2025-07-29 00:00:19The city buzzed around him as Jared waited for the bus back to the central district. He could’ve called a cab, but he didn’t. Not yet. Every naira counted now.
The auction had left him with nothing in his wallet, but in his mind? He had more power than any of them could imagine. Elena’s voice still echoed in his head — “Just don’t come back empty-handed.”
He hadn’t. She just wouldn’t see it yet.
The bus pulled up, brakes squealing, and Jared climbed on. No one paid him any attention. He liked it that way. That’s how all great rises began — in silence.
By the time he reached the Bai family residence, the sun had started its descent. Long shadows stretched across the marble floors as he walked in.
He’d barely shut the door behind him when he heard the voice.
“You’re late.”
It was Bai Cheng. Sitting in the lounge with a glass of wine, his expression tight with annoyance.
Jared didn’t slow his steps. “I said I’d check the warehouse. I did.”
“It’s not about the warehouse,” Bai Cheng snapped. “It’s about you disrespecting this family. My daughter gives you money — my money — and you can’t even be back on time? You think this is some kind of vacation?”
Jared didn’t answer. He dropped the plastic folder containing the supplier’s signed invoice on the table in front of him.
“There was a delay with their shipment. I handled it. They’ll deliver by tomorrow noon.”
Bai Cheng looked at the paper, then back at Jared, as if trying to figure out how a man like him had managed even that.
“Elena said you left this morning without saying anything. You didn’t answer her calls either.”
“I was busy handling your task,” Jared said coolly.
“And now what?” Bai Cheng leaned back. “You think doing one errand means you’ve earned something around here? This house isn’t yours. This family—”
“Never accepted me,” Jared said, his voice calm but firm. “I know.”
Bai Cheng stood up, jaw tight. “You think you’re clever now, huh?”
“I think I’m not as stupid as I used to be.”
The silence stretched. It wasn’t defiance in Jared’s tone. It was something worse. Confidence.
Bai Cheng didn’t like it.
From the hallway, another voice joined in — softer, cooler.
“Can I talk to him alone?”
Elena.
She walked into the room, dressed in a navy blouse and slacks, tablet in one hand. Her face was unreadable, as usual. Beautiful and distant, like a portrait that never changed expression.
Her father gave her a long look, then walked out without another word.
Jared stayed where he was.
Elena looked at him, arms crossed.
“Where did you go, really?”
He raised a brow. “You think I lied?”
“I think,” she said slowly, “that you disappeared for ten hours and came back with an attitude.”
Jared didn’t answer.
She stepped closer. “I don’t care if you’re trying to play some game, Jared. But if you’re going to stay in this house, you don’t get to make me look like a fool.”
“You’re worried what they’ll think of you?” he asked. “For marrying someone beneath you?”
“I didn’t marry you,” she said, her tone sharp. “I was told to.”
That stung more than he wanted to admit.
She took a breath, like she wanted to say more but changed her mind. “Dinner’s in an hour. Don’t be late again.”
She walked past him, but he caught her wrist gently. Just for a second.
She turned.
“You didn’t have to give me that money this morning,” he said. “Thank you.”
She blinked. Her lips parted slightly, as if surprised by the sincerity in his voice.
“I didn’t do it for you.”
“I know.”
She didn’t pull her hand away. Not right away.
Then she did.
Without a word, she disappeared up the stairs.
Jared stood there, staring after her, and for the first time in days, he let himself feel something. Not love. Not hate. Just… memory.
She’d once told him she regretted everything. Long after the fall. When it was too late.
Maybe it would be different this time.
Ding.
The system chimed again in his mind.
[New Mission Available.]
[Mission 002: Acquire one firearm (pistol or shotgun) within 48 hours. Reward: +1500 points. Unlock: Combat Tab.]
Jared exhaled slowly.
The storm was coming.
And now, he had a weapon to find.
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Chapter 97- The Last Way Out
POV: JaredThere is still a choice.That is the cruelest part.Every time I think the world has finally cornered me into inevitability, another door appears.Not open.Just visible.The visitor tells me at sunset.Not dramatically.We stand near the river while the sky turns the color of bruised peaches and dying fire. People move farther down the banks carrying water back toward the growing shelters. Someone is arguing softly about where to place another roof beam.Life continues while impossible decisions wait patiently nearby.I am starting to hate that.The visitor crouches near the water, washing dirt from their hands.“You can still bring her back,” they say.The sentence lands without warning.My body reacts before my mind does.Every muscle tightens at once.“What?”They do not look at me immediately.“There’s a way to anchor her consciousness again.”The river moves around smooth stones quietly between us.I stare at the side of their face.“You said she was too spread out.”
