Eli!!!, – why isn’t my toilet washed and why are you still holding that damn key. Selva asked, walking into the kitchen and snatching the key from his hands.
“Didn’t you play when you were little?” Now you are actually acting dramas and creating scenarios in your head?”
“I am so sorry, the toilet totally slipped my mind, – I just thought you would be hungry, so I decided to prepare lunch now. I also wanted Elara to have something to eat when she gets home, – please can I have the key back.” Eli responded, dropping the bowl he had just sieved down, stretching his hands to retrieve his key from Selva’s hands.
“Don’t you dare touch me with those filthy hands, and I need you to stay 5 meters away from me. – Hope you watched those hands properly before thinking of touching our meal. Selva spoke, taking further steps away from Eli.
“That key really shouldn’t be in your hands, Mrs Morreau.” Eli said, his voice cold making Selva to flinch in fear involuntarily. “It’s too disgusting, and a proper lady shouldn’t be holding on to garbage like that. When I am done here, I will dispose of the key properly, away from your lovely eyes.” Eli continued, his tone going back to its usual submissive and obedient self.
“Yes, Yes, you are definitely right, — for once, I can agree with you on something.” Selva responded, her normal cocky and arrogant face shining as she threw the key on the ground.
“Hope you don’t mind that I threw it on the ground, but you should know your dirty self, shouldn’t come close to my esteemed self.” Selva added.
“Too bad your daughter loves coming in contact with me.” Eli muttered under his breath as he went down on his knees to pick the key Selva had just thrown.
Selva stared smugly at Eli’s bent head, when she heard the words Eli had spoken.
“What did you say?”
Eli froze, not daring to repeat what he had just said, it hadn’t been his intention for Selva to hear him, so when she had asked him to repeat his statement ,he froze, thinking of a lie he could come up with that would pacify her. He knew if he were to repeat what he had said, Selva would find something to complain about to Elara, and that was going to break Elara’s heart, something he didn’t want to see happening.
“I thought so, I knew there was no way in your right senses, you would be able to talk to me from below. Selva spoke, pleased that Eli did not have the courage to repeat his words.
Seeing no further way to bully Eli, she stomped her feet and left the kitchen in anger, not forgetting to remind him about the toilet he still had to wash.
Eli stared at Selva’s retreating figure, breathing out in relief, he brought out the key he had placed in his pocket, hoping and wishing that it would lead it out of this miserable life as he stared at it, but he immediately moved the thought out of his mind, who was he kidding, he had been poor and an orphan for the most part of his life, why did he think a key and a letter was going to suddenly change his life.
“Where are you going?” Selva turned her head from the series she was watching to face Eli that was about stepping out the house.
“Going to look for some manual jobs, I can take on. I don’t feel comfortable sitting around while Elara isn’t around.” Eli, responded, saying half the truth, he really didn’t want to be home doing nothing while Elara was probably out, discussing business ideas with her grandma, but he wasn’t going to look for manual jobs, he was planning to go to his fosters homes and see if he could find any information about the key that sat in his pocket. He had tried it on all his belongings that he had brought with him, also on the household materials and appliances while Selva hadn’t been paying attention, but it didn’t seem to fit.
“Are you done with the meal you were to prepare?” Selva asked, not willing to let Eli out of her sight.
“Yes Selva.” Eli responded, already unbolting the door.
“Did you remember to wash my toilet?” Selva asked again, turning her attention back to her Tv.
“Yes,--- I would be back late incase Elara asks for me when she comes home.” Eli responded, leaving immediately before Selva could think of more tasks to give him.
Eli’s first stop was the home he had been moved to in his teenage years, but after thorough search and hostile reception from his foster parents and siblings, he decided to leave.
Not having much hope, he decides to pay the parents he thought were his birth parents all his life of growing up, till he had turned sixteen a visit.
“Eli!!!. – we didn’t think we would see you again.” Evelyn Hart, Eli’s foster Mom, squealed from the doorway as she stared at Eli, trying hard to conceal her shock as she stared at the son she thought she had lost forever.
“Come in, – come in.” “Why are you breathing so much?” Evelyn asked, ushering Eli in.
Eli had also answered the surname Hart, till he found out that Evelyn and Franklin Hart were not his real parents, so he had decided to stick with his own surname, not after some interrogations from him.
“Where have you been , where did you run off to?, – don’t you know you made mommy worry” Evelyn inquired, looking at Eli as she checked his body for injuries.
“I couldn’t accept the fact that I was an orphan, so I had gone in search for my real parents, somehow I ended up in an orphanage, and I got adopted again, I am sorry for making you worry, but I just couldn’t gather enough courage to face you people after I had run away and I thought it would be best if I didn’t come back.” Eli replied, looking at the one woman that hadn’t treated him cruelly as tears pulled in his eyes.
“Eli…, you would always be my son, and this home is always open to you, – your father isn’t home now, but I am certain he would be excited to see you again.” Evelyn responded, pulling him in for a hug, she didn’t question why he had shown up today after all these years, she was merely happy to see him.
“Would you mind if I stayed for a while?” Eli asked, stepping fully into the house, the floorboard squeaking under his feet. His mind raced as he thought of how he would tell his Mom that he was married and that he was here because of a key he had picked on the road.
