2026-03-07 19:24:06"What in God's name is going on here?"
The voice broke through the tension like a hammer through plate glass.
Although feminine, the voice was one of absolute, unquestionable authority, cold as liquid nitrogen.
The security guard froze, his baton hovering inches from Saul’s shoulder. He turned, his face draining of color faster than a spilled bucket of paint.
Stepping out from the bank’s revolving doors was a woman who made the atmosphere on the street feel suddenly heavier.
She was tall—impossibly so—easily 5'10" even before factoring in the black Louboutin stilettos that added another four inches to her height.
She wore a charcoal pinstripe suit tailored so precisely it looked like a second skin, hugging a figure that was curvaceous yet intimidatingly athletic.
Her hair was a cascade of dark mahogany waves, but it was her eyes that held everyone captive.
They were amber, predatory, and currently narrowed in lethal displeasure.
This was Veronica Hale.
The Senior Director of Imperial Bank. And she looked like she was about to execute someone.
"Director Hale!" the lead guard stammered, lowering his baton but not holstering it. "We... We have a situation. This vagrant is harassing our VIP clients and attempting to pass off a fraudulent card."
Veronica didn't even look at him.
She descended the marble steps, her gaze fixed solely on Saul. Or rather, on the matte black card in his hand.
She took it with manicured fingers, ran her thumb over the golden wolf emblem embossed on the front.
Her amber eyes widened, a flicker of genuine shock cracking her icy mask.
There were only nine of these in existence. The Supreme Black Card. The Wolf’s Pass.
It wasn't just a simple credit card.
It was the literal key to the global economy.
Kings killed for these. And many more had committed far greater sins all just to have such a prize in their possession.
And yet, this man covered in construction dust, smelling of sweat and cement, was holding one.
“This is an exclusive card." She breathed in awe.
"Exclusive?" Saul echoed, feeling a knot of confusion tighten in his stomach.
"He stole it!" Michaela screeched from the sidelines, sensing the shift in the air and hating it. "Look at him! He probably mugged someone in an alley! Arrest him, Director! He pushed me!"
"Yeah," the guard said, emboldened by the screeching woman. "He’s clearly a thief. I was just about to take him down to the station—"
CRACK.
The sound was sickeningly loud.
The guard’s head snapped to the side. He stumbled back, clutching his cheek, his eyes bulging in disbelief.
Veronica Sterling had just backhanded him. Hard.
"Shut up," she hissed, her voice low and venomous. "You incompetent moron. Do you have any idea what you are looking at?"
"M-Ma'am?" the guard whimpered, blood trickling from his lip.
"This is a Supreme Black Card," Veronica announced, her voice carrying to the gathered crowd. She turned to Saul, her expression shifting from rage to a professional, almost reverent curiosity. "And it is bio-coded. It cannot be stolen. It cannot be used by anyone other than the registered owner or their direct proxy. If he is holding it, and the security systems didn't lock down the block when he entered the perimeter, it means the card accepts him."
She handed the card back to Saul with two hands, a gesture of extreme respect.
"I apologize, Sir," she said, her voice smooth as silk. "My staff has been... lacking."
"You’re making a mistake!" Clara roared, stepping forward, her face twisting in ugly indignation. "Are you insane? My mother is a Bronze Card holder! We demand you arrest this man! He’s a nobody! He’s my sister’s charity case ex-husband!"
Michaela scrambled up, abandoning her fake injury. "Exactly! I know this man, Director. He digs ditches for a living. There is no way, no way in hell that card is real. He’s running a scam, and you’re falling for it!"
Veronica turned her gaze to the Marions. It was like a dragon looking at a pair of noisy insects.
"A scam?" Veronica repeated, arching a perfectly sculpted eyebrow. "You think someone can counterfeit a nano-carbon alloy card with a quantum-encrypted chip? You think a 'nobody' walks around with a direct line to the Global Treasury in his pocket?"
"He's a liar!" Michaela shrieked, pointing a shaking finger at Saul. "It's all he knows how to do! Just call the police! I want him in handcuffs! If you don't, I’ll pull every cent I have out of this bank!"
Veronica laughed.
It was a dark, throaty sound that lacked any humor.
"Please do," Veronica said coldly. "In fact, let me help you with that."
She pulled a sleek tablet from her inner suit pocket, tapped the screen three times, and looked up with a cruel smile.
"Michaela Marion. Account ending in 4490. Balance: one million, two hundred thousand. Mostly alimony settlements, I see." Veronica swiped her finger across the screen. "I have just flagged your accounts for review due to violation of our Code of Conduct regarding the harassment of Supreme Tier clients."
"What?" Michaela went pale.
"Your Bronze status is revoked," Veronica continued, her voice boring into them. "Your cards are deactivated effective immediately. You are no longer welcome at Imperial Bank. You have five minutes to vacate the premises before I have new security throw you into the street like the trash you are."
"You... you can't do that!" Clara cried, looking at her phone as a notification pinged. "My card just got declined! I have a spa appointment in an hour!"
"Not anymore," Veronica said, dismissing them. She turned back to the guard who was still clutching his face. "You’re fired. Get out of my sight before I press charges for assaulting a customer."
The guard didn't need to be told twice.
He scrambled away, leaving his baton on the ground.
Michaela and Clara stood there, mouths agape, stripped of their power in seconds. They looked at Saul, waiting for him to gloat, to laugh.
But Saul just looked tired.
He looked at them with eyes that had seen too much disappointment.
