I Have Five Kick-Ass Brothers – Episode 38
Raina called her mother while Joshua raced toward the estate. The line connected, but no voice answered. She heard a door close and the faint clink of china before the call ended.
Noah ordered the estate locked remotely. Melody overrode the command with credentials that should have been deleted. Years of managing the household had given her access deeper than any outsider could obtain.
Raina rode with Joshua and Theo, refusing to remain at headquarters while her mother was threatened. She accepted body armor and followed instructions without surrendering her role in the decision.
At the estate, every exterior door stood open. The invitation felt deliberate, designed to draw the family inside rather than keep them out. Joshua divided his team and entered through the service wing.
Raina found Mrs. Lincoln seated at the dining table, unharmed but pale. Melody stood behind her holding a small remote. Wires ran from the device to containers positioned beneath the room’s historic display cabinets.
Melody greeted Raina with genuine warmth. She claimed the devices would destroy documents, not people, if anyone approached. Her calm made the threat more disturbing than rage would have.
Raina asked why she had manipulated the family. Melody replied that the Lincoln sons were strong but ordinary heirs. Raina’s disappearance created a legend, and her return could unite the company under someone the public would love.
The answer reduced Raina to a story again. Melody had protected evidence when useful, buried it when inconvenient, and created crises to force Raina toward the board. She called the manipulation preparation.
Mrs. Lincoln apologized for trusting her. Melody tightened her grip on the remote and insisted she had served the family more faithfully than anyone. She considered the parents too emotional and the brothers too protective to shape Raina properly.
Raina kept her voice steady. “You do not love me. You love the person you decided I should become.” Melody’s expression cracked, revealing anger beneath devotion.
Theo moved along the corridor outside her sight while Joshua examined the wiring through a maintenance feed. Luke confirmed the containers held accelerant around paper archives, not explosives. Melody could burn the documents but not collapse the room.
Those archives included original Lincoln succession records, search correspondence, and proof connecting Melody to Project Star. Destroying them would not erase every copy, but she believed control of the physical history still mattered.
Raina asked what Melody wanted. She demanded that Raina sign the controlling-heir declaration, remove Noah, and appoint her chief adviser. The fantasy exposed itself completely: Melody wanted legitimacy through the woman she claimed to serve.
Raina accepted the pen but read the declaration aloud. Its language granted the adviser authority over trusts, records, and medical decisions. Melody had prepared not a leadership document, but a guardianship disguised as power.
She tore the paper in half. Melody pressed the remote. Nothing happened because Luke had severed the wireless relay from outside the room.
Melody reached for a manual igniter. Theo crossed the doorway and struck it from her hand while Joshua pulled Mrs. Lincoln away. Officers restrained Melody before she reached the nearest container.
The confrontation ended without fire, yet Raina shook as her mother embraced her. She had not feared becoming poor or powerless. She had feared another person claiming ownership over her future in the name of love.
Melody continued insisting she alone understood Raina’s destiny. As police led her out, Raina told her that destiny chosen by someone else was only another prison.
Investigators secured the archives and recovered Melody’s complete correspondence. The files cleared Noah, Mathew, and Theo of every forged authorization while documenting years of manipulation.
One message remained scheduled for release. It announced that Raina had accepted controlling ownership and would address Lincoln Group at a public gala the following night. Canceling would suggest instability; attending would place her before a crowd expecting a decision she had never made.