2026-02-12 15:43:32The crystal chandeliers in the main dining hall of the Crowne mansion glowed brilliantly, reflecting a sickening level of opulence. The aroma of Wagyu steak and expensive red wine filled the room. At the head of the table, Aiden sat with a forced, thin smile, wearing the mask of the submissive husband they had always known.
On his right, Gina looked breathtaking in a blood-red evening gown. On his left, Lewis sat comfortably, laughing loudly while swirling a crystal glass filled with a 1945 vintage wine.
"Aiden, buddy! You’re a goddamn genius!" Lewis raised his glass high. "Our stock jumped twenty percent in just a few hours after that demo. The ministers who were here earlier were practically tripping over each other to invest."
"I only did my part, Lewis," Aiden replied calmly, cutting the meat on his plate with the precision of a surgeon. "This success is also thanks to your ability to convince the investors."
Gina gently stroked Aiden’s arm—a touch that made Aiden want to recoil in instant disgust. "Don’t be too modest, darling. Lewis is right. But where did you disappear to this afternoon? I looked for you in the lab, but Marcus said you needed some fresh air."
Aiden looked into Gina’s eyes. He searched for a trace of hesitation, but all he found was a perfect, polished lie. "I just took a walk around the outskirts of the city. Thinking about the potential development for Phase Two of Neural-Wealth."
"Phase Two?" Lewis leaned forward, his eyes glinting with greed. "What else can that system do?"
Aiden sipped his wine slowly. "Emotional synchronization. If the system can biologically detect a counterparty’s fear or greed, we won’t just be predicting the market. We’ll be controlling the people inside it."
"Incredible..." Lewis murmured. He shot Gina a look—a secret code that Aiden caught completely. They wanted that system finished as soon as possible so they could discard Aiden once and for all.
"Oh, speaking of control," Lewis changed the subject, his voice casual. "I’ve already signed the procurement contract for the servers for our new data center. The vendor is called 'Sovereign Solutions.' The name sounds a bit strange, but the specs and price were far below the other vendors."
Aiden feigned surprise. "Sovereign? I’ve never heard of them. Have you checked their background?"
"Just a new tech startup looking to make a name for themselves, Aiden. Don’t worry," Lewis waved it off arrogantly. "I’ve already had our IT team check the prototype. Everything is running smoothly."
Aiden lowered his head, hiding the cold flash in his eyes. Of course it’s smooth. Because I designed that prototype to look perfect to your incompetent IT team.
"Good to hear, then," Aiden said. "I trust your judgment, Lewis."
Dinner continued with hollow talk of luxury. Mid-conversation, Lewis’s phone vibrated. He checked the screen, frowned for a second, then smiled again. "Just a minor technical glitch at the office. The usual for a new system."
Aiden knew it wasn't a minor glitch. It was Zhara performing the first "test run" of infiltrating Lewis’s private data through the backdoor Aiden had planted.
After dinner, Lewis said his goodbyes. Gina escorted him to the front door, leaving Aiden alone in the vast dining room. Aiden stood and walked toward the large window overlooking the sea.
Suddenly, Gina returned and hugged him from behind, wrapping her arms around Aiden’s neck. "You seem so distant tonight, Aiden. Are you still upset that I asked you to give the access rights to Lewis?"
Aiden held Gina’s hand, feeling the soft skin that would one day turn pale with despair. "No, Gina. I’m actually grateful. You were right—my burden is much lighter now."
"I’m doing this for us, darling," she whispered in his ear. "Once Lewis is stable at the helm, we can retire and live peacefully on our private island."
Aiden turned around, staring into his wife’s beautiful, lying face. "I’m thinking of the same thing, Gina. A very quiet place... where no one can disturb us ever again."
Aiden kissed Gina’s forehead. A kiss that felt like a death mark.
"I’m tired. I want to rest now," Aiden said.
As Aiden walked toward his bedroom, he felt the vitamin bottle in his blazer pocket. He entered the room, locked the door, and went straight to the bathroom. He took the vitamin pill from the bottle, crushed it into powder over the sink, and rinsed it away with water.
He then pulled a small device from a hidden compartment in his briefcase—an encryption tool linked directly to Sovereign in District 13.
A message appeared on the small screen.
Z: Lewis just accessed the 'Project Phoenix' folder on his computer. It contains the list of illegal assets and money laundering for Gina’s family. Do you want me to copy it now?
Aiden typed a reply quickly.
A: Not yet. Let him feel safe. Wait until he moves all those assets to our new server next month. Let him put all his eggs in the one basket I’m holding the knife over.
Aiden turned off the device and stared at his reflection in the mirror. His face was calm, but his eyes radiated a bottomless darkness.
"February of next year," Aiden whispered to his own shadow. "In that warehouse, Lewis... Gina... I won't give you a chance to beg."
