2025-10-27 12:43:59Ethan POV
The next morning, I woke up to my phone buzzing with notifications. Someone had posted videos of last night's incident at Hayes Bistro. The Pierce family being thrown out. The manager being fired. Me, sitting calmly while it all happened. "Young Master Blackwell ends Pierce family's dining privileges" read one headline. "Mystery heir humiliates former family" read another. My phone rang. Henry. "Good morning, young master," he said. "I hope you're prepared for some attention today. The videos from last night have gone quite viral." I groaned. "How bad?" "Three million views and counting. The media is very interested in the mysterious Blackwell heir who's been hidden from the public." Great. So much for keeping a low profile. "Should I not go to class today?" I asked. "That's up to you, young master. But hiding won't make the attention go away. You might as well face it head-on." He was right. I couldn't hide forever. I got dressed, said goodbye to Lily, and headed to campus. This time, I let the driver take me all the way to the main entrance. No point in hiding anymore. The moment I stepped out of the luxury car, every head turned. Whispers erupted immediately. "That's him." "The Blackwell heir." "I can't believe he's been going to school here this whole time." I walked through the main building with my head high. People stared, but I kept moving. When I entered my classroom, the whispers got louder. My usual seat in the back was empty, as always. But now, several people tried to sit near me. "Is anyone sitting here?" a girl asked, gesturing to the seat next to mine. "No, but I'd prefer to sit alone," I said politely. She nodded and backed away quickly. Throughout the class, I could feel eyes on me. Some curious. Some envious. Some calculating. This was going to take some getting used to. At lunch, I headed to the cafeteria. My four friends waved me over to their usual table. "The man of the hour!" David said with a grin. "How does it feel to be famous?" "Annoying," I admitted, sitting down. "You'll get used to it," Alex said. "Or not. Either way, we've got your back." "Thanks," I said, meaning it. As we ate, I noticed Emma watching me from across the cafeteria. She looked like she wanted to approach but didn't dare. Good. She'd made her choice. After lunch, I was walking to my next class when someone called my name. "Ethan! Wait!" I turned to see Sophia running toward me. Her eyes were red, like she'd been crying. "What do you want?" I asked coldly. "Please," she said, her voice breaking. "Please help us. Dad's business is failing. We're going to lose everything." I raised an eyebrow. "And why would I care?" "Because we're family!" she pleaded. "I know we treated you badly, but—" "But nothing," I interrupted. "You treated me like garbage my entire life. You made videos mocking me for your followers. Why would I help you now?" Tears streamed down her face. "I'm sorry! I'm so sorry! Please, just... please help us." I looked at her. Part of me felt a tiny bit of sympathy. But a bigger part remembered every cruel word, every mocking laugh, every time she'd made my life hell. "No," I said simply. "What?" She looked shocked, like she couldn't believe I'd refuse. "I said no. You made your choices, Sophia. Now live with them." I turned and walked away, leaving her crying in the hallway. Was I being cruel? Maybe. But I wasn't the same person I was a week ago. I wasn't going to let them use me anymore. That evening, I returned home to find Henry waiting for me with a serious expression. "Young master, we need to discuss something important." "What is it?" "The board of directors has requested a meeting with you. They want to officially introduce you as the new head of the Blackwell Corporation." My stomach dropped. "When?" "Tomorrow morning. 10 AM." I took a deep breath. This was it. My first real step into my grandfather's world. "Okay," I said. "I'll be there." Henry smiled. "I'll prepare everything. Don't worry, young master. You'll do fine." I wished I had his confidence. That night, I couldn't sleep. I kept thinking about the meeting. What if I messed up? What if they didn't respect me? What if I wasn't good enough? Around midnight, I heard a soft knock on my door. I opened it to find Lily standing there, clutching her rabbit doll. "Can't sleep?" I asked. She shook her head. I picked her up and carried her to my bed. She curled up next to me, and within minutes, she was asleep. I looked down at her peaceful face. This little girl depended on me now. I couldn't let her down. I couldn't let my mom's memory down. And I couldn't let myself down. Tomorrow, I would step into my grandfather's shoes. I would become the head of the Blackwell family. And I would prove to everyone—including myself—that I deserved to be there.
