The City Is Mine

Chapter Nine

Marcus didn’t wait for the fallout. The weight of humiliation turned to fire behind his eyes. He turned and stormed out of the boardroom.

Benjamin followed.

They exited Harper & Associates and crossed the street to Carter Air’s headquarters,.

Benjamin followed him inside.

Down the marble corridor, past the frost-glass elevators, up the emergency stairwell, until the steel door creaked open, and cold wind hit them both like a wall.

They stepped onto the rooftop.

Marcus moved first, crossing to the rooftop’s edge, where an old ceremonial rack stood. Dust-covered but still standing. Two blades hung there, dulled but sharp enough to remember.

He grabbed one without hesitation and turned.

Benjamin didn’t flinch. He stepped forward, took the other, it felt like holding history.

Marcus grinned, cruel and desperate. “Then let’s end this the old way.”

Marcus charged. Benjamin quickly moved to the side, but the blade still scratched his arm. It stung, but he stayed quiet. He turned fast and slammed his shoulder into Marcus’s stomach, pushing him back.

Marcus caught his balance and swung again.

They slipped and shifted on the rough rooftop gravel. Two sons were fighting, one trying to protect the family name, the other trying to finally claim it.

Marcus slashed wild. “You think you’ve won? Evelyn’s not done! She’s got deals in motion and contracts in vaults. She’ll erase you in ink like she did in blood!”

Benjamin ducked, grabbed Marcus’s wrist mid-swing, twisted. The knife clattered across the rooftop, spinning to a stop near the edge. “You’ve been her attack dog your whole life,” he said. “Now she’s leashed, and you’re nothing.”

Marcus spat blood, grabbed for Benjamin’s throat. They crashed to the ground, their fists flying. Benjamin felt the weight of every insult, every night in that attic, every scar Evelyn branded onto his past and he let it fuel him. He punched hard, again and again, until Marcus’s fight broke.

Then he stood, his chest heaving.

Footsteps clattered behind him. Officers rushed up the stairwell, alerted by Clara’s message, their guns raised. Benjamin raised his hands, but pointed. “The weapon’s his. He attacked first.”

Marcus tried to stand, bloodied and panting. One officer shoved him back down. “This one’s going nowhere until we sort it out.”

Benjamin didn’t wait for the cuffs. He walked to the rooftop’s far ledge, where a large LED screen faced the roadside. Carter Air’s media team had prepared it for a press event Evelyn intended to hijack. He tapped his access card, scanned the pendant and he screen turned on.

He turned, faced the growing crowd below—journalists, Carter Air board members, rival CEOs, and Evelyn, draped in silk and venom, already standing at the podium with her fake documents.

Benjamin stepped into view. The rooftop camera locked onto him, live broadcast initiating.

Gasps rippled below.

“Evelyn Harper,” he said, his voice amplified through the rooftop speakers and broadcast to the city, “you tried to bury me. Now watch me rise.”

She looked up, horror blooming as she realized she was no longer in control.

“I am Benjamin Carter. Victor Carter’s true heir. I have the trust documents, the deed, and the pendant all bounded by blood and verified. This company? The farmland? The bonds you poisoned people for? All of it belongs to me.”

Reporters erupted,cameras panned wildly. Evelyn gripped the podium, knuckles white.

“You think this little stunt will stop me?” she barked into the mic. “He’s lying! He’s a street rat! A servant’s son!”

Benjamin let a cold laugh “Funny. That ‘rat’ now owns half this city. And your lies? I’ve got proof—on file, on video, on record.” He held up the pendant. “This pendant holds Victor Carter’s final signature. Digitally coded. No forgery, no amendment, no Harper twist. This—” he lifted the access card—“grants me full authority.”

A journalist’s voice broke through the chaos. “Mr. Carter, do you have a response to the poisoning allegations against Evelyn Harper?”

Benjamin nodded. “I do. She poisoned Old Master Harper. She silenced the witnesses, she forged documents,she tried to erase me. But what she forgot, what they all forgot, is that truth doesn’t die when you bury it. It grows teeth.”

Another reporter: “What will happen to the Harper legacy now?”

Benjamin looked down at Evelyn, her face pale and trembling now.

“It dies here, with her. The Harper legacy ends today, we rebuild on truth. Not power. Not fear.”

Gasps turned to cheers and cameras zoomed in. Security officers moved through the crowd.

A lawyer stepped to the mic. “On behalf of Carter Air’s board and legal counsel, we confirm the legitimacy of Benjamin Carter’s claim. Evelyn Harper’s documents have been reviewed. They’re forged.”

Evelyn screamed, backing away as officers approached. “No! You fools! He’s manipulating you! I MADE this city!”

Handcuffs snapped shut, the cameras didn’t miss a thing as Evelyn Harper was arrested live for the whole country to see.

Reporters shouted questions, but Benjamin waited. He let silence fall.

Then, one question landed clear and sudden: “Mr. Carter, what do you plan to do with all this power?”

He stepped forward.

“What do I plan to do?” He stared at the skyline. “I plan to fix what they broke. I plan to clean the rot they fed for decades. This company will no longer run on blood money. It’ll run on vision, on honor, and on fire.”

He looked directly into the camera.

“I was hidden in an attic while my name was used to fund corruption. Now I hold the name, and I say this: If you lived off Harper lies, your time is up. If you built your fortune crushing others, I’m coming for you.”

Another reporter: “Do you have a message for the Harpers still in the company?”

Benjamin didn’t blink. “Yes. Pack!.”

He stepped back from the ledge. “Interview’s over.”

The rooftop emptied as police led Marcus away in handcuffs. Evelyn shouted and cursed while they pushed her into a black Hilux. Reporters rushed in from all sides.

Inside Carter Air’s boardroom, Benjamin stood before the directors. One offered the chairman’s seat. He sat.

“You’ve claimed the name,” a senior partner said. “What next?”

Benjamin tapped the table.

“Purge the board. Any Harper gets one choice—resign or be investigated.”

He turned to Amelia, who had slipped in silently.

“I told you before. This doesn’t make me family. This makes me free.”

She swallowed, arms crossed. “You look like her now. Cold.”

“I look like someone who survived her.”