room spiked. The edges of the nearest documents began to curl and brown.

His eyes blazed with the same fire, the Calloway family’s signature Crimson Flame talent, activating involuntarily under the pressure of his fury.

"Those Ashford snakes," he growled through clenched teeth.

"Actually managing to deceive us. Twice."

His burning gaze fixed on the far wall as though he could see through it, through the city, all the way to the Ashford family estate on the other side of Stargate City.

"First, crippling the most talented person our family has produced in a thousand years. And we let them convince us it was an accident."

"And then, deceiving us into marrying our daughters to a bastard, a damned nobody. Keeping it secret until the contract was signed and sealed with a Death God oath. Bullying all three of us just because they are stronger and possess more resources."

He slammed his fist on the desk again. The cracks widened as the desk groaned.

"This will not stand."

He took a step forward as his hair blazed brighter.

"There will come a day when we all come together and..."

He stopped as his eyes flicked to Rosalind. He has almsot let out their plan in front of his daughter.

Victor inhaled deeply and exhaled. The flames in his hair dimmed and then died.

He straightened his posture. Adjusted his cuffs. Picked up his fallen glasses and placed them back on his nose, ignoring the crack that now ran across one lens.

"The contract will still stand," he said flatly. "There is no way we can possibly break it. Not without triggering the Death God penalty. Even my death won’t break it. The curse would simply transfer to the next Calloway family head. And I will not condemn my successor to that fate."

He walked back to the desk, looked down at the cracked surface and smoothed a wrinkled document with his palm.

"But we cannot personally bring Mira to come back. The contract forbids it. Any direct action by the family to reclaim Mira would constitute a breach."

He paused as his eyes narrowed.

"However, there is no rule that says she can’t come in her own or a third party cannot coerce her."

He looked up at Rosalind.

"Set a meeting with Crowley Montclair."

Rosalind blinked. "Crowley?"

Victor’s lips curved into a thin, cold smile. "It’s high time we met and strategized."

He leaned against the edge of his cracked desk, folding his arms.

"Once the news of Mira’s recovery spreads, the Montclair family will be very interested. Crowley was engaged to her before the incident. The engagement was broken when she was crippled. But now that she’s healed..."

He let the implication speak for itself.

"Doesn’t he love Mira?" Victor’s smile widened, but there was no warmth in it. "Let’s see what he’s willing to do now that she has recovered."

He turned and looked out the window again. The garden was peaceful. The maple trees swayed gently in the afternoon breeze. Somewhere in the distance, a child was laughing.

"Set the meeting, Rosalind."

Rosalind bowed her head.

"Yes, Father."

She tuned and left the study as the door closed behind her.

Victor Calloway stood alone in his cracked study, and smiled.

’Mira, you think you can escape us by hiding behind a bastard and a broken contract.’

’You are wrong.’

’You will come home, one way or the other and perform the family tradition.’

A faint sinister smile spread across his face making one think about the trauma Mira had faced in the hands of her father.

...

Dexter picked up the phone.

"Who is this?"

A faintly familiar came through the phone.

"Is this Dexter Ashford?"

Dexter frowned slightly. "Who is this?" he repeated.

The person on the other end cleared his throat.

"This is Cole. Cole Stanley. You might know me as Plasmatic Man."

Dexter’s frown deepened for a moment. The name Cole Stanley meant nothing to him. But Plasmatic Man...

Then it clicked.

The monster outbreak. He had fought alongside several of them in the chaos.

"Plasmatic Man," Dexter said. "I remember now. You’re the one who killed most of the monsters."