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chapter 118
The Sarah Blackwell Foundation launch had been planned for months, long before the verdict, long before Daniel's sentencing, long before any of us had known exactly what shape the trial's ending would take. Henry had insisted on that timeline early on, back when the whole idea had still been little more than a conversation in the study — that the Foundation should never appear to be a reaction to the trial, something conjured up in its aftermath to manage public perception, but something built carefully and deliberately alongside it, so that when it finally opened its doors, it could stand entirely on its own."If we launch it the week of the verdict," Henry had told me back then, "it will read as strategy. If we launch it on its own timeline, regardless of what the trial is doing, it will read as what it actually is."I had not fully understood, at the time, how much that distinction would matter. I understood it now, standing in the small courtyard behind the Bla
chapter 117
Lily found me in the garden that evening, where I had gone to watch the last of the daylight fade behind the trees, and climbed up onto the bench beside me with her rabbit tucked under one arm, the same way she had climbed up onto so many benches, over so many difficult evenings, across this entire strange, extraordinary year."Henry told me about Daniel," she said. "Eight years. That's a really long time.""It is," I agreed."Longer than I've been alive," Lily observed, working through the maths with visible concentration. "Longer than I've been alive twice, almost.""Almost," I agreed again.She was quiet for a moment, swinging her feet where they did not quite reach the ground from the bench."Do you feel bad for him?" she asked. "Even though he was one of the bad people?"I considered the question carefully, the way I had learned to consider most of Lily's questions, understanding that she rarely asked something simp
chapter 116
"No," Emma agreed. "It's actually the only thing I have that I'm proud of, if I'm being completely honest. Isn't that strange? Everything I used to think mattered — the money, the status, the way I looked in a room — none of it feels like it means anything now. The thing I'm actually proud of is standing in a witness box and telling twelve strangers the truth, even though it cost me everything."I thought about that for a long moment, about the particular strange arc of Emma Clarke's story — the woman who had once told me, cruelly and deliberately, that I would never be enough, who had married into wealth and comfort and lost herself, slowly, inside the performance of it, only to find, at the very end of all of it, that the truest thing she had ever done was the thing that cost her the most."What are you going to do," I asked. "Now that it's actually over.""I don't know yet," Emma admitted. "I think I need some time before I figure that out. I've spent s
chapter 115
The press storm did not wait for morning.By the time I woke, barely six hours after finally falling asleep the night of the verdict, my phone had already accumulated more notifications than I had the patience to scroll through — messages from Gerald, from Patricia, from numbers I did not recognise claiming to represent one outlet or another, and beneath all of it, a headline from Sandra Wealth's own publication that Henry had apparently forwarded sometime after midnight with no comment attached, only the link itself.VICTORIA PIERCE CONVICTED: THE FULL STORY OF SARAH BLACKWELL, TWENTY YEARS IN THE MAKING.I read it standing in my bedroom in the grey early light, still in the clothes I had fallen asleep in the night before, and found that Sandra had done exactly what she had promised, months ago, in that meeting room — told the complete story, without flattering any version of it, including the parts that complicated rather than simplified my own place in it. She had included Victoria
chapter 114
We left the courthouse into a wall of noise unlike anything I had experienced through the entire trial — cameras flashing in a continuous, overlapping strobe, questions shouted from every direction, the particular frenzy of a story reaching its climax in real time in front of a crowd that had been waiting for exactly this moment.I did not answer any of it, the same as I had not answered anything through the previous two weeks, but I found, walking through it this time, that I did not feel the same tight, defensive bracing I had felt on every previous day. Something in me had loosened, finally, released by the weight of the verdict, and I walked through that crowd of shouted questions and flashing cameras with something that felt, for the first time in longer than I could remember, almost like peace.Brandon's team got us to the car quickly, and Henry drove, and Yemi sat pressed close beside me in the back seat, her head resting against my shoulder, and none of us
chapter 113
I did not look at Victoria. I could not, in that first instant, tear my eyes away from the jury foreperson, from the plain, steady certainty in her voice, as though looking away too quickly might somehow unmake what had just been said."On the second count," Judge Adeyemi continued, her voice unwavering, "manslaughter, in the matter of James Blackwell — how do you find?""Guilty," the foreperson said."On the third count, manslaughter, in the matter of Nora Blackwell — how do you find?""Guilty," the foreperson said, for the third time, and I felt something in my chest finally, fully release, a year of held breath escaping all at once, and beside me I heard Yemi make a small sound that was not quite a sob but came close to one, and felt Henry's hand come to rest briefly, firmly, on my shoulder.I turned, finally, to look at Victoria.She had not moved.She stood exactly where she had stood when the verdict began, her pos
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