Bai Li was getting a headache. He hoped he didn’t have any more half-siblings. “And?”

“She disappeared. Shortly after your mother met your father, she vanished.”

“Is she dead or alive?” Bai Li knew his mother wasn’t above murder. Her interest in his father went back further than he thought.

“I swept some old bones out the closet,” Knox said without giving a real answer.

“I don’t need to know anyway. How long will it keep her busy?” When negotiating with his grandfather, he could clear his name with the information on his mother.

“Six months to a year.”

“Thank you. Did you see my medical records?” Since this man was presenting himself as useful, Bai Li would use him to the fullest.

“No. Why?” There was a dark note in his voice.

“Nothing too serious. I need a reliable doctor.” Bai Li would be a fool if he trusted everything the doctors around him said.

“Define nothing too serious?” Knox asked.

“Intentional lead poisoning.” Bai Li delivered the news in a bland tone.

“What do you define as something serious?” Knox’s voice kept getting more serious.

“Being stabbed in the heart?” Bai Li said flippantly. “Being pushed off a highway in a car accident.” Bai Li could list a few crazy things that happened to him. “Being blown up by an oxygen tank explosion?”

Knox gave a hollow life. They sat in silence for a while. “I will add a doctor to your team.”

“Thanks,” Bai Li said again. Knox was someone he could be friends with. “Can you get me a list of people who were in the hospital?”

“I already have it. I will send it to you.”

Bai Li breathed a sigh of relief. Questions were a problem. He was glad that Knox didn’t ask. “Don’t focus so much on your first brother. The one closest to you is the one you should watch.” He hung up the phone without waiting for a reply.

When he talked to Knox, it was far too comfortable. He gave away more than he intended in each interaction.

He thought about what Knox said. Was his cousin’s unprofessionalism an effect of his interference? The delivery man flashed in his mind. He had thought it odd the way the man got nervous and rubbed his chest.

Picking back up the documents, he focused on the things in front of him that he had control over.

Taking up his phone, he sent a text to Knox. “Send me Dave Campo as well.” The most the man could say was no.

The device started to ring in his hand. Hadn’t they spoken enough to each other already? He answered the call.

“Who is Dave Campo?”

“He works for Trident.” Bai Li answered, his attention divided between Knox and the property information he received.

“I don’t know him,” Knox said. How do you know? The question was implied but not asked.

Bai Li chuckled. “Do you know everyone who works for you? I think that would be impossible.”

“I know all the exceptional ones.” Knox was confident in his reply.

Hehehe. I know the ones who will be exceptional in the future. Campo was another person who had the skills, but because of circumstances hadn’t shown them. “He is a Security Guard in a branch office.”

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“Little Li, I have sent you the best people I have. Why are you interested in a random person?”

Bai Li smiled and turned the page. “Make him the head of the team.”

“Really?”

“I will show you something interesting,” Bai Li said. “Do you dare send him to me?”

“I am looking forward to what you show me.” Knox laughed. “Didn’t anyone tell you it is rude to hang up like that?”

“Don’t talk nonsense,” Bai Li said before hanging up again.

The smile on his lips wouldn’t disappear. Didn’t his father say that anything he managed to hide he was free to do?

He sat at the computer and worked on his plans. If his mother was gone for three months that would be nice. If he got the full year, he would be in a position to attack.

He didn’t notice time passing until his doorbell rang.

Checking, he saw Bai Fang at his door.

“Big brother Li.” Bai Fang walked past him. His little cheeks puffed up. “Did you pick on my mother?”

Bai Li sighed. “Have you ever heard of a child picking on an adult?”

“Grandma said you were out to hurt me.” Bai Fang looked constipated. He was thinking about difficult things.

“What did your mother say?”

“Mom doesn’t talk about those things with me. She only smiles and says the adults should watch over the children.” Bai Fang reached a conclusion and his expression smoothed out. “She only stiffened up when I said I was coming to visit you.”

Bai Li went to the fridge and got some juice for both of them. “Did you tell your mother?”

“Mom is silly sometimes. She said that grandma was just looking out for me.”

Even Bai Fang noticed. Lee Shan’s mother didn’t catch his attention last time. He had little to no information about her.

“What do you think?” Bai Li asked.

“Doesn't my brother already have the answer?” Bai Fang asked. He drank all the juice and played with the cup in his hands.

“Don’t you already know the answer as well?” Bai Li countered. He wouldn’t spoon-feed any of his siblings.

“Why do I have to say it?” BAi Fang went back to pouting.

“Does saying it or keeping it to yourself make it any less real?” Bai Li didn’t push any further. Bai Fang was young., He would not have even brought this up if he wasn’t so smart. “Do you want to go to school together with me?”

With Ping An out of the way, it was the best way to ease Bai Fang out into the open. It would make him a target but also remove him from being one.

“What is wrong with my current school?” Bai Fang asked.

“Nothing. Our grandfather wants to meet you. By that time, it doesn’t make sense for us not to go to the same school.” Since Bai Fang hadn’t figured out that his grandmother’s actions had made him a target, Bai Li wouldn’t tell him.

Bai Li didn’t know how successful it would be, but he would try to give his siblings a chance to be normal children, even if it was only for small moments in time.

Bai Fang did not look like he believed him fully. Was their suspicious nature inherited?

“So why am I not at school today?” Bai Fang rested his head on the palm of one hand. It was a pose their dad often took.

Bai Li laughed. “We are going to visit our grandfather on the weekend. Your transfer has been sorted out. School starts again on Monday. Is there a point for you to finish out in your old school?”

This was all the truth. Just not the whole story.

“What is grandpa like?” Bai Fang asked.

There was no good answer to that question. He didn’t have the answer either. It was only now that he realized his relationship with his grandfather was different. He didn’t know anything about him and had never been close or dependent on him.

“Grandfather is a great person. He is a bit stern, but if he is supporting you, he will be there for you for your whole life.” Bai Li thought of how Ping Zan supported his daughter. “He maintains fairness, but only for things that don’t cross his bottom line.”

Bai Fang was hanging onto every word. He must have been curious about where he came from. The fact that his maternal grandmother was a disappointment might have something to do with it.

“He gives good presents too.” Bai Li remembered the conversation they had last time.

What would it be like meeting Ping Zen now?

A part of him couldn’t wait for it. Another part wished it would never happen.

He thought back to the support Knox had given him.

It didn’t matter now. The support he needed to get from his grandfather didn’t matter now.

If he wanted to walk away from this family, he could do it and support himself without worry. He would need Tobias to check it for him as a lawyer, but he was sure.

Knox had set it up in away that he had no internal control. Everything belonged to Bai Li with no way for anyone to take it from him.

He could breathe easily and approach everyone without expectations. Taking up his phone, he thought for a moment before typing out a text to Know. He didn’t want to feel like he owed the man. He would give him a bit of information to even things out between them.

“Bai Fang, don’t worry about meeting grandfather. Just be yourself. If he doesn’t like you the way you are, then there is no need to get closer.”