Chapter 328: Do You Realize Who He Is?

As the saying went, clothes made the man, just as a saddle made the horse.

The truth of those words was on full display.

Only moments ago, Josh had been throwing his weight around, refusing to apologize and accusing others of trying to scam him. Now, he was practically groveling at Luca’s feet.

The onlookers quickly pieced together what had happened. The young man had been acting tough because he thought he could get away with it. The moment he encountered someone he couldn’t afford to offend, his attitude changed completely.

His expression had changed faster than someone flipping through the pages of a book.

"If an apology were enough to settle everything, what would we need the police for?" Luca asked, raising his chin slightly.

He looked Josh straight in the eye.

"First, apologize to the lady and my sister. Then slap yourself twice. Do that, and I’ll let you go."

If Josh had simply refused to apologize, Luca might not even have bothered wasting his time on him.

The problem was that the man hadn’t stopped at refusing to admit his mistake. He’d gone as far as slandering Trish.

If Luca hadn’t shown up, who knew how things might have ended? Even if there were surveillance cameras, what if Josh had connections with the mall’s management? What if the footage suddenly became unavailable?

Would Trish have been left to bear the blame for something she hadn’t done?

Compared with the humiliation Josh had tried to inflict on his sister, two slaps were a light punishment.

If Vivienne hadn’t been pregnant and waiting for him, Luca would have been perfectly willing to pursue the matter further.

Unfortunately for Josh, Luca wasn’t the sort of person who would let someone walk all over his family just to keep the peace.

"That’s impossible!" Josh blurted out.

He was afraid of Luca, certainly, but slapping himself in front of a crowd was a different matter entirely.

How was he supposed to show his face around San Fierro afterward?

Several people had already taken out their phones to record the confrontation. If a video of him publicly humiliating himself made its way online, he’d become a laughingstock for years.

His family might not rank among San Fierro’s wealthiest, but they were still comfortably well-off. Josh had grown up accustomed to getting his way, and he simply couldn’t stomach Luca’s demand.

He could reluctantly accept apologizing to Trish and the middle-aged woman. After all, he’d been in the wrong.

But slapping himself in public?

That was a humiliation he would rather die than endure.

At the same time, he didn’t dare openly defy Luca. Caught between his pride and his fear, he stood there struggling to decide what to do.

"What’s going on here? Why has everyone gathered in one place? Are you planning to stand around all day, or is someone going to explain what happened?"

A clear male voice suddenly rang out from the other side of the crowd.

Josh’s eyes lit up as though he’d just heard a heavenly melody.

The onlookers parted, revealing a handsome young man in a suit and tie. Several security guards followed closely behind him.

"Sir Schneider!"

Josh hurried toward him, his earlier hesitation instantly forgotten. He bent over himself in an almost comical display of deference, looking more like an eager dog than a man who’d been acting superior just moments earlier.

Jermain Schneider glanced at him and raised an eyebrow.

"Well, Green, looks like you’ve gotten yourself into some trouble."

The mall belonged to the Schneider family, one of the established wealthy families in San Fierro. As its heir, Jermain had already begun learning the ropes of the family business despite not having graduated from university.

Josh was several years older than him, yet the difference in their status meant he could only play the obedient subordinate whenever they met.

Truthfully, Josh wasn’t particularly impressive in his own right. He certainly wasn’t someone Jermain would consider a close friend. Still, Jermain found him sufficiently useful and, more importantly, knew that he understood how to behave around people above him.

Whenever Josh encountered trouble, Jermain was usually willing to lend a hand if it wasn’t too much of an inconvenience.

"Hehe, I’ve run into a little problem," Josh admitted sheepishly, scratching the back of his head. "But I wouldn’t want to trouble you, Sir Schneider."

"Come on, it’s fine. I’ve got nothing better to do anyway. Think of it as a little warm-up."

With that, Jermain walked past Josh, who was practically beaming with relief, and turned his attention to the man standing nearby.

Luca.

The moment Jermain got a proper look at his face, his brows drew together.

