Chapter 344: A Beating for the Truth

Maddox swept his gaze across the room and said coldly, “Everyone else, out.” His expression was thunderous. No one dared provoke him at a time like this. The few men and women in the room quickly filed out.

Trey had already put his clothes back on. He gave a sheepish smile and said, “What brings you here, Maddox?”

Maddox didn’t respond right away. His eyes fell on Trey’s change of clothes, and he asked slowly, “Why did you change?”

A flash of panic crossed Trey’s face, but he quickly replied, “Got my clothes dirty.”

“Oh, I see,” Maddox nodded, then continued. “It’s my birthday today. I saw you show up—why’d you disappear?”

“I got bored, so I left early. What about it, bro?” Trey asked, clearly uneasy.

“There was an incident at the party. You know about it, don’t you?” Maddox said flatly.

“Huh? Something happened? No idea!” Trev tried to play dumb, but his face had already given him away. Trev was the type who couldn’t keep his mouth shut and loved gossip. If he truly didn’t know, he’d have been full of questions by now. But he wasn’t. Not a word. And that was suspicious.

Maddox’s expression darkened. Suddenly, he barked, “You’re still lying to me? Do you even know who that woman was?”

Trey had always been afraid of Maddox. Maddox was the undisputed leader of their generation, the one set to inherit the Treno family. Ever since they were kids, Trev had held a natural fear of his cousin. Now, hearing Maddox’s words, his legs nearly gave out.

“Maddox, I didn’t mean to! I really didn’t know it was her! I just heard some guys saying there was a good-looking woman out in the courtyard—I swear I didn’t know…”

Trey was full of regret. He’d gone to Maddox’s birthday party planning to behave, but it wasn’t his kind of party—too formal, too stiff. He got bored, wandered into the courtyard, and overheard people talking about a beautiful woman waiting for someone. Something about it got him all hot and restless, so he went. At the time, he genuinely didn’t recognize the woman as Sierra. It was dark, and he didn’t…

And really, it wasn’t all his fault—she’d thrown herself at him the moment he walked over. How was he supposed to resist? The moment he touched Sierra, his head started spinning. She was so fiery, and he didn’t hold back. Then she suddenly flipped. Started struggling wildly, clawing at him, even going for his throat. So he fought back. That was when he finally got a good look at her face—it was Sierra.

Because of Maddox, he knew who Jonathan was. The second he realized it was Sierra, he sobered up fast and bolted. He only calmed down after fleeing the estate. He went over everything in his head, confirmed there were no cameras and that he hadn’t left any clues behind. Only then did he start to relax.

Still, he stayed on edge for days. When he heard something had happened at the party, he was so scared he didn’t even dare go home. But then half a night passed and no one said anything. Figuring he was in the clear, he called a few friends over for a wild night. His excuse? After everything he’d been through, he deserved something to take the edge off. He never expected Maddox to come find him anyway.

After hearing Trey’s version of events, Maddox couldn’t hold back—he punched him, again and again, until Trey was howling in pain.

“Maddox, stop! It hurts!”

Trev thought he was going to die. He always knew Maddox could be cruel, but he didn’t think he’d go this far. It felt like his cousin was trying to beat him to death. But Maddox didn’t let up. He wasn’t pulling any punches. He wanted nothing more than to kill this bastard. Better to die by his hand than by Jonathan’s. Besides, Maddox had always seen Sierra as one of his own. And now, this piece of trash had nearly ruined her. Just thinking about it made him want to beat Trey to a pulp.

In the end, though, he didn’t get the chance to finish the job. The commotion drew the attention of the Treno family’s second household. Camdon, seeing his son being pummeled like that, rushed in to stop it. Eventually, even Maddox’s father and Old Man Gu were alerted. Trev’s mother didn’t dare say anything outright, but seeing her son beaten so badly, her heart ached.