2026-08-11 18:11:56Natalie's eyes moved from the Patek Philippe on Ethan's wrist to the four bottles of Romanee Conti lined up on the table like soldiers. Her mind was spinning faster than the wine could slow it down, and every calculation led to the same conclusion.
"Ethan, can I ask you something personal?" Natalie shifted in the booth, crossing her legs the other direction and angling her body toward him.
"You've been asking personal things all night, Natalie. Why stop now." Ethan poured himself another glass, his movements unhurried and steady.
"How long have you been this wealthy?" Natalie's voice dropped to something soft and intimate, her chin resting on her hand like she was settling in for the most important conversation of her life.
"Define wealthy." Ethan took a sip without looking at her.
"Ethan, you just ordered four bottles of wine that cost more than most people's houses. You're wearing a suit that probably costs more than my car. And that watch on your wrist, I dated a guy who collected watches and I know a Grandmaster Chime when I see one. That's a $700,000 piece." Natalie counted each item on her fingers, her eyes getting wider with every point.
"You have good eyes." Ethan set his glass down and finally met her gaze.
"So why does Claire think you're broke? Why does she tell everyone you're some penny pinching workaholic who won't even buy her a decent handbag?" Natalie leaned forward, her voice sharp with genuine confusion now, the performance temporarily abandoned.
Ethan let the question hang in the air for a moment. He knew exactly why Claire told people those things. Because it served her. A rich husband attracted attention, competition, questions. A poor husband attracted pity, sympathy, and most importantly, freedom. Claire could do whatever she wanted as long as the world believed Ethan was nothing special.
"Maybe she has her reasons." Ethan swirled his glass slowly.
"Her reasons? Ethan, she's been lying to everyone. To me, to our whole friend group, to her own family. She made us all believe you were this sad little man she settled for. And the whole time you were sitting on a fortune?" Natalie's cheeks flushed pink, and it wasn't just the wine.
"Does that bother you?" Ethan watched her face with clinical precision.
"It makes me feel stupid. I spent years feeling sorry for Claire. Telling her she deserved better. Telling her she was a saint for sticking with you. And now I find out she was hiding the truth the whole time to keep every woman within a ten mile radius from looking twice at you." Natalie's voice cracked with something between anger and admiration.
There it is, Ethan thought. She finally sees the game. Claire wasn't insulting me out of disappointment. She was building a fence around a garden she didn't want anyone else to notice.
The night continued. The jazz music shifted to something slower, deeper. The bar thinned out as the late crowd replaced the early one. Natalie drank glass after glass, her words getting looser and her laughter getting louder. She told him stories about Claire's brunches, about the things the women said behind each other's backs, about the time Claire bragged about convincing Ethan to cancel his gym membership so she could use the money for a facial treatment.
Ethan listened to everything. Filed it. Stored it. His upgraded body burned through the alcohol like it was water, keeping his mind sharp while his glass emptied at the same pace as Natalie's.
By midnight, her mascara had smudged just below her left eye and her words were starting to blend together at the edges.
"You know what your problem is, Ethan? You're too nice. Men like you finish last because you let women like Claire walk all over you. But look at you now. New body, new suit, new everything. You're like a whole different species." Natalie poked his chest with one finger and left it there a second too long.
"I think you've had enough wine, Natalie. Let me get you a car home." Ethan pulled out his phone.
"Home is boring. And far." Natalie turned her head and looked out the window toward the hotel across the street, its lobby glowing warm and golden through the glass doors. She looked back at him and raised one eyebrow.
Ethan followed her gaze. The hotel sign read THE ADDINGTON in polished brass letters.
He should have said no. He knew that. The smart play was to put her in a cab and drive home. But something cold and strategic had taken root inside him over the past twenty four hours, and it saw Natalie Walsh not as a temptation but as a tool.
Claire's best friend. The woman who knows all her secrets. The one she trusts most.
The one whose betrayal would hurt the deepest.
