From Street Trash To Dragon Lord

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"Please!" Claire's voice dripped with contempt even as she moaned.

 "Ethan is the most pathetic man I have ever met. Working three jobs like a dog and still living in that moldy studio apartment. I cannot believe I had to let him touch me for six months."

Then a smile cuts through her face. "Well, it paid off." 

The man pulled back slightly, and Ethan was finally able to see his face clearly.  

Brandon Steele.  

Ethan recognized him from Claire's social media. She had always claimed Brandon was just an old friend from college after long chats with him.

 Nothing to worry about. Brandon reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a thick envelope. 

"Fifty thousand cash, just like you promised. I already wired it to the Cayman account this morning. My father's company will handle the laundering." Claire squealed with delight, snatching the envelope and fanning the bills. 

"Oh baby, you are incredible. I cannot believe that idiot actually gave me his entire life savings without even thinking twice." 

"You should have seen his face when I sent him that fake selfie from the hospital lobby." Claire threw her head back and laughed. 

"The stupid bastard is probably at the hospital right now wondering why the surgery is not being scheduled."

 Brandon's hands slid up her thighs. "And his mother?" 

"Who cares? The old bitch will die in a few weeks anyway. Ethan can cry about it while I am spending his money in Bali with you." Claire kissed him hard.

 "Two weeks in a five-star resort, all expenses paid by the world's biggest sucker." 

"What if he figures it out?"

 "And do what? Sue me? He cannot even afford a lawyer. Report me to the police? I will just say he gave me the money as a gift. It's his word against mine, and my father's firm will bury him in paperwork." 

Claire's eyes glittered with malice. "Besides, after tomorrow when his mother dies without the surgery, he will be too busy grieving to think straight. By the time he pulls himself together, we will be long gone." 

Brandon grabbed her roughly. "You are so fucking sexy when you are evil."

 "Then let me show you just how evil I can be." They crashed together again, Claire's moans filling the apartment as Brandon picked her up and carried her toward the bedroom. Neither of them noticed the door was slightly open.

 Neither saw the figure standing frozen in the hallway with a hesrt that had being totally ripped out.

Ethan stood there for an eternity that lasted only seconds. His mind could not process what he had just witnessed. 

This was Claire; the woman he had loved for two years. The woman he had planned to propose to after his mother recovered. The woman he had trusted with everything. And she had destroyed him without so much as  a second thought. 

The bedroom door banged shut.

 The sounds that followed were obscene, designed to humiliate even in absence. Claire's exaggerated screams of pleasure, Brandon's  grunting and the rhythmic banging of the headboard.

 Something inside Ethan cracked. Not his heart. That was already shattered beyond repair. Something deeper. 

He wanted to go inside, tear them apart in bit and toss the remains off to the street, he didn't care if he was to be painted  a villian,  he wanted then to pay for what they had done.

He got a stick from the rare, his hands tightening around it until they bled.

Then he walked into the room with a deadly  precision. Their passionate and irritably  moans barely  giving  them chance to see the figure just above them.

Then he flung the wood at Bradon, his blood splattering all over the white sheets and Claire froze.

She turned, her horred face breaking  into a frantic  scream.

"You bastard! What have you done!" She screeched,  enough to pull down the building. 

But Ethan said nothing,  his bloodshot eyes  deadly  cold.

"That should  be 50,000 and my mother's  worth!" He walked away  ignoring  her screams, phone calls and yells for help.

He knew that they were going to come after him. But nothing  mattered  anymore.  Not in a world that was controlled  by the higher  class and he was toothless bull.

He turned and walked away from the apartment in a daze. Down the stairs, through the lobby and out into the street where rain had begun to fall.

 His phone buzzed, a simple text from the hospital. 

"Mr. Vale, we regret to inform you that without payment confirmation by midnight tonight, we will have to cancel the scheduled surgery and release the donor liver to the next recipient on the waiting list. Please contact us immediately."

It was a done deal now, his mother would die. Because he had trusted the wrong person. Because he had been stupid enough to believe that someone like Claire could love someone like him. 

For most women, money meant more than love could ever catch up with. That was the latest reality. 

The rain fell harder, soaking through his cheap jacket. 

Ethan walked without direction, without purpose. His mind was numb and his body moved on autopilot.

 He found himself at Riverside Park, the place where he and Claire had their first date. How poetic and ironic at the same time.

 How absolutely fucking poetic.

 Ethan collapsed onto a bench overlooking the dark water. The rain pounded down, mixing with tears he did not remember shedding.

"There's nothing left to be done!" He couldfeel the bitter test of regreton his tongue.

The despair crashed over him in waves, drowning him more thoroughly than the rain.

 This was it. The official end.

He had fought so hard for so long, and it had all been for nothing. 

Then, Ethan's vision clouded. 

Heat immediately surged in his chest, so powerful he gasped and doubled over. It seemed like his ribcage was ripping open, like something vast and ancient was unfurling inside him.

 The rain disappeared before it hit his flesh. Steam rose from his body in dense clouds.

 The bench underneath him began to blaze crimson with fire. 

"What... what is happening?" Memories flooded his thoughts. Not his recollections but someone else's.

 An old man with silver hair and eyes like blazing flames, pairing  right into his soul as they stood face to face. And then another vision,  the old man training in a hidden temple, displaying techniques that defied physics.

 T "The blood awakens," a deep, resonant voice said, resounding in his skull. 

"There is a broken seal. Rise, Crimson Dragon's heir. Now is the time to start your real legacy."

 When Ethan's eyes opened, they were no longer brown. Like twin flames in the night, they blazed ruby red.