Axel noticed her worry. He chuckled. "Sure, we will."
He leaned back comfortably in his seat and crossed his arms in a relaxed manner.
"Well, to be honest with you, I don’t want to get complaints from our genius little boss," he added playfully.
Evelyn laughed softly.
Oliver had clearly beco the most powerful authority in their house.
Her shoulders relaxed with relief. But that relief lasted only a second. Her phone suddenly vibrated inside her bag.
Evelyn frowned slightly and pulled it out.
A ssage notification appeared on the screen.
From Oscar.
The mont she saw his na, her heart tightened a little.
She knew Oscar very well. Every ti he sent her a ssage like this, it usually ant one thing: trouble or gossip. Or sotis both.
"Eve, you won’t believe what just happened. Hurry and check the news!" From: Oscar
Evelyn closed her eyes for a second. Inside her mind, she silently cursed. ’Dang it, Oscar! Can you just tell what happened? Why do you always lure to read the news like this?’
Oscar had a terrible habit of creating suspense for no reason.
Still, curiosity quickly defeated her annoyance.
Without wasting ti, Evelyn opened her browser and checked the trending news.
The headline appeared instantly.
And the mont she read it, her entire body froze.
[ Blake Martinez’s helicopter reported a main engine failure and fire before exploding after five minutes of flight. It was confird that Blake Martinez was piloting alone, with no passengers aboard, and he was declared dead. ]
Evelyn’s hand reflexively covered her mouth.
The scream that had almost escaped her throat was trapped behind her palm.
Her eyes widened in shock.
Beside her, Axel imdiately noticed the sudden change in her expression.
"Eve, what happened?" he asked with concern.
She slowly turned to look at him.
Her face still showed pure disbelief.
"Axel..." she said quietly. Then she handed him her phone. "You know about this?"
Despite the worry and confusion that had briefly appeared on his face, Axel calmly reached for the phone she handed him.
His eyes moved quickly across the headline and the few lines of information beneath it. For a brief second, a flash of anger passed through his expression—sharp and cold.
But it disappeared just as quickly.
By the ti Evelyn finished watching his reaction, his face had already returned to its usual calm. He lowered the phone and placed it gently beside him on the seat.
"Hm," Axel said casually, as if the news were sothing minor. "I already know about it."
Evelyn blinked. "You already know?"
Axel simply nodded, his posture relaxed as he leaned back slightly into the seat. "I read the news while waiting for you..."
"I see—"
The conversation paused there. Neither of them spoke for several monts as the car continued moving smoothly through the city streets.
Outside the window, the late afternoon sun painted the buildings with a soft golden glow. Traffic flowed steadily, and people moved along sidewalks without knowing that sowhere far away a helicopter had exploded and a powerful man had died.
Evelyn’s mind drifted back to the Martinez family.
A few months ago, the business world was shocked when Natalie Martinez died suddenly from a heart attack. The news had spread quickly, especially because Natalie had been young and seemingly healthy.
And now Blake Martinez was gone as well.
Two deaths in the sa family within such a short ti.
Evelyn frowned slightly as the thought circled in her mind.
’Why does this keep happening to them?’
The more she thought about it, the stranger it felt.
’Did they offend God or sothing?’ she wondered silently. ’Why does it feel like God is punishing them?’
The thought made her uncomfortable.
She quickly shook her head, trying to dismiss the strange idea. Thinking about divine punishnt for business families sounded dramatic even inside her own mind.
Still... she could not stop wondering.
Eventually, she turned toward Axel.
"Axel," she said thoughtfully.
"Hm?"
"Why does the Martinez family seem so unlucky?"
Axel turned his head slightly and looked at her. His eyebrows pulled together just a little when he heard her question.
"I an..." Evelyn added, trying to explain her thoughts more clearly. "They lost their daughter not long ago, and now the father too." Her voice softened slightly.
Even though she had never liked Natalie Martinez, death was still death. Seeing an entire family collapse one mber at a ti was unsettling.
Axel looked at her quietly for a mont. Inside his mind, however, the answer was painfully simple.
’Because that is the punishnt for their sins.’
He knew exactly why Natalie and Blake Martinez had died.
It was not a misfortune.
It was justice.
But that truth was not sothing he could ever share with Evelyn.
So he simply shrugged lightly and spoke in a calm voice. "Maybe that’s their fate."
Evelyn stared at him for a mont before nodding slowly. "Maybe..."
She leaned her head slightly against the seat again and looked back out the window. The conversation about the Martinez family quietly faded away.
But another thought slowly surfaced in her mind.
Sothing she had been thinking about for days.
Sothing that had been bothering her more and more.
Evelyn hesitated.
She glanced toward the front seat where Liam was driving carefully, his attention focused on the road.
Then she turned back toward Axel again.
"Axel... I heard sothing about the Wright Group recently."
Axel looked at her again.
"Sothing?" he asked.
Evelyn hesitated. The topic made her feel uneasy.
Without saying anything else, she reached forward and pressed a small button near the armrest. The divider between the front and back seats slowly rose, sealing them off from the driver.
The soft hum of the partition moving filled the car for a mont.
Axel raised his eyebrows slightly.
That action alone told him the conversation was serious.
He studied Evelyn’s face carefully. There was a seriousness in her eyes that made him imdiately alert.
Axel asked gently, a little impatience flashing in his eyes, "What did you hear about the Wright Group?"
Evelyn’s fingers folded together in her lap.
"You told Wright Group is your company," she began slowly.
Axel nodded.
"Sothing has been bothering lately," she continued. "I received information from soone I trust... Wright Group has an underground business."
For the first ti since the conversation began, Axel felt a small ripple of tension inside his chest.
"Underground business?" he repeated calmly.
His tone sounded surprised, but inside, he had already expected that sooner or later, Evelyn might hear rumors about Wright Group’s darker operations. Still, her information seed to worry him.
Evelyn hesitated again before leaning closer to him.
Her voice dropped into a whisper.
"Wright Group is involved in illegal business," she said carefully. "Selling firearms to war countries... and providing rcenaries."
Her eyes searched his face anxiously.
"Is that true?" she asked.
For a mont, Axel was genuinely stunned.
He had not expected Evelyn to know sothing so close to the truth.
But he quickly controlled himself.
Instead of showing any shock, he simply lifted his hand and gently placed it against her cheek. His thumb brushed softly against her skin.
His gaze softened as he looked at her.
"I admit that we are involved in the firearms business," he said calmly. "But those deals are legal."
Evelyn held her breath.
"As for rcenaries..."
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