Victor Sr. looked down at Ronald's trembling, kowtowing form and felt something heavy settle in his chest. It was not anger. It was something worse. Disappointment so deep it had gone past pain and come out the other side as nothing at all. He shook his head slowly and turned away.Victoria stepped forward and looked at the row of kneeling family members the way a person looks at insects that have crawled onto a dinner table."Five minutes ago you were telling my grandfather to go die so you could save your own skins," Victoria said. Her voice was steady and sharp enough to cut glass. "You called him stubborn. You called him selfish. You said his life was worth less than your comfort. And now you are on your knees crying like beaten dogs begging for scraps."Mrs. Hayes folded her arms and looked at Ronald specifically."You stood in the middle of this hall and led the charge," Mrs. Hayes said. "You told everyone to throw Victor Sr. to the wolves. You called Ethan delusional. You said

The study door closed with a soft click that sounded like a gavel coming down. The room was paneled in dark oak with bookshelves lining every wall and a heavy mahogany desk sitting beneath a green glass lamp. It smelled of old leather and pipe tobacco and the accumulated weight of fifty years of decisions made by one man.Victor Sr. did not make it to his desk. The moment the door shut, his knees buckled and he dropped to the floor in front of Ethan. His forehead nearly touched the carpet and his frail hands pressed flat on either side of his face."Young Master," Victor Sr. said. His voice trembled with a mixture of reverence and raw terror. "The Harlow family has served as Sect Managers of the Human Tower for three generations. Everything we have built belongs to the tower. I have been waiting my entire life for this moment."Victoria stared at her grandfather on the floor. She had never seen him kneel for anyone. Not once in her entire life. The shock lasted only a second before sh

The Cole Clinic felt even smaller with five people standing inside it. The single overhead light buzzed softly and the smell of the White Dragon Root decoction still lingered in the air. Master Frank looked around the cramped space, at the medicine shelves, the single bed, the floor pallets, and the portrait of Helen Cole hanging on the back wall, and cleared his throat."Young Master," Master Frank said carefully. "Perhaps we should find more suitable accommodations. I can arrange a secure location within the hour. Something with proper rooms, a perimeter, running hot water."Ethan sat down on the wooden stool beside the bed and shook his head."This clinic was left to me by my mother," Ethan said. "It is my home."Master Frank closed his mouth and nodded once. The matter was settled. He moved to the corner and stood with his back against the wall, his torn black coat still dripping, his posture as rigid and attentive as a guard dog that had finally found its master after seven years

The room went dead silent. The applause died mid clap. The smiles froze on every face like wet paint hit by a sudden frost.Diane shot to her feet."What kind of nonsense are you talking?" Diane screamed. Her face went red in an instant. "My daughter just said she would not take that worthless dog back if he begged on his knees, and you want her to go crawling to him? Have you completely lost your mind?"Tyler leaned forward in his wheelchair."Ethan is beneath our family," Tyler said. His bandaged face twisted with contempt. "He mopped our floors for four years. He fetched groceries like a servant. And you want Sophia to go beg a floor mopping dog to marry her again? Over my dead body."The relatives exchanged confused, uneasy glances. Aunt Patty's mouth hung open. Uncle Ray scratched his head. Carl looked at the floor.Gary looked at all of them. At Diane's outrage. At Tyler's contempt. At Ashley's confusion. At Sophia's frozen, disbelieving expression. At the crowd of relatives who

Ethan lay on the single bed and stared at the ceiling. Sleep was impossible. Slick Gary had returned from the villa with a bulging plastic bag of leftover food and had immediately joined the other three on the floor.Master Frank, Richard, AJ, and Gary were playing cards on a flattened cardboard box, and the noise they produced was extraordinary.AJ slapped his cards down with the enthusiasm of a man who had not played a game in two years. Richard argued every hand with the desperation of a man trying to win back his dignity one round at a time.Gary cheated with such brazen confidence that even Master Frank, a grandmaster assassin who had killed over a hundred men, could not figure out how he was doing it.Ethan blocked out the noise and let his mind work.His mother. Helen Cole. The gentlest woman he had ever known. The woman who had raised him alone, taught him medicine, and spent her final years running a free clinic in the poorest neighborhood in Chicago.That woman had somehow b