It wasn’t the dispute itself that bothered him. Something about Luca’s appearance seemed familiar, though he couldn’t immediately recall where he’d seen him before.

’Could he be the heir of one of San Fierro’s major families?’

If so, helping Josh at the expense of offending someone like that would be an incredibly foolish decision.

Yet there was something else that made Jermain uneasy.

Luca met his gaze without the slightest hint of nervousness. If anything, Jermain was the one who felt increasingly uncomfortable under that calm, unhurried stare.

He couldn’t explain why, but his instincts kept warning him that provoking this man could bring serious trouble upon the Schneider family.

Just as he stood there, frowning and trying to place Luca’s face, a woman with her red hair tied up approached from the side.

Dressed casually, she walked straight to Luca and slipped her arm through his with effortless familiarity. A little girl, no more than four or five years old, accompanied her. With her fair skin and delicate features, she looked as adorable as a doll.

The instant Jermain recognized the red-haired woman, his eyes widened.

His legs nearly gave way, and he stumbled backward two steps. One of the security guards behind him caught him before he could fall.

For a moment, Jermain felt as though his soul had left his body.

He cursed Josh repeatedly in his mind.

’You idiot! How did you manage to turn a simple dispute into a nightmare on the highest difficulty setting?’

Forget Luca. How many people in San Fierro would dare offend the woman standing beside him?

No wonder Luca had seemed so familiar.

Jermain had seen him once before at Vivienne’s East Mountain Pass Racetrack. Back then, Luca hadn’t yet become such a prominent figure in San Fierro’s upper circles. Jermain’s main impression of him had simply been that he was Vivienne’s boyfriend.

He’d even thought that if he ever ran into Luca again, he should at least greet him respectfully.

Who could have imagined that, instead of getting the chance to greet him, he’d end up having to clean up a mess caused by his own idiot of an acquaintance?

"Sir Schneider, are you feeling unwell?"

Seeing Jermain stumble, Josh hurried over to support him, hoping the gesture would earn him some goodwill.

Instead, Jermain roughly shook off his hand and straightened up.

Before Josh could react, a sharp slap landed across his face.

Smack!

Josh staggered, clutching his cheek in disbelief.

Jermain wasn’t finished.

He struck him across the other cheek as well.

"Sir Schneider... I..."

Josh stared at him, his face burning. The disbelief in his eyes quickly gave way to fear as he struggled to understand what had just happened.

Jermain didn’t bother explaining himself gently.

"Why are you still standing here like an idiot? Get over there and beg Big Sister and her man Luca Hale for forgiveness!"

He punctuated his words with a kick to Josh’s stomach.

Josh doubled over and fell to the ground, pain flaring through his abdomen.

Yet he barely had time to think about the physical discomfort.

Jermain’s words had left him utterly terrified. His face drained of color, and his entire body began to tremble.

In San Fierro’s circle of wealthy young heirs, there was only one woman everyone referred to as Big Sister.

Vivienne, the current chairwoman of Octaveo Pharmaceutical.

If Vivienne herself was already someone Josh couldn’t afford to offend, then her boyfriend was practically untouchable.

In the past, plenty of people had scoffed at the idea of calling Luca with respect. They’d dismissed him as nothing more than a handsome man who had somehow managed to win the heart of a woman as beautiful and capable as Vivienne.

But things had changed.

Maison Premier in the capital had fallen, and its collapse had become a sensation far beyond the city itself. Even in San Fierro, more than a thousand kilometers away, the news had spread rapidly through wealthy and influential circles.

And Luca’s role in it had only added to his growing reputation.

His abilities had become the subject of countless discussions among the city’s elite. Members of the older generation had even issued explicit warnings to their descendants: whatever they did, they were never to provoke Vivienne’s boyfriend.

Now, Josh finally understood the kind of person he’d just offended.

His pride shattered, he scrambled to his feet and rushed toward Luca and Vivienne.

"I was wrong! I’m sorry! Please forgive me! I promise I won’t ever do it again!"