"Let's go." Ethan stood and dropped six hundred dollar bills on the table for the staff.
The morning light came through the hotel curtains in thin golden lines. Ethan opened his eyes at exactly 6:15 AM, his body fully alert and rested like he had slept for twelve hours instead of four. The upgraded body didn't just burn alcohol, it recovered from everything with mechanical efficiency.
He sat up on the edge of the bed and reached for his old phone on the nightstand. The screen was a graveyard of notifications. Seventeen missed calls from Claire. Nine text messages. Two voicemails.
He opened the texts first.
"Ethan, pick up the phone right now."
"I don't know what's gotten into you but you better fix your attitude before we land."
"Mom is furious. You owe her an apology."
"I'm cutting your allowance when I get back. You don't get to disrespect my family and then ignore me."
"You think you can just talk to us like that and get away with it? You have no idea what's coming."
"Derek wants to have a conversation with you man to man. You better be ready."
"I'm calling my lawyer in the morning."
"You're going to regret this, Ethan. I promise you that."
"Last chance. Call me back or don't bother coming home."
Ethan read every single message. His face didn't tighten. His jaw didn't clench. Instead, a slow, mocking smile spread across his lips, the kind of smile a man wears when he's reading threats written in crayon.
My allowance, he thought. She's going to cut my allowance. The woman whose entire life runs on my money is threatening to cut MY allowance.
He selected all seventeen messages, hit delete, and watched them vanish from his screen one by one like ashes in the wind. Then he set the phone down and stood up.
Behind him, the sheets rustled. Natalie rolled over, her blond hair fanned out on the pillow, last night's makeup half gone. She blinked against the sunlight and looked up at him with a lazy, satisfied smile.
"Morning." Her voice was rough and warm.
"Morning. I called a car for you. It'll be downstairs in fifteen minutes." Ethan walked to the window and looked out at the city below, his back to her.
The smile on Natalie's face flickered. "A car? What, you're sending me home like a delivery package?"
"Last night was last night, Natalie. I need you to forget it happened." Ethan's voice was calm and even, with no apology in it and no cruelty either. Just fact.
Natalie sat up in bed, pulling the sheet against her chest. "Forget it happened? Are you serious right now?"
"Completely." Ethan turned from the window and looked at her, his expression unreadable.
"Ethan, you can't just sleep with someone and then tell them to pretend it never happened. That's not how this works. That's not how any of this works." Natalie's voice climbed, her eyes wide with a mix of disbelief and something that looked dangerously close to hurt.
"The car will be a black sedan. Driver's name is Marcus." Ethan picked up his jacket from the chair and slipped it on.
"You can't just walk away from this, Ethan." Natalie's voice shook now, her fingers gripping the sheet so tight her knuckles turned pale.
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Chapter 16: part-2
“It is.” Ethan put his hands in his pockets and stood still.“No. Absolutely not. Whatever is going on with you, we can fix it. I will give you a raise. I will give you whatever title you want. Name your number, Ethan.” Victoria tossed the letter onto her desk and stepped toward him, her jaw set firm.“Victoria, your father made a promise to every employee who reaches twenty years with this company. I am at seventeen. Three more years and I vest into equity worth at least five million dollars. I remember the promise clearly.” Ethan nodded slowly.“Then you know what you are walking away from. Five million dollars, Ethan. My father built that promise for people exactly like you. People who gave their lives to this company. Stay three more years and it is yours.” Victoria held up three fingers, her voice carrying the weight of genuine concern.“I do not need it anymore.” Ethan said it quietly and without any trace of arrogance. He walked past her to the floor to ceiling window and looke
Chapter 16: The Resignation part-1
