2025-09-01 22:08:55Emma turned around, and just as she had expected, it was her cousin Leif, who always seemed to look for the slightest opportunity to belittle her before the rest of the Robbins family.
Leif had always been a pain in Emma's butt, right from when they were kids. And sometimes, Emma had stopped to ask herself why Leif seemed to hate her so much when, in fact, he was their grandfather's favorite.
"Why didn't anyone tell me that paupers were also invited? I might have also invited a couple of them who live in my neighborhood.” Leif remarked with a mock grin.
Emma heaved a frustrating sigh as the word "pauper” hung in the air like a poisoned dart.
Someone laughed. Another shook their head in disgust. The sting of their judgment burned Emma’s skin, but all of that didn't compare to what was coming after they found out that the "supposed pauper," whom Emma had come with, was not just anyone but their son-in-law.
“He’s not a pauper,” Emma said, steadying her breath.
Her palms were clammy, but she stood her ground
“He…” She drew in a deep breath, her gaze sweeping across the sea of mocking eyes fixed on her. She knew the weight of what she was about to say, and yet she pressed on. “…is my husband.”
The words rang through the hall like the crack of thunder. For a heartbeat, silence blanketed the room.
Emma could almost feel the heat of her relatives’ stares pressing against her skin, each pair of eyes widened in disbelief, each mouth slightly agape as if struck dumb.
“Your what?” Leif finally broke the silence, his face twisted in a smirk.
But the stunned quiet didn’t last long. Within seconds, laughter exploded around the room—cruel, mocking, rolling waves of amusement at her expense.
Of all the outrageous scandals the Robbins family had weathered over the years, Emma declaring that the man standing beside her, with his calm posture and unassuming clothes, was her husband, was instantly branded the most ridiculous of all.
To them, Ethan looked like nothing more than a beggar dressed in borrowed dignity.
But what they didn't know was that he was A.M.E.N, the one name that could make the Robbins one of the most respected families in the country.
“Emma!” Her mother, Lizzy, snapped. “Are you out of your mind?”
Emma swallowed hard, turning toward her mother. “Mom… I can explain.”
“Explain what?” Lizzy’s voice climbed higher, dripping with disdain. “What on earth could you possibly explain? That you’ve tied yourself to a man who has nothing? Nothing at all to offer you! No wealth, no status, no future. You’ve disgraced yourself, Emma. Worse—you’ve disgraced all of us.”
Emma’s chest tightened, but before she could respond, another voice chimed in, one sharper and more venomous than her mother’s.
“That’s not even the real problem here,” Jennifer said, her eyes narrowing dangerously as she stepped forward.
“This man…” She let her gaze sweep across the room before delivering the final blow. “…just got released from prison.”
A collective gasp rippled through the hall. Shock gave way to disgust as whispers erupted like wildfire.
“Prison?”
“Did she say prison?”
“My God, Emma, what have you done?”
Emma froze, her breath caught in her throat. She had expected opposition, yes, but she didn't expect her own PA to be the one fanning the flames of her humiliation.
“Oh, this just keeps getting better. Not only did you marry a beggar… you married a criminal?” Leif gestured dramatically toward Ethan, who stood silent and steady beside Emma. “Truly, Emma, you’ve outdone yourself. I didn’t think it was possible to shame this family more than you already have, but you’ve managed it.”
“Enough, Leif. You don’t know him—" Emma snapped.
“Know him?” Leif replied with a mocking laugh. “We know all we need to know. A man who’s been in prison, who has no wealth, no power, no standing. And this is who you thought was worthy of our family name?”
The rest of the guests murmured among themselves with words that Emma couldn't hear. And all along, Ethan hadn't said anything, waiting to see how far Emma could go to defend him.
“Tell me, Emma,” Leif continued, his voice loud enough for the whole hall to hear. “Did you marry him for love? Or was it pity? Or perhaps you wanted to rebel against your family, and this man here—” he waved dismissively at Ethan “—was your way of spitting in all our faces.”
The other family members laughed even harder, making Lizzy more angry towards Emma for bringing her so much embarrassment on such an important day.
“Enough.” Ethan eventually intervened, his voice steady, deep, and carrying a weight that silenced the hall. He didn’t shout, but the power in his tone commanded attention. The relatives shifted uncomfortably in their seats, surprised that the “pauper” dared to speak back.
Ethan’s eyes locked on Leif. “You may despise me. You may look down on me. That doesn’t matter. But you will not mock Emma for standing by her choice."
“Bold words… from a beggar,” Leif sneered, his voice loud. “Tell me, Ethan or whatever name you go by do you truly believe anyone here takes you seriously? Look around you.” He swept a hand across the vast hall. “This is the Robbins family. You don’t belong here. Not now, not ever.”
But Ethan did not flinch, not even for a second. He knew who he was, and whatever the Robbins family thought they owned was not even up to one percent of all that was under his name.
And then, suddenly, it happened.
A sharp, pained gasp shattered the rising voices. All heads turned in alarm as Grandpa Robbins, the Grand Patriarch himself, who had been sitting silently, watching the scene unfold with a storm of emotions written across his weathered face, suddenly stiffened. His hand shot up to his chest.
“Grandfather!” the cry went up as the old man’s body trembled. His face contorted in agony, his breaths shallow and strained as he hunched forward, clutching desperately at his chest.
“Grandfather, what’s wrong?”
“Somebody help him!”
