Nathan looked at Ethan with hollow, defeated eyes. The other Harlow associates behind him wore the same expression, a wall of silent, crushing disappointment.Ethan felt the last thread of his patience snap cleanly in half. He rolled his neck slowly to one side and stared at the room full of doubters."If one more person in this room calls me a fraud, I will test my fighting skills on their face," Ethan warned. His voice dropped low and carried a very real, very dangerous edge.Victoria's hand shot out and grabbed the fabric of his pant leg. She looked up at him from the stretcher with tear soaked eyes that carried a completely different message from her weeping face.Her gaze begged him silently. Let it go. Do not blow the act. Not now.Ethan exhaled through his nose and swallowed the anger back down. He stepped away from the stretcher and said nothing more.Then Big Tony moved. The massive bodyguard stepped forward from beside the stretcher with slow, deliberate steps. His hand reac

Victoria's smile widened, this time completely genuine."I will return first thing in the morning to collect Helen's remains and begin preparations," Victoria promised. She glanced toward the painted portrait resting on the small altar.She walked over and bowed her head silently before it, her lips moving in a quiet prayer only she could hear. She asked for the divine doctor's blessing on whatever came next.Behind her, on the stretcher, Victor Harlow lay perfectly still with his eyes closed. But beneath his calm, dead man's expression, his face darkened with quiet fury.He watched his own granddaughter openly pursue a strange man practically over his supposedly lifeless body, and he could not say a single word about it without ruining the entire plan he himself had ordered.Before leaving, Victoria turned sharply toward the glass door where Doctor James had been quietly attempting to slip away unnoticed."You will be staying with the Harlow family," Victoria said. Her voice carried

Ethan stood in the doorway and looked at every single face in the crowd. He knew all of them. He had watched his mother treat their fevers, set their broken bones, and sit with their crying children late at night when no other doctor in the neighborhood would answer the door.His mother kept this clinic running at a loss for seven straight years. She never made enough from the neighborhood patients to cover even half the rent. The real money came from secretly treating wealthy clients on the side, dangerous work that wore her body down year after year.He begged her more than once to close the place and rest. She always refused. She told him the neighbors would have nowhere else to go for affordable treatment. She worried about Old Mrs. Chen's blood pressure. She worried about Mr. Liu's back pain. She worried about every single person now standing at her door with their hands out.And now, less than forty eight hours after she was gone, those same people stood here demanding reimburse

He grabbed another stack and threw it toward Mr. Liu. Then three more after it."Your homemade lunches were worth six dollars," Ethan said. "There is forty thousand."Bundle after bundle flew through the air and landed in piles around the stunned crowd. For every five dollar cash gift, Ethan threw down tens of thousands. Nearly one million dollars in genuine banknotes lay scattered across the clinic floor, and the mountain behind him looked exactly the same as before."Take the money and leave," Ethan ordered. His dark eyes moved across the silent crowd one final time."And remember that it is you who will forever be in debt to my mother," Ethan continued. His voice grew heavier with every word."She lived a blameless life," Ethan said. "She treated every single one of you with a kindness none of you ever deserved.""If I ever hear any of you slander her name again, I will sever all ties without mercy," Ethan warned. His tone left absolutely no room for doubt.The neighbors stood froz

"Come back to my pharmacy after this and I will show you a much better time than this broke mutt ever could," Brandon finished. He winked at her with pure, revolting confidence.Victoria looked at him the way someone looks at a stain on the bottom of their shoe. A small, cold smile appeared on her lips."I am afraid you cannot afford my price," Victoria said. Her voice was perfectly calm and carried not a trace of anger, only the quiet certainty of a woman who existed in a world Brandon could never even imagine.Behind her, President Lewis felt his heart nearly stop. Cold sweat soaked through the back of his pressed suit. This sweating fool was propositioning the Second Miss of the Harlow family to her face, and he had no idea how close he was standing to total annihilation.Ethan picked up the folder and flipped through the pages without any visible surprise. He found the signature line, took the pen, and signed his name in one clean stroke.He closed the folder and looked up at the