Chapter 96- Emma Answers Differently
POV: JaredThe first response appears three days later.Not overnight.Not suddenly.I almost miss it.The morning starts the same way most mornings do now. Quiet river. Cold air. A strange, aching calm sitting over everything like fog that never fully lifts.I wake beneath the tree with the journal beside me and dirt pressed into one side of my face.For a few seconds, I forget where I am.Not completely.Just enough for panic to flash through me before the world settles back into shape.Tree.River.Emma gone.Still gone.I sit up slowly and reach for the journal before I’m fully awake.Habit.Need.Maybe the same thing now.The pages crackle softly as I open them.Yesterday’s writing stares back at me.Her voice gets quieter when she’s angry, not louder.I rub my thumb over the sentence absentmindedly.Then I notice the line beneath it.A line I did not write.I still hate cold water.My breath catches.The handwriting is hers.Not exactly.Close enough to hurt.I stare at the sent
Chapter 75- The Thing About Memory
POV: JaredI say her name to make sure it still belongs somewhere.“Emma.”The sound leaves my mouth and disappears into the morning air.Nothing answers.Of course nothing answers.That is not why I do it.I sit beneath the tree with the journal open across my lap, staring at handwriting that feels less stable every day. The petals above me drift down slowly, catching in the pages sometimes before the wind pulls them loose again.I say it again.“Emma.”This time it feels different.Heavier.Not emotionally.Physically.Like the name has farther to travel now.Like it has to cross places I cannot see before it reaches anything that still resembles her.My throat tightens around the thought.I close the journal before I can keep rereading the same lines and losing pieces of them anyway.The world is quiet today.Not empty.There are people farther down near the river now. A few shelters. Smoke rising from somewhere beyond the hill. Life continuing in slow, stubborn ways.I used to thi
Chapter 74- The Cost Revealed
POV: JaredI do not remember falling asleep.One moment I am sitting beneath the tree with the journal open across my knees, staring at words that used to feel solid.The next, the light has changed.Paler.Morning, maybe.Or something pretending to be morning.The pages shift softly in the wind.I stare at them without reading.That scares me more than the forgetting.The forgetting at least feels active. A wound doing what wounds do.This feels like surrender.I close the journal carefully.Not because it is fragile.Because I am.The visitor finds me there.Of course they do.I hear their footsteps before I look up. Slow. Measured. Never hurried. Like they learned a long time ago that bad news arrives whether you rush it or not.They stop a few feet away.I do not speak.Neither do they.For a while, all I hear is the river.Then:“It’s starting faster than we expected.”Their voice is quiet.Not apologetic.There is a difference.I keep my eyes on the journal.“What is?”They do n
Chapter 93- The Shape of Her Absence
POV: JaredIt starts small.Not enough to name.Not enough to stop me in my tracks and say something is wrong.Just… a slip.I am still sitting on the floor of that room when I notice it.The light has shifted again. The edge of it now cuts across my boots instead of the table. I do not remember it moving.I do not remember how long I have been here.That should bother me.It doesn’t.Not at first.I close my eyes for a second, leaning my head back against the wall.I think about her.That part is easy.Too easy.Emma.The name settles into my chest the way it always does.Familiar. Certain.I can see her.I know I can.I reach for it without thinking.Her face.Her expression when she was trying not to laugh at something she found ridiculous. The way her mouth would press into a line that never held for long.I see it.Almost.It sits there, just out of reach.I frown slightly.Try again.She laughed a lot toward the end.Not loudly. Not the kind that filled space.Soft.Like she was
Chapter 92- What She Left Behind
POV: JaredThe pull does not stop.It shifts.After the first thread breaks, I expect something to end. Some signal that I have crossed a line I cannot come back from.Instead, the path opens wider.Not in front of me.Through me.I step forward and the world changes without moving.The field fades.The tree disappears behind something I do not feel leave.The river becomes memory before I notice it is gone.I do not travel the way I used to.No distance.No time.Just… arrival.The air is different here.Thinner, but not empty.Held together by something careful.I stand still for a second, letting it settle.Then I look.It is not broken.That is the first thing I notice.No fire. No collapse. No edges tearing themselves apart.People move.They talk.Someone laughs somewhere to my left, the sound soft, almost unsure of itself.It should feel normal.It doesn’t.There is a hesitation in everything.Not obvious.You have to watch long enough to see it.A man lifts his hand to gesture
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