I transmigrated and got a husband and a son!-Chapter 1165: Debts he owed

Dominic sat quietly beside the Old Madam Zhu’s hospital bed. For a while now, all he had been doing was staring at his grandmother while his mind drifted to the conversation he had with Lukas Silvers.

*

*

"The name is Lukas Silvers, the current head of the Silvers Family, one of the Five Secret Families. I presumed you already heard about the secret society from the beautiful Madam Zhu?"

Dominic glanced at the hand offered to him, not taking it as he lifted his eyes to this man he was first seeing and hearing. Lukas Silvers maintained a smile as he awkwardly retrieved his hand, shrugging.

"Shall we take a seat?" Lukas suggested. "This would be a long discussion, so."

"I heard about the Secret Families," said Dominic as he took his spot on the couch in the private ward, sitting across from him was Lukas. "Though I’m afraid what I know is only the tip of the iceberg."

Lukas nodded in understanding but didn’t believe a single word the man uttered. "As much as I would like to indulge in pleasantries and subtlety of our first meeting, I’m afraid you do not have the patience for either."

"That is right." Dominic leaned back. "I am not here to play all my cards for a stranger just because he claimed to be an ally of mine."

A glint flickered across Dominic’s eyes as he sighed. "Tell me, what is it for you?"

"You won’t ask me how Old Madam Zhu and I met? Or how we come to terms with this?"

"How she meets people and befriends them isn’t something that would change my mind about her." Dominic’s tone remained distant, drawing a line between them. "Though I do not agree with how she handles things, I can’t deny how capable she is."

"She would be very broken-hearted if she heard that. No wonder she had a heart attack today." Lukas sighed helplessly. "I feel her pain, but we’ve always seen that coming."

Dominic arched a brow as he studied the man.

"Your grandmother and I share a common enemy," said Lukas. "I assumed you already know who she is?"

"Florence Oxley."

Lukas smiled in satisfaction as he nodded. "That is right. Florence Oxley, the woman who had been trying to get you on her side and do her bidding for her. You hadn’t agreed to anything she asked you to do, did you?"

Dominic didn’t answer.

"If you did, then I request you to stop whatever deal you had with her. What Florence wants from you is to put a leash on Donnabella," said Lukas. "I had an idea why you see your grandmother in this sort of light and I don’t blame you for it. Donnabella is, indeed, a woman worthy to be wary of. She would do anything in her power to protect her family — even if it’s unconventional."

"It’s a trait that could be worthy of admiration or hostility — depends on the person who had heard or seen it," he continued. "But what I can tell you is Donnabella never used an excuse in Felice’s death. Just like how you see that it wasn’t entirely her fault, she also knew that. But even so, it felt awful."

Again, Dominic didn’t answer. However, what the man said was everything that Dominic felt so accurately. It wasn’t like Dominic didn’t know that it was Felice’s fault and that Grandma Zhu simply played along. However, it still felt awful because no matter which angle they looked, Old Madam Zhu participated in Felice’s death.

She was the one who put Felice in that car.

"You asked me what it was for me to do this. The answer is much simpler." Lukas smiled kindly. "I owe Donna. Or rather, our entire family owed her not just in money, but with our lives. Over a decade ago, your grandmother bought her way into the Secret Society. She planned to take down Florence for what she had done to Felice, but as she gathered information and forces, the Silvers Family got caught in a dire political conspiracy."

"I was, at that time, so naive and young," he continued with a small smile. "Everyone didn’t approve of me as the new head of the Silvers Family. Florence is one of the people who disapproved of my position. She thinks my brothers deserve the position more than I do. We’ve never truly seen each other eye to eye, but that was fine with me. After all, we might be a part of the Five Secret Families, but we do not meddle with each other’s businesses."

The short smile on Lukas’s face slowly disappeared. "It was fine until Florence crossed that line, Mr. Zhu. She used my brothers to go against me, fed them with lies and promises, and made my people turn their backs on me. And while all of that is happening, Donnabella approached me."

"She became my secret advisor during her stay on the Island," he added solemnly. "She said she was once in that same position where everyone didn’t believe in her and wanted to take her down. And she told me what she had done to stop it all at once."

"I could still remember her words back then," he breathed out as he leaned back. "Make your people respect you and your enemies fear you."

"You killed your brothers?"

"I burned them alive." Lukas nodded without a second hesitation. "Do I regret it? If I could go back in time, I’d do it again. Their deaths unified our family and secured my spot. Now, our family is stronger than it ever was. My people respect me and my enemies fear me at the same time."

He huffed to catch his breath, smiling as he ended up telling Dominic their story. "Donnabella protects her family just because they are her flesh and blood. But I am not like her. I don’t protect people just because we have the same blood running through our veins. I protect the people who acted and treated me as a family."

"Which explains why I am here." Lukas smiled. "Donnabella is my family and her last wish is for me to make sure her family is safe and sound, even after she passed. It’s a promise I made to her, and I will fulfill it, regardless."

"Dominic Zhu, Donnabella saved my family once and I will do the same for her. This is my way of repaying her from the debt I owed." His expression turned solemn as his visage looked sharper. "I’ll help you take down Florence Oxley."