2026-05-21 05:01:30The moment the black card appeared, the security guard stopped talking and his eyes widened slightly. Abby had given it to me before we got out of the car, it was the same one connected to the sin account as she liked to call it.
“…Sir,” he corrected himself quickly. The second guard beside him leaned closer slightly as if trying to confirm what he was seeing, and even the hotel manager nearby suddenly turned toward us.
Abby folded her arms with a faint smirk on her face, clearly enjoying the situation.
“What?” I asked slowly, pretending not to understand.
The first guard swallowed hard before forcing a polite smile. “My apologies, sir. Please come in.”
He was lucky to not have embarrassed me too much else there would have been more to the story. The new treatment and overall change in behavior, I liked it and I could not help but smile a bit, with my heads high.
“Careful,” Abby chuckled. “That feeling becomes addictive.”
I ignored her and looked at the guard instead. “What changed?” I asked calmly.
“You are a premium guest.” He answered, almost bowing.
Two hours ago I was calculating whether I could afford instant noodles, now I was apparently a premium guest in the most expensive hotel in the city. Which I thought was strange considering that all I had was two million dollars to my name, not hundred of millions like those who frequents the hotel. Must have something to do with the card too I guessed.
While he was still speaking, the manager hurried toward us immediately with two female attendants behind him.
“Welcome to Imperial Crown, sir,” he said respectfully. “We sincerely apologize for the misunderstanding.”
The same people who looked disgusted by me seconds ago were now bowing their heads slightly. And nearby guests started whispering again. But this time, it was different.
Now they were curious, like who am I? And why did the hotel staff suddenly look nervous around me? I noticed the couple that laughed earlier staring at me awkwardly now.
“You’re smiling again.” Abby noted,
“…Am I?”
“Yes,” she replied. “That’s how it starts.” Before I could ask what she meant, the manager spoke again.
“Would you like us to prepare the presidential dining lounge for you, sir?” Abby answered before I could embarrass myself, because my jaws were already dropping to my feet.
“Yes,” she said casually. “And send your best chef.”
“Immediately, miss.”
They moved fast, and it was actually insane. Employees rushed around instantly while doors were opened for us like royalty had arrived. As I walked into the massive hotel lobby, I almost forgot to breathe because everything sparkled.
I could name them all but that would take up the whole book. From crystal chandeliers to marble floors and golden decorations. I swear even the air smelled expensive.
“You’re staring too much,” she commented.
“Well excuse me,” I muttered. “Some of us grew up eating noodles.”
She laughed softly again. “I keep forgetting you were poor this morning.”
A few guests looked toward us as we entered the private elevator area. And most of them looked at the woman first, then at me and back at me again, probably trying to figure out how someone dressed like me ended up beside someone like Abby.
Inside the elevator, I finally looked at the black card again.
“That is my grandfather’s account cards.” She said before I could ask.
“Cards? As in plural?”
“There are several.” She replied.
My eyebrows furrowed immediately. “How many people have this account?”
“No idea.”
The elevator doors opened quietly into an enormous private dining floor. Floor-to-ceiling glass windows overlooked the entire city skyline while soft piano music played somewhere nearby. Expensive tables stretched across the room with candlelights glowing softly, and there was nobody else here.
“For us?” I asked.
The manager smiled immediately. “Of course, sir.”
I sat awkwardly while employees immediately surrounded the table placing water, towels and menus in front of us. One lady even bowed slightly while pouring my drink. And I nearly looked behind me to check if there was another person sitting there.
“Enjoy it,” Abby chimed in. “Poor people spend their entire lives dreaming about moments like this.”
I looked down at the menu. “What the hell?! A steak costs three thousand dollars?!”
“That’s actually cheap here.” I stared at her like she had lost her mind, but she calmly flipped through the menu without caring. Meanwhile I was mentally calculating how many months of rent one steak could pay for.
“You’re doing it again,” she said.
“Doing what?”
“Thinking poor.”
“I was poor.”
“Not anymore.” Before I could respond, movement near the entrance caught my attention. Three people entered the dining floor laughing loudly. It was a man and two women. And the moment I saw the man’s face, my expression changed instantly.
It was Tyler, Vanessa’s new rich boyfriend. The same idiot who supposedly is better than me in everything was here with two other women that were not even Vanessa. He stopped walking immediately after seeing me, and his eyebrows slowly furrowed.
“Well isn’t it him?” he exclaimed, and the two girls beside him looked confused. “You followed me here?” he asked, now staring directly into my eyes.
“What?” I asked with a frown, again Abby was not even bothered, she just watched. Tyler glanced at her briefly before smirking mockingly.
“Ohhh I get it now.” He nodded slowly. “You’re working as some rich girl’s driver?”
The girls burst into laughter instantly, “You seriously came here looking like that?” he mocked. “This place is way above your tax bracket.”
Abby calmly sipped her wine without interfering. And Tyler looked around dramatically before speaking louder intentionally.
“Security really lets anybody inside these days huh?”
I also looked around too and noticed that some nearby staff members immediately looked uncomfortable. Because unlike Tyler, they had already seen the black card and they knew exactly who Tyler was talking to.
