Logan swallowed hard, feeling a bit pressured.When Amelia talked and nagged about Ethan, he had barely ever listened. He just had sex with her, heard her complain, but nothing ever really registered. He had to try to remember everything useful, and be smart about telling it.He had already made up a few lies today and the Coles had heard the lies too. He had to make sure whatever he said matches the stories he had already told.“Sir… Ethan is no one actually.”“His wife told me of how her father had found him, jobless, barely surviving in some street downtown. He was literally leeching off another poor family, but her father liked him.”“Apparently he had a really great character, and when he got sick, he promised to leave his shares in my company to her if she got married while he was still breathing.”“That was why she went out with him. To make her old man happy, but the old bastard didn’t die until earlier this year.”“After he passed, she decided to get rid of him, and dumped h

“You have your own ways too huh?” Renshaw chuckled, puffing out a few rings of smoke.“Come on, tell me about it.”“Because you would tell me about yours?” Logan scoffed.“Come on, I already told you. I do it through friends. What else is there to know?” Renshaw replied with a taunting smile playing on his lips.“Come on, I can tell you already have a plan, just let me in. Who knows? I might be able to give you a few ideas.”“Well, if you must know, I am doing it just the way you would. I will handle it with my own… friends.” Logan grinned, straightening his posture as if this were some casual joke.Victor’s expression didn’t change. “Logan, I have known you long enough to know you don’t have the kinds of friends for this.”“You always made friends with people beneath you, so you could feel on top of the world.”Logan frowned at the insult, and it made Renshaw smile.“What can I say, the truth hurts.”Logan’s frown worsened as he scanned through his thoughts and realized that Renshaw

Ethan’s thoughts were spiraling as he tried to distract himself, but they weren’t going away.Sure, he had saved Axel from Alexander, but now what?The Coles were supposed to be menaces. He couldn’t let her return to her family, they were the ones that wanted to give her away in the first place, and he couldn’t let her go to work. Alexander could be waiting for that.‘So what? I just keep her in the villa forever?’ his thoughts started getting loud, but then they were silenced by a soft knock at his bedroom door.“Come in,” he said, expecting to see Ava, but when the door opened, it was Axel that stepped in.Axel walked into the room sheepishly, wrapped in one of Ava’s spare robes, with her hands tucked behind her back like a child afraid of being scolded. Ethan had changed out of the suit too, now in a gray shirt, sitting on the couch by the window.“I hope I’m not bothering you,” she said softly.“You’re fine. Please, sit.”She looked at the bed hesitantly, but he motioned to the

Ethan woke up feeling oddly chipper. It was almost as if the thought of stepping into his role as CEO had woken up a part of him he didn’t know existed.He had his morning work out session, and got dressed in a dark blue suit. Breakfast was brought up to his room, and he barely touched it.Before long, he was fully ready to leave for Nexus Air.“You look wonderful sir,” Ava was waiting outside his door with a smile.As usual, she was dressed in a two piece trouser suit, black.Her dressing choice was something that made him smile although he never let it show.“Are we ready to leave?” Ethan asked, walking down the stairs.“Yes sir, the cars are outside.”“Cars?” He raised a brow.“Of course,” Ava smiled. She had gone all out, preparing an eight car convoy for the trip. Ethan caught a glimpse of the cars outside and almost laughed.“Am I supposed to pick one or are they all going with us?”“Of course they are,” Ava’s smile widened.“That’s a little too much Ava,” Ethan shook his head.

After the woman left, Ava turned to the manager. “How often do we see issues like this?” she asked.He shrugged, taking a moment before he answered.He was pissed that she had just promised someone five thousand dollars.‘That is coming out of someone else’s paycheck, not mine,’ he muttered to himself before answering her. “This is a public-access environment ma’am, so it happens a lot. People can make staged complaints trying to make away with some free cash, just like the one you promised the lady that just left.”The last part slipped out before he realized it.“Forgive my bluntness ma’am,” he quickly apologized with a nervous chuckle.Ava didn’t respond to him. She just made a mental note of his name and face, planning to look into him personally.The rest of the tour played out predictably. Ava watched the staff straighten desks they had left askew, tweak monitors just enough to hide the dust, smooth down a crack in the floor tile that had been ignored for months. Everything