Latest Chapter
Two hundred and forty - six
The chamber still hummed as though it had just exhaled after holding its breath for centuries.Light drifted across the walls in slow, deliberate waves—blueprints folding into themselves, rewriting, expanding, then collapsing again like a living thought refusing to settle. Eli stood at the center of it all, the weight of what he had just been told still settling into places in his mind that didn’t usually stay quiet for long.“You are the system.”The words didn’t leave him. They stayed suspended in the air like a verdict that hadn’t yet decided whether it was truth or trap.A distant sound broke through it.Footsteps.Closer now.Not rushed. Controlled. Military controlled. Aurelius-controlled.Eli didn’t turn immediately. His eyes remained on the floating architecture in front of him, watching as entire continents of infrastructure unfolded like a map that had been waiting for permission to be seen.Then the chamber door behind him shifted again.A soft mechanical click.Then silenc
Two hundred and forty five
Eli Aurelius returned to Rome without announcement.,not even Carlos knew. The information of the past few days had been reeling in his head so he knew he still needed time off from people, what he knew he couldn't escape from though was resetting the code Selene had soo often spoken about and Leonhart had made reference to once in his diary. So when he had been done going through his mother's diary, he knew it was time to return to Rome.No arrival logs were triggered under his real identity. No executive alerts rippled through the Aurelius network. No security detail greeted him at the private landing bay carved beneath the city.To the world, Eli Aurelius was still dead. To his friends and allies, he was still on some Island playing catch-up with his father.The plane explosion had done its job perfectly—clean, absolute, irreversible in the eyes of anyone watching the surface reports.That was exactly how he wanted it.The car that carried him through the underground access tunnels
Two hundred and forty four
Leonhart was halfway back to the house when he felt it. It wasn't a sound or any movement. It wassomething heavier, like a shift in the air itself. Like things had changed since the last time he had been there with Eli.He slowed his steps as he reached the entrance corridor, the soft lighting embedded in the stone walls flickering faintly as he passed. The island had always been quiet, but this quiet felt different. Pressed. Intentional.Like something inside the house had collapsed inward.He stepped through the final archway.And stopped.Eli was seated at the table.The diary was open in front of him, pages slightly bent as though they had been gripped too tightly. One hand rested on the edge of the table, the other hung loosely at his side, fingers still trembling like they hadn’t received the message from his brain yet.Eli wasn’t reading anymore. He was staring at nothing. Trying to process what he had read. One he wasn't certain he understood, or even wanted to.Leonhart didn’
Two hundred and forty - three
The next morning arrived with a kind of peace Eli had almost forgotten existed.For the first time in years, he woke without being dragged from sleep by alarms, notifications, or crises demanding his attention.No emergency reports. No market disasters. No encrypted messages from Phoenix. No updates about Meridian.Just silence.Warm sunlight streamed through the towering glass walls of the island residence, painting the ancient stone and polished wood in shades of gold. Eli lay still beneath the blankets for a few moments, simply listening.The distant crash of waves against the shore.Wind rustling through the trees.Birds calling somewhere beyond the cliffs.Ordinary sounds. Human sounds.The sort of sounds that had disappeared from his life long ago.Then another sensation reached him.The smell of food.Something rich and savory. Something freshly cooked. Something incredible.His stomach immediately reminded him how little he'd eaten the day before.Following the scent, he left
Two hundred and forty - two
For several seconds, Eli forgot how to breathe.The image hovered in front of him, suspended in golden light. Leonhart Aurelius.Alive.Not a photograph. Not a recovered recording. Not another ghost hidden inside a file.Alive.Standing on the shoreline as waves crashed against black stone.Eli stared so intensely that his eyes began to burn. Then movement appeared behind Leonhart. A second figure emerged from the morning mist.A woman.The moment she stepped into view, something inside Eli seemed to stop. The world narrowed. The chamber disappeared. The drone feed became the only thing that existed.The woman wasn't young, yet there was something strikingly familiar about her. Her posture. The shape of her face. The way she stood beside Leonhart as though she belonged there.A thousand impossible thoughts crashed through Eli's mind. His throat tightened. For one reckless moment, hope became something dangerous.The feed continued silently. The woman glanced toward the ocean. Leonhart
Two hundred and forty one
The world mourned surprisingly fast.For the first two days, Eli watched it happen from behind a wall of encrypted screens hidden deep beneath New York. Every major network carried the same story. Different countries, different languages, different anchors, yet somehow every broadcast felt identical.The Death of Eli Aurelius.A photograph appeared on screen. A solemn voice followed. Footage of a destroyed aircraft over the Atlantic played on repeat.No survivors. No body recovered.Experts discussed his legacy. Economists debated the impact his death would have on global markets. Politicians delivered carefully crafted statements. Corporate leaders expressed their condolences with practiced sincerity.The world mourned. At least publicly.Eli sat alone in the hidden Aurelius residence, staring at a memorial dedicated to himself. The experience felt strangely unreal, like attending his own funeral while nobody else knew he was in the room.Phoenix projected dozens of live feeds around
You may also like

The Heir's Revenge
Twine Twin80.4K views
TRILLIONAIRE ON TOP
Sweet savage225.1K views
I Made $900 Trillion In 24 Hours
Jericho Chase175.0K views
The Billionaire Heir
Teddy133.1K views
The Bullied Manager is now the Great Mage
TASNEEM100 views
The Gilded Cage Of Crimson
Saranghae166 views
The blind servant is a trillionaire
Trevor133 views
They Should Have Died
Noah Ash59 views