Chapter Seven
Author: Manesa
last update2025-07-09 19:38:35

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.

Continue to read this book for free
Scan the code to download the app

Latest Chapter

  • One hundred and forty - four

    The farther Eli moved from the atrium, the quieter the world became.It wasn't peaceful—not like he was expecting it to be. It was muffled, like the building itself was holding its breath.Emergency lights washed the corridors in dull amber, stretching shadows long and warped along the walls. The distant echoes of shouting and boots faded with every step, replaced by the low hum of systems still running as if nothing catastrophic had just happened.Eli didn’t reduce his pace.His shoes whispered against polished floors as he moved deeper, turning corners without thinking, muscle memory guiding him through spaces he hadn’t thought to check until now - thinking he still has time, that Selene was still going to have time to show him more places. He laughed at the thought, his heart hammering against his ribs, it wasn't from the run– that wasn't enough to make his heart hammer the way it was—but from everything he’d left behind.Victor.Aiden.Nova.“N—Nova,” he whisper-shouted, voice cra

  • One hundred and forty - three

    For a heartbeat after the words Subject V3 left Carlos’s mouth, no one moved.Not the executives frozen mid-panic.Not the mercenaries with their fingers hovering too close to triggers.Not even Victor, whose expression had gone unnervingly still.Then the murmurs started as the execs looked from one person to another, wondering if this was something they needed to know while trying to grasp what was going on around them.Eli inhaled slowly.Then he straightened to his full height.Blood still traced a thin line from his nose, but he didn’t bother wiping it away. He took one deliberate step toward Carlos, then another—hands open, posture calm, eyes locked forward.Carlos’s smile flickered.“Don’t,” Carlos warned lightly, adjusting his stance. The gun snapped back up, steady, professional. “Real bullets, Eli. This isn’t one of your boardroom bluffs. Take another step and I won’t miss.”To prove the point, he pivoted smoothly and fired.Two shots.A mercenary to Victor’s left dropped wi

  • One hundred and forty - two

    Eli didn’t respond to what Victor had said, neither did he pay attention to the spread across his face.He simply walked.Straight past him.The movement was deliberate—unhurried, dismissive in a way that carried more weight than shouting ever could. Eli’s shoulder brushed the edge of Victor’s coat as he passed, eyes already scanning beyond him, toward the far corridors that disappeared into emergency-lit shadows.Victor’s smile faltered.Then his hand shot out.He caught Eli’s arm, fingers tightening just enough to stop him.“Where do you think you’re going?” Victor asked, voice light but sharp underneath. He tilted his head, glancing around theatrically. “Walking away? In front of all these people?” His brows lifted. “That’s a little… cowardly, don’t you think?”A ripple of unease moved through the gathered execs and staff.Eli stopped.He turned slowly, looking down at Victor’s hand on his sleeve as though it were something mildly offensive.Then he scoffed.“Cowardly?” Eli said, i

  • One hundred and forty - one

    Eli’s hand hovered inches from the handle.The corridor was silent in the way he had expected, reminding him of how secured buildings always were —engineered quiet, layered with systems humming just beneath perception. The reinforced door loomed in front of him, matte black, anonymous, as if it had never been meant to draw attention. Yet everything about it did.The blood trail had ended here.The shadow—he was certain he’d seen it—had shifted just inside, a flicker of movement that suggested breath, weight, intent.His communicator vibrated.Once.It was sharp and insistent. A contrast to the silence.Eli stilled completely.He lowered his gaze to the screen. The name glowed up at him in clean white text.Carlos.For a fraction of a second, Eli lifted his head, eyes flicking back to the door.The shadow was gone.No movement. No distortion in the light. Just emptiness behind reinforced steel, as though the room itself had swallowed whatever shadow he had seen.Eli didn’t relax.He ke

  • One hundred and Forty

    For a long moment, nothing moved.The monitors glowed steady green. The hum beneath the floor had returned to its normal pitch, almost comforting, almost mundane after the panic of the past hour. Outside the core, technicians leaned back, rubbing their eyes, exchanging looks that teetered between relief and disbelief.“It’s… done,” someone murmured, almost too softly to carry.“Done,” echoed another.There was a cheer, tentative at first. Then another, louder. Laughter followed, quick and sharp—the kind of release that comes after being inches from disaster. Hands clapped on shoulders. Backslaps. Voices overlapped, fragments of congratulations carried across the room.Eli didn’t move.He stood at the center of the core, communicator in hand, gaze fixed somewhere between the console and the ceiling. The room erupted around him, and he remained still, silent, an island of control amidst the chaos.Carlos nudged someone, whispering, “She… she did it. Firestorm held. It’s over.”“Yes,” th

  • One hundred and thirty - nine

    Firestorm Protocol didn’t sound like much when it activated.It didn’t trigger any alarms. No cinematic countdown. Just a sequence of confirmations sliding across the glass walls—authorization chains snapping shut, external links severed, entire regions of Aurelius infrastructure going dark in a disciplined, pre-planned collapse. A controlled burn.The room felt it anyway.Lights dipped, then stabilized. The low hum beneath the floor shifted pitch, deeper now, like the building itself had braced.Nova didn’t waste the moment.She moved.Her bag hit the central console first—unzipped in one smooth motion, contents spilling with deliberate precision. No flashy hardware. No oversized rigs. Just layered tools: a hardened tablet, two slim encrypted drives, a fiber tap, gloves she didn’t bother putting on yet.She pulled the tablet free and slid into the central chair like it had been waiting for her.“Okay,” she murmured, more to herself than anyone else. “You bought me silence. Let’s use

More Chapter
Explore and read good novels for free
Free access to a vast number of good novels on MegaNovel app. Download the books you like and read anywhere & anytime.
Read books for free on the app
Scan code to read on App