"Go home, Michaela," Saul said quietly. "Just go."
Veronica stepped closer to Saul, her presence enveloping him. "Sir? If you would follow me. We have a VIP suite waiting. We have much to discuss."
She extended a hand toward the bank's golden doors.
Saul hesitated, looking at the stunned women one last time, then nodded.
“Call me Saul." He muttered to the woman, before he walked past his ex-mother-in-law, leaving her trembling with rage and fear on the sidewalk.
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Chapter 280. Sooth Her.
Saul could not see her eyes clearly in the dim light. But he could see the way her body tensed under the duvet. He could see the way her breathing hitched and the way the sleepiness in her expression melted away and was replaced by something else. Something that looked almost like fear."Saul?" she asked. Her voice was soft slightly slurring.Confused was the adjective that came to the Man's mind, but there was also a thread of another emotion underneath it. Caution. "Why are you standing there?" She asked lowly, voice falling into a natural whisper. As if she too did not want to break the silence of the night.Saul did not respond immediately.Instead, he watched her, his eyes dark and unreadable, his expression carefully blank. He found that the coldness in his chest was spreading, leeching into the rest of him, making it harder to feel anything at all.The present Saul, the one who had called Veronica in the middle of the night and had confessed his love to a woman he did not
Chapter 279. Unnerved.
"Saul," she said. Her voice was uncertain and hesitant, nothing like the confident woman who had stormed into his office earlier that day."Goodnight, Veronica."It was not a request. It was a dismissal.Veronica opened her mouth, to say something, anything, but the words did not come. She looked at him one more time, searching for something in his face that she could recognize. She found nothing. Stomach twisting with dread, she stepped out of the car and closed the door behind her. She stood there in the darkness, watching as he started the engine and pulled away from the curb without a backward glance.She stood there for a long time after his taillights had disappeared into the distance.Her mind was racing, turning over the events of the last half hour like a puzzle that did not quite fit together. He had been drunk. She was certain of that. She had smelled the whiskey on his breath and heard the slur in his voice and seen the way he could not keep his eyes focused on her f
Chapter 278. Saul Prime.
His chest rattled under the onslaught of his feelings but he pushed past it to finish his statement:“I feel… Love.”The silence that followed was so complete and so profound that he could hear his own heartbeat echoing in his ears. Veronica's breath hitched but that was her only reaction to the bombshell he had just dropped on her.Saul, the Saul before his memories were taken, the original before the isolator protocol had split into this amalgamation of imposter syndrome, the part that was watching from somewhere deep inside, felt sick. It was a visceral reaction: a gut-wrenching nausea that had nothing to do with the alcohol and everything to do with the words that had just left his mouth. ‘Oh fuck… why did I say that? Why the hell would I say something like that?!’He was fucking enraged at his own stupidity but beneath the rage was fear, cold and sharp and paralyzing. He did not know how she would respond.Saul didn't have confidence that he would be able survive whatever she
Chapter 277. Feel Things.
The line went dead with a beep.The thirty minutes he waited for her passed like hours and seconds at the same time. It was the kind of temporal distortion that came from sitting alone in a dark corner with nothing but your own thoughts and the distant hum of a city that did not care whether you lived or died. Saul sat in the driver's seat with his hands in his lap and his eyes fixed on the empty street ahead. His mind spun through the same loop of confusion and fear and cloying lovesickness.The phone was still in his hand, the screen was still dark, and the silence was still pressing in on him from all sides.He thought about calling Kim again.He thought about driving away and pretending that none of this had ever happened. He could go back to the penthouse and crawl into bed and wake up tomorrow as if the last hour had been nothing but a fever dream.But he did none of those things.Instead, he sat there and waited for the woman who was supposed to be his business partner to c
Chapter 276. Shame.
Saul's throat was tight. Each recrimination seemed to hit harder and harder on his shoulders until they shrunk down into his seat.He felt….. shame. An emotion he hasn't felt for some time." Veronica….”His mouth opened and closed, honestly not knowing what to say to the woman and she knew it judging by the derisive snort she let out.".... And after all of that, you call me and tell me you wanted to hear my voice, and I'm supposed to what? Be flattered? Be grateful? Be happy that the great Saul Kinai deigned to think about me for five seconds?" She sneered. It was the most mocking sound he had heard from anyone in his lip except Magnus maybe. "You are an asshole. You are an absolute piece of shit."Her voice broke on the last word. She was quiet for a moment, and he could hear her breathing on the other end of the line, struggling to pull herself together."I can't do this. I can't do this hot and cold bullshit with you anymore. One minute you're so distant, and the next you're cal
Chapter 275. Aspect.
Even as a part of him screamed, 'No. No, I don't. I don't need her. I need Kim. I need my wife. I don't need her-' His thumb moved across the screen. It found Veronica's name in his contacts, '-Don't do this. Don't you dare do this-' And pressed the call button before his mind could argue against it. 'Goddammit-'The phone rang once. Then twice. Then three times. Each ring felt like an eternity. He sat there with his heart pounding, his breath shallow, and his hand shaking. He waited.It took a while.But she answered."Hello?"And the moment he heard her voice, everything just went calm.****Saul had to take a few seconds to just breathe into the speaker, his eyes closed and his heart hammering against his ribs, basking in the feel of her voice washing over him like a tidal wave. He could hear the faint sound of movement on the other end of the line and the distant hum of something that might have been a television and the soft rhythm of her breathing miles away.He let all of it
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