2026-08-01 23:59:18Chapter 104
The next day, which was on a Wednesday, was going to be hectic, I already knew judging from the way I felt. After the call with Yemi, I was calm but after that, a few minutes later, the anxiety returned. Tomorrow was different. On Monday, it was the beginning, today was Dr. Chan who truly made me proud but Wednesday is very personal in a way that the other two days weren't. According to Patricia, another witness was coming up and it was Marcus. My father even though I don't regard him as one anymore. He was the one who had chosen not to stand by his wife or his son even when they needed him. He was the one who made me hate him so much. The man who should have protected my mother but chose not to. I finally slept that night but that was after 5 hours of turning and twisting on the bed. I was already having a headache when I got up. It wasn't surprising since I was thinking so much last night. When I went downstairs for some hot tea, I saw Lily at the table again. It was still very early for her to be here. “You are eating breakfast so early these days.” I said, still taking slow steps towards her. Lily and Mrs. Park, whom I didn't notice, looked up at once. “Good morning sir.” Mrs. Park greeted. “Good morning, brother.” Lily smiled at me. I nodded at Mrs. Park and approached Lily who was giving me her best kind of smile. “I know that smile. What are you up to?” “What? This smile? This smile means that I'm just excited. Nothing out of blue.” “Everything is out of the blue.” I said, sitting down beside her. “Mrs. Park, why is she up early?” I looked up at Mrs. Park. “Why are you asking her?” Lily hit me. “She seems pretty excited because she was the one who woke me up as well. She said she wanted to be downstairs when you come down for your coffee.” “Hmm…” I carefully looked at Lily. “Why is that? Hmm?” She had her head bent over which signified that she had been caught but instead getting upset, she looked up at me with a serious face. I didn't say anything, I only waited to hear from her. “Well, I just felt bad for you.” She finally spoke. “Bad?” I asked, quite stunned. I never imagined that my little cousin was feeling bad for me. “I overheard Henry and Yemi talking about your father coming to court today. According to what I heard, they said that today would be an extremely difficult day for you since this would be the first time you are seeing him after so many years.” I listened and waited. I was dumbfounded. “I'm just worried about you and I don't want you to be sad.” “Really?” I looked at her again. “Yes.” Lily was literally worried about me, the adult. She wasn't just worried, she was searching for ways to help me. “Lily.. but you know you shouldn't do this. You know that I love you right?” “And I love you too, brother. You are very strong and brave.” I watched Lily eat her food as I sat there thinking. If I was still in that god forsaken house, I might never have encountered the kind of love I was being showered on. -------------- My own father who was supposed to love me unconditionally didn't when I needed him to and now he was going to probably speak against me on that stand. It really took a while for me to accept that love like this was real and that I didn't have to prove anything to anyone. I have always had to prove to my family that I deserved love. I was a little child, fighting not only for survival but for love. But I was shown that love freely here. I learnt that I didn't have to ask for it or beg before I was accepted. As these thoughts went through my head, Mrs. Park quietly kept a cup of tea on the table in front of me. “We are all cheering for you, Mrs. Blackwell.” She smiled. This must have been the first time I've seen Mrs. Park really smile. I mean she smiled at people and at Lily all of the time but never at me. That smile coupled with Lily's little gestures motivated me and made me feel totally okay. I was ready to face the day. “You guys are really conspiring against me.” I said while taking a dip of my hot coffee. It felt refreshing in my mouth. Exactly what I needed. “Mrs. Park also made some toast for you.” Lily shot at me interestingly and I looked at Mrs. Park who seemed shy. “I tried a new recipe and I wanted you to be the first to try it.” Mrs. Park presented a plate of mouth watering toast to me. “Go on, Brother. It tastes so good.” “What? You already have some?” “Well, let's just say that I had to taste them for your sake.” “Really?” I shot at Lily. That little girl could be the sweetest but could be so annoying too. “You literally ate my toast and you are proud, aren't you?” I didn't expect it but Lily laughed. It was heartfelt and beautiful to hear. Nothing much was happening but it was becoming my best morning in a while. I ate the toast. “See? It tastes so nice.” I nodded in support while giving Mrs. Park a dumbs up. “Thank you so much, I love it.” I said to Mrs. Park whose eyes seemed to glow because I commended her. “Aren't you going to thank me? This was my idea after all.” I gave Lily the side eye but patted her cheek to appreciate her. I was almost done eating when my phone rang. I wasn't as anxious as I was earlier when I picked up his call. “Something came up. Something happened to Marcus. I don't think he'll be making it to the courtroom as planned.”
