Seeing that the situation wasn’t good, Derek hurriedly said, “Uh, Eric, don’t be fooled by these people! I swear I didn’t send anyone to kill your son. I don’t know the man you’re holding at all! Since they brought him here, he’s obviously in cahoots with them and trying to frame me so that you’ll hate me!”

Eric couldn’t tell who was lying, so he could only squeeze the neck of the young man in his hand and roar, “Say it! Tell me honestly how my son died?!”

Afraid that Eric would really strangle him to death, the young man explained frantically, “Mr… Mr. Piers instructed me to do it! I’ve always worked for the Piers, and just after noon today, he told me that there was a man with broken limbs at the mall, and he immediately wanted me to pretend to be a member of the rescue team so that I could kill him silently!

“I haven’t touched the two hundred thousand Mr. Piers told his butler to give me! I swear I’m telling the truth! I’m not lying at all!”

Derek shouted in panic, “Stop spouting nonsense and slandering me! I don’t know you, and I’ve never seen you before. How could I have possibly instructed you to kill someone?

“Furthermore, as the head of the esteemed Pier family, if I really wanted to kill someone, I would instruct my subordinates to relay the orders. How could I have done it myself? I don’t know who instructed you to deal with me, but you’d better think it over carefully. If you dare to slander me, I’ll definitely skin you alive and make sure your entire family dies horribly!”

Derek hollered furiously, refusing to admit that this young man had anything to do with him. In particular, his last sentence had an intense threat.

Sure enough, after hearing what Derek said, the young man shuddered and didn’t dare to say anything else.

Eric said coldly, “Don’t worry. As long as you tell the truth, the Bransons will protect your family. No one will be able to hurt them!”

In fact, now that things had already come to this, Derek had already made a judgment that there was something fishy about his son’s death. He was certain that Derek had instructed this young man to kill his son!

The young man gritted his teeth and said, “What I just said was the truth! Mr. Branson, given your abilities, it should be easy for you to find out if I’ve worked for the Piers!

“Moreover, I can tell you very clearly that I received two hundred thousand in my account at around one-thirty this afternoon, and your son’s death was at about one-fifty! I remember it very clearly!

“You can run and check and find out these things! It was Derek Branson who made me do it, and I hope you’ll spare my family on account that I’ve told you the truth. They don’t know anything!”

The young man gave a clear account of all the things he had done, and there was a definite timeline from the moment he received the money to when he killed Mark. So it was unlikely that someone had bribed him after Mark’s to frame Derek.

“Derek, now that the evidence is conclusive, what else do you have to say?” Eric glowered at Derek, his eyes burning with fury.

He never imagined that just a few minutes ago, Derek was still telling him not to forget that his son had been murdered and that he mustn’t let Jordan, the Howards, and Lucas off the hook.

But the facts now showed that the person who really killed his son was none other than Derek!

He had deliberately set things up to frame Jordan and falsely say that he wanted to help Eric take revenge so that he could use him to deal with his enemy!

How vicious and evil!

Derek couldn’t find a suitable reason to get himself out of trouble, so he could only deny it vehemently. “I really didn’t do it. This punk made it all up. Eric, you have to believe me!”

He was full of hatred. He had already carried out his plan successfully, and he was so close to uniting three top families. But a sudden change had occurred, and the murderer had been exposed. As a result, his plans went up in smoke, and he ended up offending the Bransons!

Florence took a deep look at Lucas with heartfelt admiration in her eyes.

She initially thought that she would come over and be able to resolve Maddy and Jordan’s matter. But she didn’t expect the Williams and the Piers to get involved too. If Lucas wasn’t present, the Bransons, the Piers, and the Williams would have formed an alliance and put the Howards in a dangerous situation.

Moreover, Lucas had secretly sent someone to investigate Mark’s death and found the real murderer, exposing Derek’s plot and turning the situation around!

Meanwhile, Rayson looked at Lucas in astonishment, finding it impressive that he had turned the situation around without much effort.

At this time, Rayson’s heart was full of joy. Fortunately, after some hesitation, he had chosen to stand on Lucas’s side instead of joining Derek. Facts proved that he had made the right choice!

Seeing that things were going awry and escalating out of control, Derek felt vexed and flustered.

“Hmph, I came with good intentions to help the Bransons seek justice. However, I didn’t expect that not only would you be ungrateful, but you’re even doubting me even though I’ve been framed! In that case, I have nothing more to say. Goodbye!” Derek said angrily and turned around to leave.

“Stop. Did I say that you could leave?” Lucas’s cold and indifferent voice suddenly sounded behind him.

Derek’s body froze in shock.

He planned to ignore Lucas and just walk away. But for some reason, a chill surged in his heart when he recalled what had happened at the Howard residence previously. His feet felt as if they were stuck to the ground, and he didn’t dare to move at all.

Previously, Dereck and his father had brought more than thirty elite bodyguards to the Howard residence. Four of them had been severely injured, while the rest had their joints disconnected by Jordan. Eventually, they later joined the Howard family.

Although he had brought more than twenty people this time and a few top experts he had hired from abroad at a high price, he wasn’t confident when facing Lucas.

“Wh-what do you want?” Derek stared at Lucas with clenched fists.

Lucas said coldly, “You secretly killed Eric Branson’s son, but that’s between you and the Bransons. I don’t care about this. But you owe me an explanation for framing my friend Jordan for it! Furthermore, you repeatedly slandered my mother-in-law for killing her father to take over his position. You’d better explain yourself, or else you can forget about stepping foot outside the Stone residence today!”