Chapter 4

"Clint, what is it this time?"

"I already told you there's an important banquet today. Can you knock it off for a while?"

My voice cracked from panic.

"Why did you cheat my dad out of his money?"

"Even the house he was going to retire in, you had to swindle away! You've already taken every cent we had. That's still not enough?"

My daughter snatched the phone and snapped at me without a shred of courtesy.

"What would a bottom-of-the-barrel delivery driver like you know?"

"Mom and I hold noble rank now. When we go out, don't we have to tip the servants?"

"That little bit of money would barely buy a few small gold bars. Over here it's an embarrassment to even bring out."

Hearing how righteous she sounded, my eyes went red.

"What does you two playing rich in ancient times have to do with me?"

"Give my dad his money back, now!"

Rose simply pulled the receiver away.

"You really have no vision. Once we get a foothold over there, we'll have all the antiques and jewels we could ever want."

Beside her, my daughter laughed in contempt.

"Mom, stop wasting your breath on him."

"If he had any vision, he wouldn't be living like this."

Before I could finish, the line went dead.

I had no time to argue. I dragged my hurt leg and rushed to the agent to cancel the house sale.

By the time I got back, the front door stood wide open.

A thick stench of blood rode the draft straight into my face.

Panic took me. I tripped coming through the door and half crawled, half scrambled to the living room.

Rose and my daughter stood in the hallway with their backs to me. My father's pants were soaked red, and he was bent over in pain.

Something exploded in my head.

I lunged and threw my arms around him. Only then did I see the fruit knife in my daughter's hand.

"Antonia! Have you lost your mind?"

She lifted her chin and swept a glance over me.

"I only took a watch to give to my emperor father."

"And he actually dared to scold me!"

My father's breath was thin as thread, and his hand still gripped that chain.

"Clint, don't be angry at the child."

"This was what your mother left you. I got worked up and said a few harsh words."

"She's young, she doesn't understand. It's not her fault."

Hearing that, my heart twisted into a knot.

Back then, when my mother knew she didn't have long, she spent every cent she had left on a quartz watch.

She told me to keep it on me, so that whenever I looked at it, I'd think of her.

How much that watch meant to me, Rose and my daughter both knew perfectly well.

I wanted to call an ambulance, then remembered my phone was broken and still not fixed.

All I could do was shout at my daughter.

"Call 911, now! He's your grandfather!"

She showed not a trace of remorse. Instead she gave a resentful, cold snort.

"My father is the emperor, and my grandfather is the retired emperor!"

"You and this old thing are both peasants! What right do you have to boss me around?"

On her young face bloomed a kind of innocent viciousness.

"My emperor father said I hold noble rank. Any outside man who so much as touches me has to be gelded to atone."

"This old thing didn't know his place. He got off easy that the knife went in crooked."

"You disrespect me again and I'll have Mom slap you across the mouth!"

I staggered to my feet and looked at the wife I'd shared a bed with for over a decade.

"She doesn't understand, but do you not understand either?"

"When you were short on money for your surgery, it was my dad who gave you ten thousand dollars to get you through!"

"Call 911, now!"

Rose's expression stayed cold and distant. She calmly avoided my eyes.

"Clint."

"You could never understand the life of the nobility over there. If the crossing portal didn't have limits, I wouldn't want to come back at all."

"The emperor can't cross over himself, but he can watch me and Toni here through the portal."

"Every word Toni and I say, everything we do, has to protect the dignity of the royal house."

With that, she took my daughter's hand and disappeared beside the tablet once more.

In that moment, my heart went completely dead.

I didn't cry. Jaw clenched, I limped over to a neighbor's, borrowed a phone, and called an ambulance.

Only once I was sure my father was out of danger did I go home alone.

I took out the big sledgehammer and inched my way over to the couch.

On the tablet screen, Rose and my daughter were out on a pleasure boat with the emperor.

In the reflected light and shadow, my own eyes looked back, numb and cold.

What a lovely picture. Husband and wife in harmony, mother and child in loving devotion. One big happy family.

"Since you love the ancient world so much, then let me give you what you want."

I heaved the hammer up, drew a deep breath, and brought it down with everything I had.

"You two can stay over there, mother and daughter. Never come back!"