All Chapters of The Forgotten Heir : Chapter 1
- Chapter 8
8 chapters
The Downfall
The sun beat hard against the half-finished construction site, turning steel beams into scorching metal and the air into a wavering haze. Ethan Ward wiped sweat from his brow with the back of a dusty hand, forcing himself to stay focused as he inspected a crooked support frame. He could see the mistake instantly, something any competent foreman should have caught.But Ethan wasn’t a foreman anymore.He wasn’t anything.Not after the last few months.“Hey, Ward!” a young supervisor barked from across the concrete slab, waving hastily scribbled blueprints. “You’re doing the grunt work today, remember? Leave the thinking to people who still have reputations.”The men around him snickered.Ethan didn’t answer. He just tightened the loose bolt and stepped back to check the alignment. He used to be the one giving orders, designing structures, coordinating multimillion naira projects. Now he hauled bags of cement and t
Last Updated : 2025-11-19
The Abandonment
“Ethan… we can’t do this anymore,” Lisa’s voice sliced through the apartment like a blade, trembling yet full of finality.Ethan looked up from the pile of bills and unopened letters on the kitchen table, his fingers hovering over the envelopes as if trying to hold the world together. “What… what are you saying?” he asked, his voice tight, strained.“I’m leaving,” she said, her gaze refusing to meet his. “I can’t live like this, Ethan. I can’t… watch you destroy us.”The words hit him like a sledgehammer. He blinked, searching her face for a hint of mercy, any sign that this was a joke or a fleeting frustration. But there was none. She had made her decision. “Destroy us? Lisa… you’re exaggerating. I’m...”“Don’t.” Her voice rose, trembling with anger and sorrow. “Don’t try to justify it. You’ve already destroyed everything. I can’t live in this constant fear, this constant… chaos. I’m taking Jamie, and I’m leaving. Divorce pa
Last Updated : 2025-11-19
The New Low
The clang of the prison gates echoed in Ethan Ward’s ears like a death knell. He had counted every day, every hour, every second, and now the waiting was over. The man who had been stripped of his family, his career, and his reputation was walking out into the world or at least, what remained of it.The sun hit him like a physical blow. It was brighter than he remembered, too harsh, too indifferent. He squinted, adjusting to the freedom that didn’t feel like freedom at all. The weight of the world had not lifted; it had merely shifted. Out of prison, he realized, meant facing a reality far more brutal than anything behind bars: a world that had moved on without him, a world that no longer had a place for Ethan Ward.He had learned one truth behind the gray walls of the penitentiary: survival was about adaptation. Strength was about cunning. And vengeance, if it was to ever come, needed patience. The man who emerged from the gate
Last Updated : 2025-11-19
The Convoy
The night had settled over the village like a soft, oppressive blanket. Caleb sat at the small wooden table in his cramped room above the bar, staring at the note over and over, as if doing so could unlock the secret it contained. “They are coming. You are not alone. You are the heir.”Every word felt like a spark against dry kindling, igniting a fire of curiosity and unease he couldn’t contain. But who? And why now?The stillness of the night shattered suddenly. A distant roar, low and mechanical, grew rapidly louder. Caleb’s head jerked toward the window.Black shapes moved through the misty village streets, their lights cutting through the darkness. At first, he thought it was a convoy of trucks, but the vehicles were sleek, armored, and impossibly heavy. The sound of engines and tires crunching over the gravel made the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end.Caleb’s instincts screamed at him to flee. Years of sur
Last Updated : 2025-11-19
The Revelation
Caleb’s hands shook as he followed Shen Gao toward the convoy. Every instinct screamed at him to flee, to disappear into the night, to retreat into the anonymity of the village he had clung to for years. And yet, the old man’s calm, authoritative presence made hesitation feel almost foolish.“You need to understand,” Shen Gao said, his voice steady but urgent, “what I am about to show you cannot be unlearned. You are not who you believe yourself to be. You were never meant to live as Caleb Ward.”Caleb laughed, a hollow sound that seemed to echo off the empty streets. “And who exactly am I supposed to be? A superhero? A reincarnated warrior? Or are you just another lunatic looking to exploit me?”Shen Gao didn’t flinch. He extended his hand toward Caleb’s shoulder, eyes fixed on the dragon-shaped mark. “Look at it. Really look at it. That mark is not a birthmark. It is a sigil, a hereditary emblem of the Aurelian Order, a lineage that ha
Last Updated : 2025-11-19
The Training Begins
The gates of the Aurelian stronghold closed behind Aurelius Kael with a resounding clang that echoed through the cavernous halls. He stopped for a moment, breathing heavily, the heat from the dragon shaped sigil on his shoulder still lingering. The mark throbbed, as if sensing that this was only the beginning.Shen Gao led him down a corridor lined with polished panels that glimmered with holographic data, showing networks, diagrams, and moving images of distant operations. Machines hummed softly in the background, their presence both foreign and unsettling. Every step reminded Aurelius that the world he had known was gone. Every familiar memory of Caleb Ward, the life he had clawed to survive was now an unrecognizable fragment beneath the weight of the legacy he had just inherited.“You will start your training immediately,” Shen Gao said without preamble, his voice firm. “There is no time for acclimation. By the end of the wee
Last Updated : 2025-11-19
The Web Of Deceit
Ethan’s muscles still ached from the relentless drills of the past weeks, but it wasn’t the physical exhaustion that weighed on him now. It was the gnawing uncertainty the cracks forming in the carefully constructed reality he had been thrust into. He had survived the training, pushed past limits he didn’t know he had, and unlocked a power within himself that responded to the dragon shaped sigil on his shoulder. Yet, the more he learned about the Aurelian Order, the more questions surfaced, each one sharper and colder than the last.In the sprawling halls of the Aurelian estate, every corner seemed to hold a secret. The estate itself was a labyrinth of high tech corridors, security checkpoints, and rooms filled with data screens pulsing with cryptic symbols. Ethan had been shown the “archives,” a vast repository of the Order’s history, past operations, and confidential files. He had expected answers confirmation of who he was, why he had been taken,
Last Updated : 2025-11-19
The Rise To Powe
The days that followed the revelations about his past were brutal yet exhilarating. Each morning, Ethan now Aurelius Kael woke to a world that demanded more of him than he had ever imagined. The Aurelian estate, with its infinite corridors of high-tech brilliance, was no longer just a home it was a battlefield. Every decision carried weight, every interaction held the potential for betrayal, and every glance from the people around him hinted at hidden motives.Ethan had spent the previous week reviewing every accessible file, analyzing every report, and questioning every senior member of the Order. It was exhausting work, but it was necessary. He discovered layers of deceit within the organization: internal rivalries that had festered for decades, strategic missteps by caretakers of the empire, and the occasional inexplicable gaps in records like the files surrounding his kidnapping. Someone had carefully constructed a web o
Last Updated : 2025-11-19