The receptionist at Titanium Network looked up from her computer and froze. The man walking through the glass doors was six foot one, broad shouldered, wearing a suit that cost more than her car, and moving with the kind of quiet authority that made the entire lobby feel smaller."Good morning. Do you have an appointment, sir?" Megan tilted her head, her fingers hovering above the keyboard."Megan, it's me. Ethan." He stopped in front of her desk and waited.Megan's lips parted. She pushed her chair back, stood up, and walked around the desk. She circled him once, then again, her heels clicking slow on the tile, her eyes running over him like she was inspecting a painting she had seen a thousand times that had suddenly changed colors overnight."No way. There is no way this is you." Megan stopped in front of him and pressed her hand against her chest. "Ethan Moore. The same Ethan Moore who wore the same gray jacket every Monday for three years.""The very same." Ethan gave her a small
Chapter 15: The Eye part-1
Amber returned from the back office holding a receipt with both hands like it was made of glass. The membership deposit had cleared. Ethan's phone buzzed twice in his pocket and he already knew what it meant before he looked.One hundred million dollars. The number sat on his screen like a door that had just opened into a room he had never been allowed to enter.The system's voice filled his mind, calm and clear. *Milestone reached. One hundred million dollars total balance. One time reward unlocked. Choose one.*Four options arranged themselves in his thoughts like printed cards laid out on a table. Ten additional years of natural lifespan. One billion dollars in direct cash deposit. Permanent doubling of physical attractiveness to the opposite sex. Or something called the Eye of Insight, the ability to see through any person within ten meters, reading their potential, their loyalty, and their core skills.Ethan stood at the counter and moved through the choices the way a man moves t
Chapter 14: part-2
“Hey, Lily, listen. About before. That was just me being stupid, okay? I was angry and hurting and I took it out on you. It was a joke. A bad one. Come here, let me look at where I got you.” Derek walked over with his palms up, his voice dropping into something gentle that did not fit his swollen face at all.Lily looked at him for half a second and then took his arm with a smile. “It is fine, Uncle Derek. It does not even hurt anymore.”“Let me rub it. I feel terrible.” Derek put his arm around her shoulder and guided her back to the bed, playing the caring uncle like he had not been standing over her body sixty seconds ago.Margaret watched the scene and nodded with deep satisfaction. “Good. This is good. Now we are all on the same page.”“Nobody tells Ethan. Nobody even hints at it. As far as that fool knows, Lily is his daughter and he owes her everything.” Claire looked at each of them in turn, her eyes cold and final. “We take his apartment, his car, his savings, and his monthly
Chapter 14: The Secret part-1
Claire knelt down and pulled Lily off the carpet by her arms. She brushed the hair from her daughter's face, wiped the tears with her thumb, and guided her to the edge of the bed. Then she turned around and looked at her mother and brother with the kind of stillness that made both of them stop breathing. "Lily is not Ethan's daughter." Claire said each word separately, placing them into the room like stones dropped into still water. Margaret's hand went to her mouth. Derek froze with the ice bag halfway to his face. Lily looked up from the bed with wet eyes and a confused frown. "What did you just say?" Margaret whispered it through her fingers. "You heard me. Ethan is not her biological father. He never was." Claire folded her arms across her chest, her face showing nothing at all. Derek lowered the ice and squinted at his sister with his one good eye. "You are making this up. You are saying this so I feel bad about hitting her." "Look at my face, Derek. Do I look like I am jok
Chapter 13: part-2
Derek pulled the ice away from his eye and looked at his sister. “Child support for Lily? Claire, Lily is not even his kid. You told us that years ago.”“Ethan does not know that. And as long as he does not know, the court gives me whatever I ask for. A man who makes what Ethan makes will be paying me fifteen thousand a month minimum for a child he thinks is his.” Claire’s voice was smooth and calm, the voice of someone who had been running these numbers in her head for longer than tonight.“That is brilliant.” Margaret clapped her hands together once. “We bleed him dry. We take the apartment, the car, the savings, and then we take monthly payments on top of it. By the time we are finished with him he will be sleeping in his office.”“He deserves worse than that. He deserves to be out on the street like the worthless dog he is.” Derek pressed the ice back against his face and smiled with the half of his mouth that still worked.The three of them leaned in together over the desk, their
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