Page 82 of Billionaire’s Ruin

Andy shook her head, frustration tightening her voice. “I kept reminding them—Mr. Li pays their salaries. Their loyalty should be with him. None of them listened. Cowards, the lot of them. No one wanted to be caught in the middle. Even the housekeeping team refused to come upstairs. Wouldn’t even clean the house.”

Her words hit harder than I expected. I pictured Kai trapped in that house—weak, drugged, surrounded by staff too terrified or too apathetic to help him. People who’d rather hide in their rooms than stand beside him.

A shiver crawled down my spine.

“That’s where I came in,” Lincoln said, his voice low, edged with anger he wasn’t bothering to hide.

“Yes.” Andy nodded, glancing toward him. “I didn’t know what else to do. And Dave suggested we ask Mr. Young for help.”

“Great idea,” I murmured—even though my chest tightened at the thought of Lincoln being dragged back into this hell because of me. Because of Kai.

My brother’s jaw flexed. “I thought about letting him rot in that mess he created. After how he treated you.” The words came out like venom, his eyes burning with resentment and something else—something that looked too close to pain.

Lincoln and Kai had been best friends since forever. And sometimes I wondered how all these billionaire men kept finding themselves kidnapped, hunted, or hospitalized. Maybe it was an occupational hazard. Or maybe rich men were simply magnets for danger.

Last time, it had been Lincoln tied to a chair in some warehouse—and Kai and his men were the ones who pulled him out. So maybe Lincoln wasn’t just helping.

Maybe he owned him.

Brotherhood. Loyalty. Debt paid in blood.

Lincoln’s mouth curved, but it wasn’t a smile. “He pulled me out once,” he said quietly. “Guess it’s my turn now.”

Something in his tone made me study him longer. It wasn’t just obligation. It was guilt.

And that guilt, I realized, wasn’t for Kai—it was for me.

A sudden thought struck—had what happened between Kai and me damaged their friendship. Whether I’d put a crack between them that neither of them knew how to fix.

“Lincoln,” I said softly, meeting his eyes. “It was the right thing to do. I’m glad you came.”

His jaw ticked like he wanted to argue, but he stayed silent.

“We’re going to drag that stubborn idiot out of there,” he muttered instead, anger simmering beneath every word. “I brought my own team. And I refuse to believe I could be outsmarted by some old witch.”

“Lincoln! Watch your mouth!” The reprimand erupted before I could stop it. No matter how monstrous she was—no matter what she’d done—the Asian daughter in me recoiled at hearing him spit insults at an elder. Respect for age was bone-deep, instinctual, and hearing him shred it felt… wrong.

Lincoln’s glare snapped to me, sharp and disbelieving. “You’re defending her? After everything she’s done?”

“I’m not—” I began, but he cut across me.

“Do you even know what she’s done to her own son?”

A chill slid down my spine. “What do you mean?”

“I found Lucy,” he said, each word tight and jagged. “She was a mess. Barely functioning. She didn’t even know how to help us—but she told me everything.”

My stomach twisted. “Everything… what?”

He slammed his hand on the table, sending papers fluttering like startled birds. “Mrs. Li has been drugging him, June. Keeping him doped up like some broken puppet.”

My body went still.

”And some days—” He swallowed hard, fury shaking his voice. “Some days Mrs. Li forced Lucy to do it. Forced her to inject him. If Lucy didn’t obey, she’d be next.”

Breath stalled in my lungs. My hands went cold and the room tilted for a moment.

“Oh my God…”