Tyler noticed their silence and frowned slightly. “What?” he snapped. “Why are you all staring?Relax, I’m just talking to my girlfriend’s ex-boyfriend.”
He smirked proudly after saying it, but then his eyes moved toward the luxury table setup in front of me, and his expression changed slightly.
“…Wait.” For the first time since approaching, his eyes landed on the black card resting beside my hand and his eyes widened. I thought I had won this round, but his next reaction was something I would have never expected.
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33. Messed Up Visit
The car went faster than I had ever experienced a car go on a city street. Conrad drove with both hands on the wheel and an expression I had never seen on him before, something stripped down to pure function, every ounce of his usual contained calm redirected entirely into the mechanics of getting from one place to another place as quickly as physics allowed.Abby had her phone against her ear, calling someone, her voice low and fast. I sat with my own phone still connected to the unknown caller."Are they hurting him?" I said into it. My voice did not sound like my voice. "Tell me what you know. Right now."A pause."We do not have eyes on the location," the voice said. "We have the phone call Hargreaves made. We know the call went to a number associated with a private security contractor he has used before. We do not know what instructions were given." A pause. "I am telling you this because you need to move, not because I have answers.""Why call me at all if you do not have answer
32. Messed Up Move
The session ended at eleven thirty-seven in the morning, and by the time I walked out into the estate grounds, the Sunday sky had gone from the grey of early morning to something clearer. Not warm exactly, but bright in the way that early autumn sometimes manages, the kind of light that does not promise anything but is pleasant to stand in regardless.I stood on the stone steps for a while. Conrad came and stood beside me without speaking. That was one of the things about Conrad.After a few minutes I said, "It is not over.""No," he said."Hargreaves will fight the review.""He will fight every stage of the review," Conrad agreed. "He has lawyers who have spent two decades protecting this family's business. He will use them to protect himself. The review will take months. Possibly longer." He paused. "But he is out of the council. He cannot act from the inside anymore.""He can still act from the outside," I said."Yes," Conrad said. "He can."I thought about the unknown caller. Abou
31. Messed Up Session 2
The session began at eight o'clock exactly. Nine people around the table. The same formation as Friday, the same faces, the same careful distribution of stillness and attention. But the quality of the room was different. An emergency session carries weight that a scheduled one does not. Everyone present had rearranged their Sunday morning for this, and that rearrangement had a cost they were each aware of.Hargreaves sat in his usual position. Fourth from the right. Hands folded. Celeste sat directly opposite me, as before. On the table in front of her was a document folder that was thicker than the one she had brought on Friday.Edmund Pryce opened the session."This emergency convening has been called under Article Fourteen of the founding charter," he said. "A single council member has presented evidence of a direct threat to the network's integrity. The full council is present. The blood heir is present. We proceed." He looked at Celeste. "You called the session. You have the floo
30. Messed Up Session 1
There was no real decision made about it. We simply did not sleep. Conrad made more coffee at two in the morning and then again at four, and between those two coffees we sat in Vera's back room and prepared everything that needed to be prepared for a council session that was now six hours away.Vera had a printer. We used it.Every document was printed in triplicate. The financial routing records. The pharmaceutical contract. Ashford's forensic accountant verification. Abby's independent documentation with its separate provenance chain fully annotated. And Elias's sealed letter for the record, which I chose not to open, because it was addressed to the council and I intended the council to be the ones who heard it first.Ashford arrived at five with his sister's car and a face that looked like he had managed slightly more sleep than the rest of us, which was still not much. He sat down and looked at the stack of printed documents and did not say anything for a moment.Then he said: "Th
29. Messed Up Correction
The back room of Vera's bookshop held the silence the way old buildings hold cold. Completely. Evenly. Without apology. I had the piece of paper in my hand and I was looking at Conrad and Conrad was looking at me and between us was everything the last five days had been built on, which was apparently not the foundation either of us had believed it to be.Abby read the paper over my shoulder. I heard her breath change."Conrad," I said."Yes," he said.Just yes. Not a denial. Not a deflection. Just the single word of a man who has decided that the moment for managing information has passed.I set the paper down on the table. "Elias did not die of natural causes," I said."No," Conrad said."You knew this.""Yes.""How long?"Conrad looked at the table briefly. Then back at me. "Since three days before he died," he said.The room was absolutely still. "He told you," I said."He told me," Conrad said. "He had been ill for some time. The illness was real. But the progression was being man
28. Messed Up Conrad?
They came at eleven forty-seven that night. I know the exact time because I had not slept and the clock on the nightstand was the thing I had been staring at for the last forty minutes, watching it move toward midnight because tomorrow, everything that needs to happen can happen.The door simply opened and Conrad was there, and the expression on his face was not the usual contained calm. It was still controlled but the effort required to keep it controlled was visible."Get dressed," he said. "Now. Quietly."I dressed in the dark, out of habit or instinct, pulled on the jacket with the documents still in the inside pocket, checked the black card was where I had left it, and was at my door in ninety seconds. Abby was already in the corridor. She had her bag over one shoulder and her phone in her hand and was looking toward the front door with a focused smile."How many?" I asked quietly."Two confirmed outside," Conrad said from the living room. He was at the window, standing to one si
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