MONEY MAKES THE WORLD SPIN

Chapter Five: A Test Written in Fire

The teahouse lanterns flickered like warning beacons. Darius Feng stood tall and composed, the Carter family seal gleaming on his gold ring, a ring that had once symbolized power, now covered in dust and silence.

Jace Carter met his gaze with a steel he hadn't known he possessed. “You were my grandfather’s right hand,” Jace said. “Why disappear?” Darius tilted his head, not answering. He reached into his robe and pulled out a long scroll, aged, delicate, sealed in wax.

“Power,” he said, “requires two things: memory and sacrifice. And your grandfather had far more of both than you can imagine.”

He turned to Elena. “Does he even know the truth?” Elena said nothing. Her silence was answer enough.

Jace stepped forward. “What truth?” Darius held up the scroll. “This is one of the three codes required to access the Carter Consortium's Override Protocol, the master switch. But I won’t hand it over because of your name. I need proof you understand what you're about to inherit.”

Jace nodded. “What kind of proof?” A door opened at the far end of the room. Two men entered, dragging a bound figure, a young woman, her eyes swollen, lip bloodied, arms bruised. Jace’s stomach turned.

“This,” Darius said, “is Mei Lin. She’s a journalist. She broke into one of my warehouses two nights ago and stole information that could expose Carter Consortium crimes your grandfather buried two decades ago, during something we called the White Silk Project.”

“Then she’s a whistleblower,” Jace said. “Why is she tied up?”

“She’s a threat,” Darius replied calmly. “And threats don’t get treated gently in our world. But I’ll make this simple.”

He walked to the table and placed two items in front of Jace: A pistol, A folder marked TOP SECRET – WHITE SILK PROJECT. “You want my code?” Darius said. “Choose. Shoot her… and you get it. Or take the file… and we vanish. You lose me, the code, and everything I know.”

The room went cold. “You’re out of your mind,” Jace growled.

“No,” Darius said. “I’m testing yours.”

Elena moved toward Jace. “It’s a trick,” she whispered. “He wants to see what side of this empire you fall on.” Jace stared at Mei Lin. She was barely conscious. His instincts screamed at him, don’t play the game.

But Darius was watching him like a hawk, every muscle still, coiled. “Did my grandfather kill people for this empire?” Jace asked, voice steady.

Darius didn’t blink. “He built Carter Global on blood. He made peace with it. The question is, can you?” Jace took a breath. Then walked to the table.

His hand hovered between the gun… and the file. “Your grandfather chose the gun,” Darius said quietly. Jace picked up the folder, And without opening it, he threw it into the fireplace behind him, Elena gasped. Even Darius’s eyes narrowed.

Smoke curled up in the room. The secrets of White Silk burned, Jace turned to Darius. “I won’t kill a defenseless woman. But I won’t let anyone weaponize her story against me, either. If you’re looking for someone as ruthless as Elias, look again. I’m not him.”

Silence. Then Darius chuckled, a rare, dark sound. “Well done,” he said, turning toward the fire. “I watched your grandfather shoot a man at this same table for less defiance.” Jace’s stomach twisted.

Darius stepped forward and removed his ring. He handed it to Jace. “Welcome to the war.” One hour later, Mei Lin was released with a non-disclosure agreement and a private fund set up in her name, Darius led Jace and Elena into a hidden room behind the temple, where encrypted drives and surveillance feeds blinked like a living organism.

He pressed his thumb against a biometric panel, and a sealed case opened. Inside: a golden cube no larger than a Rubik’s, marked with the Carter crest and a dragon etched in its side.

“The first key,” Darius said. “It’s encoded with a quantum signature linked to Elias’s final vault. Without all three, it’s useless. But with them… you own everything.”

Jace took it, feeling its weight in his palm, “This one unlocks the financial wing of the Consortium. Lucien will likely target it next, especially now that he knows you survived.”

“Where are the others?” Jace asked.

Darius tapped a screen. “Noelle Varga in Geneva. And Gustavo Reyes in Mexico City.”

“And they’ll just hand it over?”

“No. Noelle will make you prove loyalty. Gustavo? He’ll try to kill you first.”

“Charming,” Jace muttered.

Darius turned serious. “But Lucien won’t wait. You made a move. He’ll strike back harder.”

As if summoned by prophecy, a new alert popped onto Darius’s display.

CARTER ASSET BREACH – LEVEL 6 PRIORITY “Lucien Ward has taken over Carter Geneva Holdings. CEO Noelle Varga is now MIA.”

Jace’s jaw locked. “He’s already moving on her.”

Darius looked grim. “Then you better move faster.”

Later that night — a private Hong Kong rooftop, Jace stood alone, staring at the skyline. He hadn’t slept in 36 hours. His ribs still ached from the crash. And the weight of that golden cube in his pocket was starting to feel heavier than gravity.

Elena joined him “You did the right thing,” she said.

“I burned the truth.”

“You protected the bigger truth. The one that lets you fight another day.”

He looked at her. “Would you have shot her?”

Elena didn’t answer. But that silence? It said everything. Jace turned back to the city.

“I used to think being rich meant being free. Untouchable. Safe.”

“And now?”

“Now I know it means being hunted. And alone.”

Elena stepped closer. “Not entirely alone.” They stood in silence, two survivors of a game older and bloodier than either of them had known. Then her phone buzzed.

She looked at the screen and paled. “What?” Jace asked. She showed it to him.

LIVE STREAM — VICTOR LANG HOSTING PRESS EVENT AT CARTER GLOBAL HQ (NYC)

“New Carter Family Documents Uncovered! Introducing the True Hei, DAVEN CARTER.”

“What the hell?” Jace muttered, Elena zoomed in on the still of the broadcast.

Victor Lang stood beside a young man with sharp features and ice-cold eyes. “Daven Carter,” Elena said, “is your cousin.”

Jace shook his head. “That’s impossible. He died when he was seventeen.”

Elena’s voice was razor sharp. “Apparently not.”

Back in New York, Victor Lang smiled into the cameras. “Ladies and gentlemen,” he said, gesturing to Daven, “the rightful heir has returned. Jace Carter is a fraud, and starting tonight, he is wanted for international conspiracy and corporate theft.”

As reporters gasped and news tickers rolled, Daven Carter leaned into the mic. “Jace… I’m coming for everything.”