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10
"I’m the one who almost died on that stage, Gina. Not you. So tell me again—why the hell are you sitting in my chair?"Lewis’s voice was a jagged rasp, transmitted through a secure video link from the private clinic. His face, usually tanned and arrogant, was now a sickly shade of gray, his eyes bloodshot and twitching. He looked like a man who had spent the night fighting demons, and he was losing.Gina didn't even look up from the tablet she was holding. She sat in the massive leather chair behind the CEO’s desk, her fingers tapping rhythmically on the mahogany surface. "You’re in that chair because you’re a liability, Lewis. You had a manic episode in front of the entire Ministry of Finance. If I hadn't stepped in and signed the emergency proxy, the board would have liquidated our holdings by midnight.""You used me," Lewis spat, his hand trembling as he reached for a glass of water off-screen. "You saw me seize up and you saw an opportunity. Where’s Aiden? He’s the only one who ca
9
Aiden sat on the edge of the plush mattress, his eyes fixed on a single loose thread in the rug. Downstairs, the frantic shouts of paramedics had finally been replaced by the low, retreating hum of an ambulance.Lewis was sedated, strapped to a gurney, but very much alive. The doctors called it a "hypertensive crisis" brought on by acute stress, but Aiden knew better.It was the first time Lewis's brain had tried to process a thousand years of market data in a single second. It wouldn't be the last.The room smelled of Gina’s lilies, a heavy, cloying scent that made Aiden’s stomach turn. He pulled off his tie, dropping it like a discarded noose. He was exhausted, but not from the gala. He was tired of the skin he was wearing, tired of the submissive tilt he had to keep in his head whenever Gina entered a room.The door swung open, hitting the stopper with a dull thud. Gina didn’t knock. She stood in the doorway, the emerald silk of her dress unzipped halfway down her back. She wasn't
8
The Grand Golden’s ballroom was a temple of refined elegance, a place where the scent of five-thousand-dollar perfume usually masked the stench of corporate greed. But tonight, the air had changed. It was thick with the ozone of overheating electronics and the sudden, sharp tang of panic.Lewis continued to laugh on stage, a high-pitched, manic sound that echoed off the gilded ceilings. His pupils were blown so wide they looked like drops of spilled ink, swallowing the irises completely. The billionaire elite—the men and women who thought they ran the world—watched in frozen, silent horror. Their financial savior was unraveling right before their eyes."Look at the screen!" a woman screamed, her voice cracking as she pointed a trembling finger toward the stage.The massive LED display behind Lewis, which had been showcasing the steady, comforting 20% growth of the Neural-Wealth Global Fund, was no longer showing numbers. The gold and white interface had vanished. In its place was a wa
7
"Do I look like a billionaire's wife, or the queen of an empire?"Gina stood before the floor-to-ceiling mirror, adjusting a diamond necklace that cost more than a District 13 tenement block. The deep emerald silk of her dress shimmered like serpent scales under the vanity lights.Aiden stood behind her, fastening his cufflinks. "You look like someone who is about to own the city, Gina.""We, Aiden. We are about to own the city," she corrected, turning to press a lingering, cold kiss to his cheek. "The car is waiting. Lewis is already at the Grand Hyatt. He says the Secretary of Finance is eager to meet the man behind the miracle."As they stepped into the armored limousine, Aiden felt the subtle shift in the atmosphere. Two black SUVs followed them—men in charcoal suits with earpieces and cold, predatory gazes."New security?" Aiden asked, nodding toward the rearview mirror."Cerberus Solutions," Gina replied, her voice smooth. "Lewis insisted. With the launch of the Neural-Wealth Gl
6
"Why is the latency increasing, Aiden? I thought you said this system was flawless."Lewis’s voice crackled through the intercom of Aiden’s home office, sounding more like a demand than a question. Aiden leaned back in his leather chair, a glass of plain water in his hand, watching a miniature holographic mirror of Lewis’s screen on his own private terminal."It’s a synchronization phase, Lewis," Aiden replied, his voice devoid of emotion. "The more data Neural-Wealth ingests, the more it needs to recalibrate its neural anchors. It’s like a brain learning to walk. Be patient.""Patient? I have forty-eight billion dollars in open positions for the Tokyo opening!" Lewis barked. "If this thing lags for even a millisecond, we lose the spread advantage.""Then don't push it beyond the 80% threshold," Aiden warned, though he knew Lewis wouldn't listen. "The Sympathetic Resonance module is sensitive to the user's stress levels. If you’re panicking, the AI will mirror that chaos."There was a
5
The crystal chandeliers in the main dining hall of the Crowne mansion glowed brilliantly, reflecting a sickening level of opulence. The aroma of Wagyu steak and expensive red wine filled the room. At the head of the table, Aiden sat with a forced, thin smile, wearing the mask of the submissive husband they had always known.On his right, Gina looked breathtaking in a blood-red evening gown. On his left, Lewis sat comfortably, laughing loudly while swirling a crystal glass filled with a 1945 vintage wine."Aiden, buddy! You’re a goddamn genius!" Lewis raised his glass high. "Our stock jumped twenty percent in just a few hours after that demo. The ministers who were here earlier were practically tripping over each other to invest.""I only did my part, Lewis," Aiden replied calmly, cutting the meat on his plate with the precision of a surgeon. "This success is also thanks to your ability to convince the investors."Gina gently stroked Aiden’s arm—a touch that made Aiden want to recoil i
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