Rich Radiant and Over Him (Alicia and Vincent) novel Chapter 268

The Lynch family estate.

Easton followed Valery and Marcus through the imposing front gates, his gaze sweeping over the grand facade of the ancestral home. He was nineteen—old enough to know just how small his world had been. Aside from a handful of school competitions in nearby cities, he’d never left that remote fishing village on Seaview Bay. Most of his life, from the moment he was old enough to understand, had been about carrying the family’s burdens.

Marcus, his father, had a limp that made manual labor nearly impossible. He couldn’t lift heavy crates, let alone work regular jobs. So by the time Easton was ten, he was already down at the docks, hauling baskets of seafood for the stall owners. The old man who ran the main stand was kind enough to slip him a few bills every day, just because he pitied the boy.

Valery, on the other hand, had never been one for work. She’d married Marcus back when he’d just left the Lynch family and still had a bit of money—enough to pawn a fancy watch or two and live large for a while. But they’d burned through everything with hardly a thought, growing lazier as the years passed. By the time Easton was old enough to fend for himself, the money was long gone.

Easton had made it this far purely on grit.

He’d never, not once, imagined himself as the grandson of a wealthy family. He certainly hadn’t pictured his hapless, crippled father as the son of the richest man in Harboridge.

“Pretty grand, isn’t it? Do you have any idea how much this place is worth?” Valery’s voice trembled with excitement as she watched Easton stare, wide-eyed, at the Lynch family manor. She dropped her voice to a conspiratorial whisper. “Your father says this house alone is worth over a billion dollars these days.”

The Lynch estate stood right in the heart of Harboridge’s most luxurious district, where land was worth its weight in gold. And this wasn’t just any mansion—it was a registered landmark, its value now far beyond mere money.

“Just imagine,” Valery went on dreamily, “if your grandfather left this house to you someday…”

“Mom!” Easton cut her off, his tone sharp. “Dad signed an agreement to forfeit his inheritance when he left the family.”

Valery shot Marcus a furious glare. “What were you thinking? Even if the Lynches were in debt, this house alone would have covered it—”

Why did he have to sign away his inheritance?