“I’ve been called worse,” Ethan replied calmly to her ‘monster’ insult. “I have been called worse things, usually by people who underestimated the situation they were in.”Jane stared at him, understanding his last sentence was both a warning and an insult, and the truth finally settled deep in her bones.Whatever Ethan was, he wasn’t just hiding at the airline.He was waiting for something, but she didn’t have an idea what it was.“You’re in trouble, you know that right?” she said quietly. “Someone out there is after you. And you’re acting like it’s just another inconvenience.”Ethan turned back to the hallway to ready to return to his department.“Trouble is relative,” he said over his shoulder.With that, he walked back into the hallway.Jane stood there for several seconds, her heart pounding, with anger and dread tangling in her chest.She wanted to scream after him, to demand more answers, to force him to acknowledge the mess he’d made.But she knew better. She just turned awa

“It really is,” Ethan muttered. “I am thinking of going to confront them and let them know that I am not messing with anyone, but… knowing those proud bastards, they won’t believe me.”Jim just nodded for a moment, reconciling the little he had heard in the bathroom to what Ethan was telling him.It mostly made sense, since he hadn’t heard much of anything, but still, he felt like something was missing.Even if they had paid very scary people to pull off the prank, it didn’t make sense that John would be in so much regret over it.He wasn’t sure exactly what was going on, but Ethan didn’t look like he was lying. He didn’t seem like he had a reason to lie either.Ethan noticed the slight flinching of Crazy Jim's cheek, and he figured out most of what the man was thinking.To distract the man from probing further, Ethan threw in a distraction.“You know what the most annoying part of the whole prank was?” he said, and Crazy Jim immediately looked up, awaiting the continuation.“The ann

By the time Ethan made his way back to the operations control department, his edge had dulled a bit. He was so tired it was like he had lost all energy in his body trying to make Jim, Jane and John believe what he needed them to believe.He looked down at the rings on his finger and sighed.In his younger days, he had read novels about ancient artefacts that could give people certain gifts or boost certain talents they had, but at a cost.For some, it was at the cost of their lifeforce, for others, they had special energies like mana or chi to burn through.With the kind of mental exhaustion he was feeling at the moment, he was starting to consider the possibility that this family heirloom his family had gone to such lengths to protect was like that, only in this case, it might be drawing on his mental stamina.He drew a deep breath and shoved the thought aside.There was almost nothing he knew about the rings, other than the fact that they were from his parents, they saved him from d

Ethan didn’t really have too much to consider after Lydia explained the way she viewed Jane. There was nothing really surprising there. It was exactly the same way he saw her, he probably even saw her in a worse light.The only real question on his mind was whether or not he was going to let her keep working in the company when he does fix it up.Although it wasn’t really a question. She had to go, but seeing as he was having thoughts of using her to confirm all the people in administration she had in her pocket, it might seem unfair.‘That is life in the end. People are meant to be used one way or another,’ he thought to himself in silence.He had actually been silent for a second too long without realizing it, but Lydia realized it.“Wait a minute,” Lydia quickly raised her hands in the air. “Don’t hate her or see her differently because of what I just said,” she said, worried that her judgement of Jane was the reason Ethan was going quiet.“What?” Ethan raised a brow, confused by

Ethan wanted so much to further the whole “blame it on Jane” thing he had done earlier, but he knew who had actually taken it.‘I guess Jim was not kidding about taking the money,’ Ethan thought to himself.He kept his face neutral and just continued the conversation. “If you aren’t with the cash, then why are you worried?”John exhaled sharply. “What if they think I hid it? What if they come after me to take it from me on my way home? What if they attack me or my family?”“I think you are overthinking this, John.” “If they really wanted their money back, they would have come back for it immediately. And better still, they wouldn’t have given it out. Since they did give it away, it means they can afford to lose it.”“But what if you are wrong?”“Well, if I am wrong and they really want their money back, they would put a tracker in it.” Ethan added. “What?” John was confused.“Yes. A few hundred bucks should get them a good tracker they can hide in the money.”“That way they can ea