The room had fallen silent. Moments ago, laughter had echoed against the gilded walls of the Solano family’s private lounge—sharp, mocking, dripping with disdain. Now, every person who had joined in the ridicule seemed frozen, as if the air itself had grown heavy.Javier stood there, posture calm, expression unreadable. His charcoal-gray suit looked ordinary enough to them—until now. The faint sheen of the fabric under the chandelier hinted at its bespoke quality, the kind only a Savile Row tailor could craft.“You all seem… quieter than before,” Javier’s voice was even, controlled. His dark eyes swept the room, settling on each face that had, minutes earlier, been lit with mocking grins.One man—Sergio Mendonza, the loudest of them—cleared his throat. “We

Javier leaned back in his chair, his dark eyes calm, yet his presence heavy enough to silence the entire table.“Do you know what the problem is with people like you?” he said slowly, his voice deep and even. “You think money makes you untouchable. You think social circles define worth. And yet—” he tilted his head slightly, a smirk ghosting his lips, “—you’ve just spent the last ten minutes ridiculing the only person in this room who could crush your businesses in less time than it takes you to order another drink.”The laughter that had filled the table minutes ago was long gone. All that remained was tension—thick, suffocating, and humiliating.A man in a navy suit, Hector Mendez, cleared his throat. “Mr… Everhart, we—”“Ah,” Javier interrupted, his gaze cold as steel, “now I’m ‘Mr. Everhart’? What happened to ‘cheap suit’ and ‘coffee-fetcher’?”One of the women, pale and visibly nervous, reached for her wine glass but nearly dropped it. “We… we didn’t know—”“That’s the point,” Ja

Javier’s eyes were cold, sharp as steel, as the room fell silent. The same people who had mocked him minutes earlier now shifted uncomfortably, realizing they had underestimated the wrong man.“Well,” Javier began, his voice calm but carrying an edge that sliced through the air, “I believe you all had a lot to say about me a moment ago. Please—continue.”No one spoke. Their earlier confidence had drained away, leaving only awkward glances and nervous fidgeting.“I… I think there was a misunderstanding,” stammered one of the men, a portly figure who had laughed the loudest before. “We didn’t know—”“Oh, you didn’t know?” Javier cut him off, stepping closer, his polished shoes clicking against the marble floor. “And that justifies insulting someone you’ve never met? That’s how you treat strangers?”Valeria, standing beside him, crossed her arms and stared at them with disdain. “You people are pathetic,” she said, her tone dripping with contempt. “Javier doesn’t need to defend himself to

Javier leaned back in his leather chair, the golden rays of late afternoon streaming through the floor-to-ceiling windows of his penthouse office. His mind replayed the earlier scene like a scratched record—every sneer, every word that had been thrown at him as though he were beneath them. The memory didn’t wound him; it fueled him.Earlier that day, he had been at a luxury boutique, simply browsing for a gift for Valeria. He had been dressed casually—dark jeans, a plain shirt, and his old leather jacket that had sentimental value. To the staff and the two women at the counter, he must have looked like a man who could barely afford the price tag of the cheapest keychain.“Sir, that’s the limited collection,” one saleswoman had said in a voice that oozed condescension. “You might want to check the discount rack near the entrance.”The two women—expensively dressed in designer labels from head to toe—had glanced at him and exchanged whispers that weren’t nearly as quiet as they thought.

The laughter around the marble table was the kind that cut through the air—sharp, mocking, and completely without shame. Javier stood there, holding Valeria’s hand, while the group of men in their tailored suits and expensive watches barely hid their sneers.One man, with slicked-back hair and a wine glass in hand, looked Javier up and down.“Valeria, darling,” he said with a chuckle, “I didn’t know you were into… charity work.”The table erupted in low, poisonous laughter. Javier said nothing, but his jaw tightened.Another man leaned forward, his tone dripping with fake sympathy.“Where did you find him? Outside the building, polishing shoes?” His smirk deepened. “If you were going for the whole ‘beauty and the beast’ thing, you nailed it.”Valeria stiffened beside him, but Javier’s expression remained calm, almost unreadable. He’d dealt with far worse insults in his life. This… was just noise.A woman in a crimson gown, her diamonds catching the light, gave an exaggerated sigh.“Ho