2025-11-19 06:11:03The warehouse break room smelled of old coffee and metal dust. Leon sat alone on a cracked plastic chair, his body still aching from the twelve-hour shift Mason had deliberately stretched just to “test his limits.” His palms were raw, his shoulders burning, his pride almost gone.
Almost. He stared at his phone—one of the only things he had left that still worked since his accounts were frozen. A single message notification blinked. From: Family Attorney – Urgent His pulse kicked hard. He opened the message. > “Leon, you need to come in. There has been a final decision regarding the Hale inheritance.” A cold weight sank into his stomach. Final decision. Something told him it wasn’t going to be in his favor. --- Thirty minutes later, Leon stood outside the glass-paneled office of Mr. Whitford, the Hale family attorney. Rain drizzled down his hair, soaking through his cheap uniform. He didn’t bother wiping it off. Inside, Mr. Whitford looked uneasy—almost guilty. “Leon,” he said, rising from his chair. “I wasn’t sure you would come.” Leon stepped in silently. “Just tell me.” Whitford inhaled sharply and handed him an envelope. “Your father… or rather, Alexander Hale, has signed the final amendment. You’ve been removed entirely from the family will, assets, and company shares.” Leon felt the world tilt for a second, like someone had ripped the last support beam out from beneath him. “All of it?” he said quietly. Whitford nodded. “Everything. You are no longer legally recognized as an heir.” Leon swallowed hard. He wasn’t surprised… but hearing it out loud was a different kind of wound. “Why?” he finally asked. The attorney hesitated. “Eveline Hale brought forward… evidence.” Leon laughed bitterly. “Let me guess. Lies?” Whitford didn’t answer. That was answer enough. Leon’s fists slowly tightened. His stepmother had always despised him, ever since Alexander remarried her—a woman half his age, who came from another corporate empire eager to merge their influence. But she hid her hatred well. She smiled like a doll and stabbed with silk-gloved hands. Whitford slid a document across the table. “Leon… it’s worse than you think.” Leon stared down at the papers—and froze. Eveline hadn’t just pushed for his removal. She had told Alexander that Leon: — squandered company money — planned to sell internal secrets — had ties to corporate spies — and was sabotaging the Hale legacy out of resentment All fabricated. All poisonous. All impossible to disprove once they hit Alexander’s ears. Whitford’s voice dropped to a whisper. “Your father believes it. Entirely.” A deep, sharp pain spread through Leon’s chest. Alexander Hale—his father—had thrown him away. Not questioned. Not investigated. Not even spoken to him once. Just… erased him. Leon let out a slow breath. “So this is Eveline’s final knife.” Whitford didn’t deny it. “She convinced him you’re dangerous to the company,” the attorney continued. “She wants her own sons to inherit everything. And now… she has what she wants.” A bitter silence filled the room. Leon finally folded the document and shoved it back into the envelope. “What happens now?” he asked. Whitford didn’t sugarcoat it. “Legally… you’re nothing to the Hale family.” Nothing. Not a son. Not an heir. Not even an employee. A ghost—one they had deliberately erased. Leon turned toward the door. “Leon,” Whitford called after him. “I’m sorry. Truly.” But Leon didn’t look back. --- Outside, the rain had turned heavy, pouring over the city like the sky was grieving with him. He stood under the awning, the envelope slowly wilting in his grip. Thunder rolled overhead. So that was it. Vanessa had left him. Mason humiliated him. The city crushed him. And now his own family had buried him without a funeral. Leon’s fingers trembled as he pressed the heels of his palms to his eyes. A low, hoarse whisper escaped him. “…Why?” Why wasn’t he enough? Why did everyone enjoy watching him fall? Why did every hand around him push him deeper into the dirt? Lightning flashed. His phone buzzed again. A new message. From: Stepmother Eveline His heart went cold. He opened it. > *“Leon, darling… do stop trying to crawl back into the family. Accept reality like a grown man. You were never meant to inherit anything. Not the name. Not the company. The Hale bloodline needs strong successors—not pathetic strays.”* Leon felt something inside him snap. Not break. Snap. A clean, sharp fracture. Eveline sent one more message. > “Do yourself a favor—disappear quietly. It’s the only useful thing you can offer the Hale family now.” Leon lowered the phone slowly. Rain dripped down his face, mingling with something hot burning behind his eyes. Disappear? No. They wanted him gone. They wanted him silent. They wanted him erased. But they had forgotten one thing— A man who’s lost everything… is a man who has nothing left to fear. Leon lifted his chin, rain sliding down the hardening line of his jaw. “Eveline,” he whispered, voice low and cold. “You just made the biggest mistake of your life.”