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chapter 144
Lily considered this, some of the tension easing slightly from her small shoulders."Is it because you and Brother are in love now," she asked, with the particular blunt directness that so often cut straight through careful adult hedging. "That's what Mrs Park said this morning. That the picture showed everyone that you're in love."I felt myself flush slightly, caught off guard, though Yemi answered without any visible hesitation."Yes," she said simply. "That's exactly what it means."Lily nodded slowly, processing this with visible seriousness."I think that's good," she said finally. "I don't think it should be a secret, if it's true. I just don't want it to mean you go away.""I'm not going away," Yemi said again, firmly. "I promise you that, completely."Lily seemed to weigh this for a long moment, and then, with the particular practical directness that had become one of her most reliable qualities, she asked: "Can
chapter 143
"I need to talk to my employer," she said after a moment. "Formally. About what this means for my continued role with the household, given that I'm now potentially a security liability myself, rather than purely an asset.""You're not a liability," I said immediately, more sharply than I intended."Ethan," Yemi said gently. "I need you to let me think about this professionally, for a moment, the way I would think about it for anyone else in my position. I've spent this whole year protecting Lily. If my own visibility now creates a vulnerability that could be used against this family, I need to seriously consider whether continuing in this specific role is still the right choice, regardless of what I feel personally about any of it."I sat with that, the particular cold, unwelcome shape of it settling into place, and understood, watching her work through the calculation with the same careful rigor she brought to everything, that this was not a conversation
chapter 142
It was not Margaret Vane, or Daniel, or anyone connected to the ongoing legal war over the Blackwell fortune, who finally forced the most private part of my life into public view. It was, in the end, something far more ordinary — a photograph, taken from across a street, of Yemi and me standing close together outside a small restaurant on a Tuesday evening, her hand resting lightly on my arm, both of us laughing at something neither of us would later be able to properly remember.The photograph appeared online before either of us had even finished dinner.I did not see it myself until the following morning, when Henry brought it to me in the study along with the rest of the day's usual business, his expression carrying a particular careful concern that told me, before he said anything, that this was not going to be an ordinary morning briefing."This appeared overnight," he said, sliding his phone across the desk. "It's already been picked up by four separate outlets, and I expect con
chapter 141
"It is," Henry agreed. "Though I want to caution you, the same way Patricia has, that Margaret's legal team will almost certainly contest the authentication regardless of how strong it proves to be. Sophisticated litigants rarely abandon a claim simply because the opposing evidence looks compelling. They challenge, delay, and look for procedural avenues to keep the matter unresolved for as long as possible, precisely because unresolved uncertainty of exactly the kind we saw in this morning's stock price serves their interests, regardless of the claim's ultimate merit."I sat down across from him, the particular weary recognition of it settling into place."So even once we prove the letter's real," I said, "this doesn't just end.""Not immediately," Henry said. "I would expect Margaret's team to challenge the authentication, possibly to introduce their own competing experts disputing our findings, and to use every available procedural mechanism to extend th
chapter 140
Gerald called before eight the next morning, and I understood, from the particular clipped urgency in his voice, that whatever had prompted the call was not going to wait for a more civilised hour."Have you seen the markets," he said, without preamble."I've been asleep," I said, still standing in the kitchen in yesterday's clothes, having fallen asleep in the study some hours after Henry left, the Aldous Vane letter still spread across my desk. "What's happened.""Blackwell Corporation stock opened down four percent," Gerald said. "Word of Margaret Vane's filing reached the financial press overnight, and regardless of how strong our underlying position actually is, the market doesn't yet know about the settlement letter you found yesterday. All they know is that a third of the company is being formally disputed in court, by a claimant with documented historical ties to your grandfather's earliest business dealings, and that's more than enough to spook in
chapter 139
"This might be it," he said, opening it carefully.Inside were several letters, the paper yellowed and brittle with age, written in a hand I did not recognise, addressed to Richard Blackwell and signed, at the bottom of each one, with the same careful signature: *Aldous Vane.*I read them slowly, carefully, my hands not entirely steady, and understood, working through the careful, formal language of a decades-old business correspondence, that the truth of Margaret's claim was, at last, about to become clear.The letters described, in plain terms, a series of loans — genuine, documented, extended by Aldous Vane to a young Richard Blackwell, in the earliest, most precarious years of his first business venture. And the final letter in the folder, dated nearly two years after the first, contained something that made my chest tighten with a complicated mixture of relief and renewed confusion.*Richard,**I have received your final payment in f
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