CHAPTER 323: DIVIDED

Adam didn’t wait. "Clear the first floor. Now. And if I find out you so much as looked at them the wrong way, I’ll do worse than what you saw outside."

Kyle’s face twitched. For a moment, he looked like he might argue. Then his eyes dropped.

"Clear it," he muttered to the guards. "Now."

The security scrambled into action. The women were led away in silence, too afraid to ask questions. Kyle slinked back into the hallway, muttering under his breath.

Adam stood alone in the lobby, listening to the echo of retreating footsteps.

He hadn’t come here for Kyle.

But he wasn’t about to leave the innocent with him.

When Adam returned to the lobby, he found that Greg was consoling the female employees while trying to find out some more information on what was going on.

One of the older women, her name tag barely hanging on by a thread, looked up as Adam approached. Her eyes were red and swollen, but she met his gaze with something close to resolve.

"You’re not with Kyle, are you?" she asked.

"No," Adam said.

She nodded. "Good. Then you might actually be able to help."

Greg gave Adam a quick glance, then turned back to the woman. "We need to know what’s going on in this building. Why does Kyle think he’s in charge?"

The woman exhaled shakily. Another worker, younger with a cut on her cheek, leaned forward.

"The building... it’s been divided. Ever since that ’Quest Notification’ or whatever it was.

The older woman’s voice shook, but she kept speaking.

"It happened fast. People panicked. Some of the siblings started fighting each other almost right away. We didn’t know what was going on. We still don’t."

The younger woman nodded. "They just... split. Kyle got shoved down here with some of his people. Melanie went straight to the top. Took the penthouse floor like she already knew she’d own it."

The older one continued, "We heard shouting on the intercom. People arguing. Then it went quiet. After that, everyone just... picked a floor and stayed there."

Greg narrowed his eyes. "What do you mean ’picked a floor’?"

"They’re spread out," the younger woman said. "Melanie’s at the top. Penthouse. Kyle’s here in the lobby. Anthony locked himself in the big meeting room upstairs. Jeremy ran off toward the lab levels. We haven’t seen him since. And Blaine took over the security office a few floors up. That was maybe thirty minutes ago."

Adam rolled his eyes in disgust as he quietly snarled

"Even in times like this, they are playing politics with each other? Pathetic. Truly the Samael way."

Adam noticed the female employees giving him strange looks. While they may agree with him, they didn’t dare say it openly, especially when they were in a building owned by the very people he was insulting.

Adam waved his hand in a slightly dismissive manner as he remarked

"No need to look at me like that. I am unfortunately one of their blood relatives."

The women’s eyee widened in shock as they realized who Adam was. He didn’t blame them for not realizing it either.

He had spent years crafting a hooligan public persona and was looked down upon by his siblings and their employees.

His current cold demeanor was so far removed that they thought he was some other person.

One of the women gasped softly. Another looked like she wanted to say something but couldn’t find the words. They all seemed to shrink slightly, glancing at one another as if confirming the revelation silently between themselves.

Greg raised a brow but didn’t say anything. He just gave Adam a small nod, like it finally made sense.

"You really are one of them," the older woman said quietly. "But you... you don’t act like the others."

Adam scoffed as if insulted. "That’s because I’m not like the others."

He didn’t elaborate, and no one asked him to.

The younger woman, the one with the cut on her cheek, shifted nervously. "If that’s true... then maybe you can stop them. Before they tear everything apart."

Adam looked toward the elevators.

"I don’t care about stopping them," he said. "But I’ll make sure none of you get caught in the crossfire."

The older woman blinked. "Why?"

"Because someone has to," Adam replied.

Silence settled again. The women didn’t seem to know what to say. After a moment, one of them hesitantly stepped forward, holding out a small plastic card.

"It’s a general access key," she said. "Should get you through most of the lower floors. Not the executive levels, though. You’ll need biometrics or something stronger for that."

Adam took it without a word.

Greg folded his arms. "If the siblings are spread out, what do we do first? We can’t just run headlong into all of them."

Adam nodded. "We go up. Start with Anthony. He’s the type to hole himself up and hope the chaos passes. If he hasn’t lost his mind yet, he might talk."

"And if he has?"

"Then I will leave it to you to back me up when I tell Penny that her father is dead."

"Dude....that’s fucked up."

"Maybe...Maybe not. I’m honestly thinking something worse."

"What could be worse than that?!"

Greg’s voice rose, exasperated, but Adam didn’t answer right away. He was already walking toward the elevators, the access card tight in his grip.

He stopped just before pressing the button.

"That I hope his mind is gone just enough that I can claim self defence..."

Greg didn’t respond. Not at first.

He just stared at Adam’s back, trying to decide if that was a joke or a warning.

The silence stretched long enough to get uncomfortable. Then Greg sighed and followed, muttering under his breath.

"You know, for someone who doesn’t care about stopping their fighting... you sure seem invested."

Adam pressed the elevator button without turning around. "Don’t mistake hatred for heroism."

The doors opened with a soft chime.

"Besides. If anyone should kill them, it should be me. Where’s the fun in them killing each other."

Greg was stunned into silence as he got another glimpse into the pain Adam harbored deep within.

Adam was torn between his desire to protect the innocent and his desire to tear the evil he called his siblings limb from limb.

Greg would bare witness to his choice