Previous Chapter
Latest Chapter
Ch. 14 — The Emotional Threshold
The bridge was silent.Too silent.Leon sat hunched against the cold metal railing, his body drained, his eyes swollen from crying — something he never thought he’d do again. The night air stung his face, but he barely felt it.He was numb.Completely, utterly numb.But inside that numbness… something stirred.A tremble.A pulse.A vibration like the faint thrum of a distant machine warming up.He squeezed his eyes shut, gripping his head with both hands.“Stop…” he whispered. “Just stop…”His thoughts weren’t thoughts anymore.They were fragments.Shards.Pieces of a shattered self.Vanessa’s laughter.Mason’s insults.Eveline’s venom.Alexander’s eyes as he signed the disownment papers.The flash of cameras.The cold warehouse concrete.The river.The brokenness.The emptiness.Everything hit him at once — a tidal wave of years of pressure collapsing inward.His breathing sped up.His pulse raced.His fingers dug into his scalp so hard he felt the sting of nails against skin.“Stop…
Ch. 13 — A Night of Despair
The storm eased sometime after midnight, but the cold didn’t lift.It wrapped itself around Leon like a second skin as he dragged himself across the cracked pavement, still shaken by the strange flashes of light and sound that had echoed through his mind.Had he imagined it?Was it a hallucination from exhaustion?The rainwater dripping from his hair made it hard to think.Harder to breathe.He didn’t go back to the warehouse.He couldn’t—not yet.Instead, his feet carried him toward the old iron bridge crossing the river at the edge of the industrial district. A lonely place. Quiet. Forgotten. Like him.By the time he reached the midpoint, the storm had died completely, leaving only the hiss of wind over the dark water.Leon gripped the railing with both hands, knuckles white.The river below was black—so dark it swallowed the reflection of the city lights. The current moved slowly, like something alive, waiting.He stared down at it.For a long time… he didn’t move.---His shoulder
Ch. 12 — The Broken Man
tThe rain came down in sheets, turning the streets into rivers of cold water that splashed against Leon’s ankles as he walked.No umbrella.No jacket.No destination.Just pain.Just emptiness.Just the weight of another humiliating day.He limped slightly—the result of a fall earlier that afternoon. Mason had “accidentally” knocked a crate off a high shelf. Leon barely dodged it, but the second crate Mason shoved after it struck Leon’s shoulder, sending him crashing onto concrete.The bruise spread down his arm like a blackened spiderweb.The supervisor only smirked.“Try not to die on shift, Hale. Paperwork annoys me.”Leon hadn’t answered.What was the point?Now, hours later, the injury burned with every step, pulsing like a reminder of how far he had fallen.Thunder cracked overhead, but the storm was nothing compared to the one raging inside him.His breath fogged the air as he crossed under a flickering streetlamp. The yellow light illuminated the soaked bandage wrapped around
Ch. 11 — The Collapse Begins
The rain hadn’t stopped.By the time Leon returned to the warehouse, his uniform clung to him like a second skin, soaked through with cold and humiliation. The night shift lights buzzed overhead, casting long shadows across the empty loading bay.His steps felt heavier than they should.His chest tighter than it had ever been.He moved like a man carrying a mountain.---The storage room—his “home”—was dim and damp. A thin mattress lay in the corner, barely better than cardboard. Leon shut the door behind him and leaned his back against it, sliding down slowly until he was sitting on the floor.His body ached, but the real pain wasn’t physical.It pulsed from somewhere deeper… a place he didn’t know could hurt this much.He dropped the envelope—the final inheritance papers—onto the ground. It landed with a soft thud, like dirt hitting a coffin.Leon stared at it.“That’s it,” he breathed. “They’ve completely erased me.”His voice sounded foreign—even to himself.He had lived his whole
Ch. 10 — Eveline’s Final Knife
The warehouse break room smelled of old coffee and metal dust. Leon sat alone on a cracked plastic chair, his body still aching from the twelve-hour shift Mason had deliberately stretched just to “test his limits.” His palms were raw, his shoulders burning, his pride almost gone.Almost.He stared at his phone—one of the only things he had left that still worked since his accounts were frozen. A single message notification blinked.From: Family Attorney – UrgentHis pulse kicked hard.He opened the message.> “Leon, you need to come in. There has been a final decision regarding the Hale inheritance.”A cold weight sank into his stomach.Final decision.Something told him it wasn’t going to be in his favor.---Thirty minutes later, Leon stood outside the glass-paneled office of Mr. Whitford, the Hale family attorney. Rain drizzled down his hair, soaking through his cheap uniform. He didn’t bother wiping it off.Inside, Mr. Whitford looked uneasy—almost guilty.“Leon,” he said, rising
CHAPTER. 9 — Mason’s Threat
Leon didn’t sleep after the system awakened.How could he?That cold mechanical voice still echoed at the back of his mind, sharp as broken glass:[REBIRTH SYSTEM ACTIVATED.]His life had collapsed so brutally that something—not human—had chosen him as a “prime candidate.”And yet morning came like always, dragging him back into the world he still had to endure.The warehouse buzzed alive with forklifts, workers shouting, machinery rumbling. Leon stepped onto the floor with stiff legs and sore shoulders, head low, eyes heavy from a night without rest. He expected exhaustion.He didn’t expect to run straight into Mason Briggs.The supervisor stood near the timeclock, arms crossed, a grin already spreading across his face. Mason’s smile wasn’t friendly. It was the type that belonged to someone who loved watching things break.Especially people.“There he is,” Mason said loudly, drawing the attention of the nearby workers. “The stray dog reporting for duty.”A few workers chuckled. Other
You may also like
The Invincible Arthur Gardner
Herolich99.6K viewsThe Tycoon System
Aster_Pheonix86.2K viewsThe Successor System
Khay Phynom 58.9K viewsGod of the Cultivator System
Lord MOH25.2K viewsI-Mode: Becoming A Famous Detective With A System
De_law17961 viewsHeavenly Executioner System
Jie Ramadhan409 viewsVillainous Sect Leader
Peace1.2K viewsElementals: A New Dawn
Izoraquinn1.5K views