Chaos erupted instantly, and the earlier mockery was forgotten almost immediately, replaced by frantic shouts.
“Call the physician, now!” someone screamed.
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Chapter 207: Visions like memories
Ethan lowered himself onto the woven mat, the coarse fibers a tactile anchor in the surreal chamber. He crossed his legs, rested his hands on his knees, and closed his eyes. The weight of the stone room, the scent of earth, the profound silence—it all pressed in, not as an assault, but as an invitation to dissolve.This was the same thing he had run away from back then that he was now finding himself performing again.But what choice had he got? He needed to complete this before he could think of facing Nathan for the sake of Emma and his unborn baby.“Breathe into the stillness,” the Grand Physician’s voice murmured, not from across the room, but seemingly from within the stillness itself. “The Quieting is not an erasure. It is a re-ordering. You will see the tapestry of your life. The threads of joy, of pain, of choice and consequence. Do not cling to them. Observe them as patterns in the weave. You will have visions. Keep an open mind. The mind that judges is the mind that suffers
Chapter 206: The sanctuary of stillness
They passed through corridors Ethan vaguely remembered, places of instruction and meditation. But the Grand Physician led him deeper than he had ever gone before, to a part of the compound that felt less like a building and more like a natural cave system that had been gently shaped. The air grew cooler, the scent of stone and damp earth replacing the incense.Finally, they entered a circular chamber. The ceiling was a natural dome of rock, with a single shaft of muted light falling from a hidden opening far above, illuminating the center of the room. In that pool of light was a simple mat of woven reeds. Around the perimeter, in deep shadow, stood nine smooth stone pillars, each carved with a single, complex symbol that seemed to shift in the low light.This was the Sanctuary of Stillness. The air itself felt thick, heavy with intention, as if sound went to die here.The Grand Physician gestured to the mat. "The place of unraveling."Ethan moved toward it, the gravity of the room pre
Chapter 205: The ‘Quieting’ Ritual
As Ethan drove to the Grand Physician’s the following morning, his hands tight on the wheel, his mind was a million miles away—or rather, decades.He wasn't navigating by GPS, but by muscle memory of a journey taken in a different life. The towering pines blurred into a green-grey wall, and with them, the present dissolved.“The focus is not to feel nothing, Ethan. That is the crude aim of a brute. The aim is to feel everything… and choose which sensation becomes action. The rest, you relegate to a silent room and lock the door.”The Grand Physician’s voice, dry as ancient parchment, echoed in his mind. He could see the austere training hall, the smell of sandalwood and cold stone. He’d been young, arrogant, flush with the early successes of the skills he’d already learned. The ‘Quieting’ had been presented as the final masterwork, the capstone. Not a new weapon, but the forging of an impregnable armory for the mind itself.And he’d walked away just before he could even get to underst
Chapter 204: Back To The Grand Physician
Ethan didn’t answer for a long moment. He pushed back from the desk, the chair rolling soundlessly on the thick rug. He walked to the floor-to-ceiling window, his back to the room, his silhouette tense against the glittering, indifferent cityscape.“I know my brother,” Ethan said, his voice hollow, stripped of all its usual command. “I know that Elizabeth Robbins would swallow broken glass before calling me for help. The fact that she did…” He bowed his head, a hand coming up to press against the cold glass. “It means she has exhausted every other option.”Ethan gave a single, jerky nod. The weight of it—the dual loss, the compounded violation—seemed to press him physically into the floor. “My brother understands currency. He understands leverage. He has just acquired the only two things in this universe I would trade the crown for. Not that I would ever be given the choice.”He strode back to the desk, not with purpose, but with a frantic, caged energy. He picked up the dead phone, s
Chapter 203: What do we do now?
Elizabeth’s phone slipped from her nerveless fingers, thudding softly onto the carpet. She didn’t hear it. All she heard was the roaring silence of a timeline that ended at seven o’clock.She was leaving.Four hours ago.The chill from the balcony was nothing compared to the glacial fear freezing her from the inside out. Every terrible possibility—the kind she’d spent years as a corporate wife learning to suppress—flooded her mind. An accident on the winding coastal road. A mugging in the city garage. Or worse, something deliberate, something linked to the crown, to the viper’s nest Emma had just been thrust into.Her gaze swept the room, landing on the family portrait from a decade ago—Richard’s arm around her, a young, smiling Emma between them. A perfect, painful lie. She was alone. Utterly alone with this terror.And then, unbidden, the most complicated, infuriating face of all surfaced in her mind: Ethan.She recoiled from the thought. Emma’s fury at him had been absolute, scorch
Chapter 202: Four hours ago
"You're operating under the assumption that Ethan and I are still connected. That I am leverage." Emma's voice was cold and sharp. "You're wrong. What happened with my grandfather severed that tie completely. I am done with Ethan. There is no loyalty to exploit, no affection to manipulate. Keeping me here is a pointless risk. Your quarrel is with him. Let me go, and you eliminate a complication. He will still come for you, for the crown. But you won't have an angry, resourceful hostage who has zero stake in his survival cluttering your operation."She delivered the speech with icy precision, every word a calculated move on this new, horrifying board. She was a redundant asset. A liability. She painted the picture with clear, logical strokes.And of course, that was what she thought. There was no point in dragging her into a sibling rivalry that she had no stakes in, and much worse, dragging her unborn child into it as well.Nathan listened, his head tilted. When she finished, he didn'
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