The following day, Catherine sat across from Arthur at a round table, carefully slicing fresh fruit into a glass bowl.The doors slid open, and Gregory rolled his wheelchair into the room.The moment Catherine saw him, she set her knife down on the napkin, concern evident on her face.“Julian,” Catherine said. “David mentioned your bed wasn’t slept in last night. Why did you stay at a hotel instead of coming home?”At the mention of David, Gregory raised an eyebrow. He had never wanted his family to know that he was staying at a hotel, but then he thought about it.As long as his mobility remained an issue and David had to follow him wherever he went, except to his office at CoPioneer Fab, there was no way he could keep his life private.Gregory kept his expression relaxed and natural. “I had a lot of late-night work. It was easier to work from the hotel without disturbing anyone in the household.”“You work too hard,” Catherine sighed, handing him a glass of fresh orange juice. “You

She remembered the six years ago that she had called her crying from her old apartment. Alice had grown up in a cramped public housing unit, watching her widowed mother scrub floors for wealthy families just to put food on the table. The fear of slipping back into that life had never really left her.When Gregory wasn't reaching the level she expected him to be after months of marriage, that old fear had taken over. Alice had looked at his uncomplaining nature and seen weakness. In her mind, staying loyal to a programmer with no ambition meant risking everything she had worked so hard to build—the Wynter Tech.Then Robert Carnegie appeared with expensive cars, and promises of millions in investment. To Alice, Robert looked like someone who could protect what she had built when she started her company and got closer to him while still married to Gregory. However, Gregory looked like someone she would have to protect.So she had convinced herself that choosing Robert and even sleeping w

At the hotel, the thick folders scattered across the desk were filled with dead ends.Gregory stared at the active police report from his wheelchair. It was the file on the hitman attack that had happened over a year ago. The interrogation notes taken before Thomas Washington’s death were the only piece of criminal evidence Gregory had, yet even that file was sitting frozen on a detective’s desk, crawling through the system at a snail’s pace.Every other lead Gregory had painstakingly gathered over the past year had ended in a dead end.Thomas had been shot dead at the subway, and Maya, his secret partner, had been killed by serial killers. There had been no trace of the killers and no justice served.Robert Carnegie had once boasted to Alice and his inner circle that the Carnegie family always found a way out of dirty work. Sitting in that room, Gregory could now see the bloody reality behind that boast. The Carnegie Syndicate didn’t just fight in courtrooms; they eliminated witnesse

Word of Gregory’s step back from Sovereign Enterprises spread through the business circles like wildfire. By noon, the rumor had reached the top floor of Hartley Medical Center.Inside the VIP corridor, Serena Kingsley paced back and forth, her heels clicking angrily against the floor. She clutched her phone, her face flushed with frustration.“I told you this was a mistake, Jason!” Serena argued, her voice tight as she glared at her brother. “Julian Hilton was forced out of his own family’s company this morning! The news is everywhere. He’s an unstable liability, and now he’s running the medical facility where our mother is being treated!”Jason Kingsley stood near the window, his arms folded across his chest. He looked tired, but his tone remained calm and firm.“Serena, calm down. I talked to Julian about it, and he told me he only stepped back. He still owns this place. The bionic research team is working directly under his supervision, and CoPioneer is still providing the technol

“If you keep staring at your teacup like it owes you money, it’s going to crack,” Aurelia said softly as she tilted the handcrafted porcelain teapot over a small ceramic cup.Gregory looked up with a sincere smile. “I was just checking… I thought there was spice in the tea leaves.”Aurelia let out a soft laugh, easing the tension between them.They sat inside a quiet, glass-walled tea pavilion away from the noise of downtown. Sunlight filtered through the glass, falling across the low table between them.A young waiter approached with a tray and carefully placed a steamer of warm shrimp dumplings, a plate of crispy sesame cakes, and two small dishes of dipping sauce on the table.“Your jasmine imperial tea, ma’am, sir,” the server said politely with a small bow. “Please let me know if you need anything else.”“Thank you, Lily,” Aurelia replied with a warm nod.After the waiter stepped outside, Aurelia closed the sliding door. She picked up a pair of wooden chopsticks and placed a stea