I clenched my fists, my entire body stiff with cold fury as I glared at him.
"Enemy?" I spat, my voice thick with rage. "What do you mean by that? What did my parents ever do to you that justified you going to such lengths to dismember them and kill them so cruelly?!"
In front of me, Karl dropped the pretense, his expression turning vicious.
"Sorry to you?" he sneered. "You should be asking them how they're sorry to me! If it weren't for them, my father's company wouldn't have gone bankrupt, and he wouldn't have been driven to jump off a building. You destroyed everything I had, and now I'm just taking revenge. Can't stand it?"
His words stabbed through me like daggers.
"Why," he continued, his voice dripping with malice, "are you so uncomfortable seeing the real murderer—the one who killed your parents—standing right in front of you, without retribution?"
He paused, a twisted grin spreading across his face.
"Speaking of which, I owe a lot to your fiancée and wife. If it weren't for them, I wouldn’t be living so well today."
The words hit like a freight train. Before I could process what he said, Karl added, "Before your father died, he was still thinking about you, his son. I even have a video of him begging for mercy. Want to see it? Kneel down and beg me."
The horrifying images of my parents’ tragic end flashed before my eyes. My heart raced, and a red-hot fury surged through me. Without thinking, I swung my fist at him.
The blow landed with a sickening thud.
But instead of anger, Karl only laughed—his laugh cold, detached. With the force of my punch, he staggered backward, falling hard to the ground.
Before I could even react, I felt a sharp pain in my chest.
Caroline, having rushed in, had kicked me squarely in the heart. The sheer force of her strike, honed by years of training, left me gasping and crumpling to the floor in humiliation.
She then crouched down, gathering Karl into her arms, her gaze full of fury as she glared at me.
"Victor, what the hell are you doing? Are you insane?" she shouted, her voice laced with venom. "Karl was just trying to call you to dinner, and you hit him?"
The sound of footsteps echoed, and Carol’s relatives appeared, eyes full of contempt as they glared at me, wishing they could stab me with their gazes.
Karl, weakly propped up in her arms, began to sob, playing his part perfectly.