Family on Their Knees Heart Turned to Ice novel Chapter 1490

1490 /1624

"Beatrice," Brandon called out respectfully as he approached.

"My, my," Beatrice said warmly. "I told you your sister was here, and you practically flew over."

Brandon walked toward Lillian with an easy smile. He looked visibly exhausted, shadows lingering under his eyes.

Yet, despite the physical toll, he radiated a kind of manic energy.

"When I hear Beatrice is cooking, of course I'm going to rush over. I didn't want to miss out on the food. Right, Lillian?"

Brandon was trying desperately to maintain a friendly facade, acting as if there was absolutely no bad blood between them. He wanted them to look like perfectly normal siblings.

Lillian offered a faint, detached smile. "You've had quite an appetite these past few days, then?"

She was subtly jabbing at the ongoing civil war within the Mercer Group.

How could she not know what was happening?

Brandon was frantically trying to seize executive power, while Martin, despite officially stepping back, was aggressively clinging to control from behind the scenes.

It was blatantly obvious Martin had no intention of genuinely passing the torch.

The ironic part was that despite practically tearing each other apart in the boardroom, they were still publicly playing the roles of the devoted father and loyal son.

"I've been slammed with work for days straight," Brandon admitted, playing along. "I really haven't had much of an appetite, and I haven't eaten properly. So, when I heard Beatrice was cooking, I decided to crash the dinner. No matter how busy things get, you have to eat to keep going. Lillian, Colin and I are having a really tough time holding the company together right now. You know how dire things are at the Mercer Group. Why don't you come back and help me? Honestly, half the reason I'm fighting Dad so aggressively for control is because I want to get justice for you. I didn't tell you this earlier, but I told them they need to move out and vacate the house. That way, when you come back, you won't have to look at *her* and get upset. They've been pulling non-stop stunts to cause you trouble. To make sure they can't scheme against you anymore, I'm forcing them out."

Lillian smiled thinly. Beatrice had tactfully excused herself moments earlier to check on dinner, leaving the siblings alone to talk.

Looking at Brandon, Lillian realized just how deeply entrenched in his own delusions he was.