2025-06-16 15:06:51The hall smelled like money and arrogance. The table was shorter this time, but the people around it weren’t any smaller. It was glass-topped, gold-rimmed, and surrounded by men and women who hadn’t had to ask for anything in years. Everyone wore suits like armor. The air felt expensive. Stiff. Hostile.
Excel sat near the end. Not too close to Alaric, but close enough to make the others uncomfortable.
Nobody said it out loud, but he felt it.
They didn’t want him here.
Steve Winchester tapped a pen against his folder like he owned the rhythm of the room. Sebastian slouched back, pretending to scroll his tablet, eyes darting toward Excel every few seconds. Elias whispered something to his assistant and chuckled.
And Excel?
He sat quietly.
He didn’t speak. Not yet. He just watched. Listened. Waited.
The numbers flew around — percentages, unit projections, capital shifts. They spoke fast. Over each other. Trying to out-smile, out-talk, out-shine. It wasn’t a meeting. It was a war without blood.
Alaric sat at the head. Silent. Sharp eyes. Barely moved. Barely breathed.
Steve cleared his throat. “The Singapore branch underperformed this quarter. Supply disruptions, apparently.”
Lucas chimed in. “Then fire the supply chain head. Restructure the whole damn link.”
Elias scoffed. “Again? That’s the third time in two years. How about we stop trying to fix it and sell the whole operation?”
Steve raised an eyebrow. “You want to sell a $90 million division over a late shipment?”
Elias shrugged. “Cut off the limb before it rots.”
Alaric didn’t speak. He looked bored.
Excel’s fingers twitched.
He didn’t plan to say anything. He was just supposed to sit here, look pretty, and keep his damn mouth shut.
But then—
He leaned forward.
“You’re wrong,” he said.
Every head turned. Fast. Hard.
Sebastian actually stopped breathing.
Steve frowned. “Excuse me?”
Excel didn’t blink. “Singapore’s not underperforming. You just don’t know what it’s actually producing.”
Lucas leaned back. “Oh, here we go. The couch ghost speaks.”
“I read the report,” Excel said calmly. “The delays aren’t logistical. They’re stalling because the development team’s using new hybrid trace sensors—ones that weren’t even on the books two quarters ago. Prototypes. They’re testing underground because they didn’t get budget approval.”
Silence.
Elias blinked. “What... what sensors?”
Excel met his eyes. “Trace-pulse Lidar. Short-range. Uses vibrational heat signatures to detect steel through concrete. They can map an entire foundation in five minutes without drilling.”
The room went still.
Sebastian stared like Excel had just started levitating.
Even Alaric’s eyes narrowed.
Steve leaned forward. “Where did you get that information?”
“It was buried in Appendix E of the raw shipment manifests,” Excel said. “Right where you always forget to look.”
Lucas barked out a laugh. “You? Reading appendices? You needed help signing your name two years ago.”
Excel shrugged. “Maybe I got bored of dying.”
Elias opened a laptop, started typing furiously. Ten seconds passed. Then—
He looked up.
“He’s right.”
Steve’s mouth twitched.
“Not completely,” Elias added. “But... close. The team filed a stealth project through an old grant line. We missed it.”
Sebastian spoke up, voice low, sharp. “How did he know?”
Nobody answered.
Steve closed his folder.
“Even a broken clock gets lucky twice a day.”
Alaric raised a hand.
Everyone went quiet.
He looked at Excel. Long and hard.
Then he said, “We’ll put a team on it. Excel, you’ll sit in.”
“Me?” Sebastian blurted out.
Alaric didn’t look at him. “If my grandson wants to be at the table, he’ll learn how to keep it standing.”
Excel nodded once. “Understood.”
Steve rolled his eyes.
Lucas muttered, “This is insane.”
But nobody argued out loud.
Not to Alaric.
Outside the boardroom, Excel walked fast.
His hands were sweating. His throat dry. His heart pounding.
That wasn’t planned. He wasn’t supposed to speak.
He didn’t even know how he remembered that detail. But somewhere deep in his head — Nathan Gray remembered.
Old freight contracts. Data scans. Prototype tags. He’d filed stuff like that for years, unnoticed. Now, in this rich new shell, those forgotten files had teeth.
Behind him, footsteps.
Sebastian.
“Hey!” he snapped. “Stop.”
Excel turned, slow.
Sebastian walked up, fake smile sharp. “Impressive stunt. Must’ve been one hell of a fever dream recovery.”
Excel said nothing.
Sebastian stepped closer.
“You were drooling soup down your chin two weeks ago. Now you’re quoting sensor specs and talking like a consultant.”
Excel tilted his head. “Maybe I got tired of being weak.”
Sebastian snorted. “No. You’re not smart. You’re lucky. And luck runs out.”
Excel smiled, slow. “Then I suggest you stay out of my way before it does.”
Sebastian’s eyes flared.
But he said nothing.
Just turned and walked off, shoulders stiff.
Later that night, Excel sat by the window in his room, staring out into the cold garden. His breath fogged the glass.
Sarah knocked once before entering.
“You were brilliant today,” she said.
He didn’t look at her. “Was I?”
“They don’t say it, but they saw it. Even your uncle Steve.”
He still didn’t turn around. “Then why did they brush it off?”
She walked closer, touched his shoulder. “Because they’re afraid to believe it.”
He nodded slowly.
“I won’t ask you how you knew all that,” she said, voice lower. “But I know you’re not the same. I just hope... you know what you’re doing.”
He turned to face her now.
“I do,” he said. “For the first time.”
Downstairs, in the wine lounge, Lucas poured himself a drink and spoke to Steve.
“You think the boy’s faking it?”
Steve grunted. “I think the boy got lucky. Once. Maybe twice.”
