A Bait

Hunter sat on one of the couches in Rex's office, deep in thought, wondering as to what Rex might be hiding, other than the baffling reason why he had given Lucas a reason to work at his company.

He waited patiently, expecting to hear Rex's excuses, but his cousin was still taking his sweet time, presumably preparing to reveal his reasons.

Any minute now.

Rex sighed, looking straight into Hunter's eyes before leaning back in his chair.

"At first, it was all for bait," Rex began, recalling all of the things that had happened since he found Lucas lying cold on the ground at the New Year's Eve party at Bo Guo Hotel.

"After I found him lying cold on the ground in a narrow alleyway outside the Bo Guo Hotel, wearing only a thin t-shirt and some pants, just at stranger. I did a background check on him, my mind went straight to taking revenge on his family."

Hunter grimaced at the thought. Rex carefully looked at Hunter's expression before continuing.

"His family, the Huangs, had been nothing but a pain in the ass to any businesses that they interacted with. They pretend to be professional business partners but would turn their backs on you whenever a new and richer opportunity comes their way."

"Grandfather's business almost went bankrupt when Lucas's father decided to pull out all of his investments from the business, leaving Grandpa with nothing but a mountain of paperwork."

"Then, when their business almost went bankrupt, he was an unfortunate bastard who was nothing but innocent about his business ventures."

"It made me furious when I found out about it. I tried to explain to Grandpa that he could do what he did before if we helped but he didn't listen."

"So, imagine my shock when I discovered the stranger I picked up from the streets was Seth Huang's youngest son— the so-called golden son that they thought would be the heir to their corrupt empire.

"It fueled the anger in me to take revenge for my grandfather on his family, using him."

Hunter felt a chill run down his spine hearing how Rex gritted his teeth and how much he despised Lucas's parents.

Well, no one has the right to push all the blame on his grandfather for being too trusting and for not seeing the true intentions of the Huangs.

The old man had been just blinded by his friendship with Seth Huang's father and decided to help the family out of pure goodwill. 

"So, you decided to make Lucas a bait by keeping him here?"

Rex sighed before nodding back to Hunter.

"Yes, at first that was the plan. But it collapsed when they announced that they had removed him from the family registry for some unknown reasons."

"Leaving you with no other reasons to keep him here?"

Rex nodded again, answering the latter's question while dwelling more on a proper reason to retain Lucas in the company.

"Okay, got it. Thanks for sharing that with me. But don't you think it was a bit too petty to seek revenge over something so mediocre?"

Rex laughed at this and shook his head.

"Yes, I know. It was petty. But something tells me that there's more to this friendship than what Grandfather intended this to be. I mean, he literally almost put Seth's name in his last will before he died, and Seth wasn't even a part of the family."

Hunter frowned, recalling what had heard about the will during his university days.

He wondered why his parents were so determined to change it, even when it was their grandfather's final wish to keep it unchanged.

It made him curious but he was more focused on finishing his master's than focusing on some piece of paper that their families were fighting over.

Well, now he finally knew.

"Wow, un-fucking-believable. Never knew granddad could do something like that."

"Oh, tell me about it," Rex said, rolling his eyes away from Hunter.

The young man in front of him gulped, watching Rex incoherently murmur words that were too low for him to hear.

"So, if you no longer have any excuses to keep him here, why is he still an employee then?" Hunter pressed.

Rex grinned sheepishly at the fellow, recalling the conversation he and Lucas had back at the gardens.

The condition that Lucas mentioned had become an entirely new reason why Rex was helping him out.

"When I asked for him to work here, he gave me a condition of his own," Rex said.

His words piqued Hunter's curiosity.

His brows raised up and he turned to Rex with a much more encouraging face than before.

"He asked me to help him build a reputation in the business whilst using a new identity."

Hunter frowned, his brows knitting together in the middle, causing Rex to laugh at his expression.

Hunter being shocked was a bit of an understatement, but the latter still wondered what identity Rex had given Lucas.

"What identity?"

Rex chuckled before answering. "Ezekiel's fourth cousin."

Hunter blinked as he heard Rex's answer. 

Ezekiel's fourth what?

"The fuck did you just say?"

"Ezekiel's fourth cousin," Rex repeated.

Hunter was stunned by the turn of events.

Lucas had actually accepted these terms for his new identity. Did he even know who Ezekiel's fourth cousin was?

His thoughts made him pause for a second. He looked at Rex who was struggling to snicker a laugh at his own idea.

"Rex, does Lucas even know?"

Rex's shoulders were trembling with silent laughter as he shook his head, an answer that Hunter was not expecting to get from him. 

"YOU ACCEPTED HIS TERMS WITHOUT EVEN TELLING HIM ABOUT STELLAR?!"

Rex burst into a loud laughter when he saw the information dawning on Hunter, who was on the verge of panic with the overwhelming information his brain had just gathered.

"You shitty ass, do you realize what you've done? You just put Lucas in trouble!"

Rex was still in his fits of laughter, shaking his head towards Hunter, opposing his statement.

"No, you dumb ass. Do you think that I would put him in trouble? Do you think I am that dumb?"

Rex gave him a meaningful smile, making Hunter pause for a second, a light bulb going off in his head.

"Wait, you mean…"

Rex nodded, getting up from his chair, clearing his throat and grabbing his phone from the desk.

He speed-dialed a number before putting it on loudspeaker, making Hunter wonder whether he was truly the mad dog at this game.

"Oh hey, Rex. What do I owe this pleasure of you calling me?"