Freedom Met with Betrayal

Now they called me the one with “bad morals”?

“Caspian, are you sure you want to go?” I asked my son.

He was only seven or eight. I wanted to give him a chance.

But he turned around and glared at me, his face full of disgust.

“Mom said I can take Arden’s surname from now on. I’ll be Caspian Thorn. I’m not using your stupid ex-convict surname!”

After saying that, he grabbed my father-in-law’s hand and walked off, asking excitedly, “Did Arden buy me the computer? Did he buy the 5090D he promised? I want to play Delta Force! I want to go all out!”

“He bought it,” my father-in-law replied.

“And you don’t need to call him Arden anymore. Soon, Arden will be your real father.”

My father-in-law said this while looking straight at me, clearly trying to provoke me.

I clenched my fists but said nothing.

The house felt huge and empty and now, it really was just me left inside.

The ironic part was that our wedding photo was still hanging in the living room. And near the wine cabinet, there was another picture of me and Seren kissing under a tree, with Arden making a silly face in the corner of the photo.

They were the woman I loved the most and the friend I trusted the most. I was willing to risk my life for them, but in the end, they didn’t hesitate to betray me and make a fool out of me.

People’s hearts these days were really something else.

I was sitting on the sofa smoking when my phone rang. It was an unknown number.

“Lucian, I’m out too! I called you the moment I got released. I’ll be using this number from now on!”

It was a man’s voice, full of excitement.

His name was Welly Broth. He looked even prettier than some girls. He got locked up for drunk driving and hit-and-run, at least that’was what the record said.

But the truth was, his own older brother framed him. He wasn’t even the one driving.

While we were inside, he almost got targeted every day because he looked so good. But I protected him.

From that day on, he treated me like his real brother. “Let’s meet another time. I have some things to deal with right now, so I won’t look for you yet.”

Right after I said that, another call came in. It was my dad.

I quickly said to Welly, “I’ll talk to you later, my dad is calling.”

What I feared most was my parents finding out about everything.

They were getting older. If they knew what happened, the anger might seriously hurt them.

“Lucian, listen to me,” my dad said. “Feelings are complicated. Since Seren has fallen for someone else, don’t hold on anymore.”

“And besides, Arden is a good kid. During the four years you were in prison, he took care of us even better than you, our own son.”

“So if you keep causing trouble, don’t blame me and your mother for cutting ties with you!”

My dad’s angry voice came through the phone.

So even my own parents had turned against me?

My chest hurt. I didn’t say a word and just hung up.

If everyone had betrayed me then I might as well act like they didn’t exist.

I still had my work, at least that hadn’t left me.

I got up, cleaned myself up, put on a suit and headed to the company.

The Vale Group was the company I built with my own hands. Since university, I started my own business.

I made money through small mobile games and later our MOBA game exploded overseas. Half of the overseas market for local games was basically under my control.

Before I went to prison, we even had a AAA game ready to launch on Steam, but everything got delayed because I was locked up.

Now that I was out, with both love and family gone, this game was the only thing I could rely on to climb back to the top.

But when I arrived at the company entrance, the security guards stopped me.

“I’m Lucian Vale. The Vale Group belongs to me,” I explained.

The guard laughed coldly. “Oh, do you think if your surname is Vale, then the Vale Group is yours? My surname is Vale too, does that make me your dad?”