Lucas leaned back. “Should we worry?”
Steve chuckled. “Worry? AboutExcel? He’s a breeze in a storm. Let him blow.”
But in the corner, Sebastian stared at the wall like it had whispered something.
And his fists were clenched so hard his knuckles cracked.
Previous Chapter
Latest Chapter
The Price Of A Life
The fire crackled soft, low, like it was tired of pretending it still mattered. Alaric Winchester sat in the high-backed leather chair that had probably outlived three CEOs, a glass of something old and brown resting in his hand. The flames threw gold across his skin, made the lines around his eyes look deeper than they were. Or maybe they were always that deep, and people just didn’t stare long enough to notice.Excel stood at the door.Didn’t knock.Didn’t move.Just stood there like he was balancing everything in him on the edge of that silence.Alaric didn’t look up. Just swirled the drink, slow, lazy."If you’re gonna speak," he said, "at least close the damn door first."Excel stepped in. Shut the door. The click echoed too loud. His hand stayed on the knob a second too long.He walked forward. Not fast. Not slow. Like he was walking into something that could bite."I saved your life," he said.Alaric blinked."That so?""You know it is."Alaric finally looked up.Excel wasn’t s
No Room At The Table
Sebastian couldn’t sleep. His pillow was soaked. Not with tears. With sweat. Cold, sick sweat that made his shirt cling to his back and his chest feel like it was folding in on itself. He stared at the ceiling like it owed him something. Like it might explain how everything had flipped so fast.He wasn’t just losing. He was drowning.That night after Excel exposed him, the whole house had shifted. Doors didn’t open as fast. Conversations stopped when he walked in. Even Steve didn’t speak to him in the hallway, just nodded once like he was some mailman. One of the guards at the back gate didn’t even salute. That had never happened. Not to him.He sat on the edge of his bed and cracked his knuckles, one by one, slow like bone was all he had left to control.Excel.That bastard. That ghost of a boy who couldn’t even talk right last year. The one who used to flinch when someone raised their voice. Now walking around like he owned the name. Like he was something more than a favor from Alar
Blood In Their Wine
He didn’t plan to destroy Sebastian that day. Not really. At least not in that exact hour. He only wanted to trace another thread, something tied to Victor. Something cold and undeniable. But that’s the thing about hunting shadows—sometimes you find the ones standing closest.Excel sat hunched over in the old music room, the one no one used since Anne died. It smelled like old perfume and dust and something else. Regret maybe. There were cracked picture frames stacked behind the piano. A broken wineglass in the corner. No one cleaned in here. Maybe they thought the dead were still watching.The papers were everywhere. Spread out in layers like a madman's map. He'd taken them from the archive wing, the locked cabinet Steve never checked. He thought about the elevator. The buzzes. The clue about the left hand. It had been days and it still gnawed at him. He tapped the corner of the folder against his thigh. His knee bounced. He didn’t even notice until his legs cramped.Victor Hayworth.
What Clues Had To Offer
Excel didn’t sleep that night. Not because he was afraid, not really. It was something else. Something like rage but quieter, thicker. Like oil in his blood. It moved through him in slow waves, kept him up even after the noise of the gala had died in his head. He sat on the edge of his bed, elbows on knees, hands clenched like they were trying to squeeze something invisible.Victor Hayworth’s voice kept echoing in his skull. That smile, those words. "Died like a dog in a ditch."Excel’s jaw locked again. He had clenched it so long it ached now. His teeth felt like they’d fused. His fingers twitched. He could still feel the ghost of Victor's handshake. Still warm. Still smug. Still clean. So clean. Like nothing had ever bled beneath those nails. Like nothing ever touched him but silk and power and sin hidden behind legal papers.He stood up too fast and nearly tripped. His knees didn’t want to work right. The world tilted sideways and then settled. He paced. Back and forth. The carpet
Smoke, Suits And Ghosts
The suit didn’t feel like it fit. Not just the cloth, though it was tailored like armor and crisp like money. No, it was the weight of it. The smell. The clean cold feel of something that wasn’t earned by the hands wearing it. Excel adjusted the collar for the third time.“You keep doing that,” Alaric said beside him in the limo, “and you’ll look like a nervous intern.”Excel froze, then dropped his hands to his lap.“You invited me,” he said, not looking at the old man.“And I expect you not to embarrass me,” Alaric replied, sipping whiskey from a flask like it was water. “This isn’t family dinner. This is the war table.”The city outside rushed past. Glass towers like knives against the sky. Excel stared at his reflection in the tinted window. He still didn’t recognize the face looking back. But the fire inside it? That was starting to look familiar.“You’ll see everyone tonight,” Alaric continued. “CEOs, politicians, parasites in tuxedos. Eyes on you. So talk less. Watch more.”Exc
The New Target
The hall smelled like money and arrogance. The table was shorter this time, but the people around it weren’t any smaller. It was glass-topped, gold-rimmed, and surrounded by men and women who hadn’t had to ask for anything in years. Everyone wore suits like armor. The air felt expensive. Stiff. Hostile.Excel sat near the end. Not too close to Alaric, but close enough to make the others uncomfortable.Nobody said it out loud, but he felt it.They didn’t want him here.Steve Winchester tapped a pen against his folder like he owned the rhythm of the room. Sebastian slouched back, pretending to scroll his tablet, eyes darting toward Excel every few seconds. Elias whispered something to his assistant and chuckled.And Excel?He sat quietly.He didn’t speak. Not yet. He just watched. Listened. Waited.The numbers flew around — percentages, unit projections, capital shifts. They spoke fast. Over each other. Trying to out-smile, out-talk, out-shine. It wasn’t a meeting. It was a war without
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