2025-09-30 14:54:21Chapter 3
The city blurred past the tinted windows as the black sedan slid through the night. Streetlights cast fleeting patterns across Ethan’s face, but inside the car, silence pressed heavy. Jonathan Hale sat across from him, upright and composed, as though he had been waiting years for this moment. His presence was unsettling. Not threatening, but too deliberate, too certain, as if he knew things Ethan didn’t. Ethan finally broke the silence. “You keep talking about my grandfather. But I already told you … I don’t have one. Both of them died before I was born.” Jonathan’s lips twitched into the faintest smile. “That is what you were told. But the truth is different. Much different.” Ethan’s stomach tightened. “What do you mean?” Jonathan reached into the inner pocket of his suit and pulled out a slim envelope. He placed it on the seat between them. “Inside is proof. A photograph of your mother with her father. And documents …legal ones…tying you directly to him.” Ethan hesitated, staring at the envelope as though it might burn him. His hands shook as he opened it. The first thing he pulled out was a photo: a younger version of his mother, smiling in a way he had never seen, standing beside a stern, broad-shouldered man. The man’s features struck Ethan like a blow … the same sharp jawline, the same deep-set eyes Ethan saw in his own reflection. His throat tightened. “That’s… impossible,” Ethan whispered. Jonathan’s gaze did not waver. “That man is Alexander Cole. Your grandfather. Founder of the Cole Consortium.” Ethan frowned. “The… Cole Consortium? What is that supposed to mean?” Jonathan’s voice carried the weight of history. “The Cole Consortium is one of the most powerful and discreet tech empires in the world. Hidden from public records, but its influence touches everything. Banking systems. Communications. Defense technologies. If you own a phone, if you’ve transferred money, if you’ve trusted data to a secure network — chances are, you’ve touched Cole innovations.” Ethan’s head spun. It was absurd. Unbelievable. Him...a man humiliated, ridiculed, penniless tied to something so vast? “This doesn’t make sense,” he muttered, shaking his head. “If he was so powerful, why did my mother never tell me? Why did I grow up struggling, working odd jobs, scraping to survive while others…” His voice cracked. “While others like Lily laughed at me?” For the first time, Jonathan’s face softened. “Your mother chose to leave that life behind. Alexander Cole was not an easy man. His wealth was shadowed by enemies — ruthless competitors, powerful rivals. To protect you, she erased the truth. She wanted you free from that world.” Ethan clenched his fists. “Free? You call this freedom? I was made a fool tonight. My entire life is a string of failures. If this empire existed, why let me suffer like this?” Jonathan leaned forward, his eyes sharp as blades. “Because suffering shapes you. Only the broken can be reforged into something unshakable. Tonight, you tasted humiliation. You felt the sting of betrayal. That pain will drive you farther than comfort ever could.” Ethan swallowed hard. His humiliation still stung fresh, but a dangerous part of him wanted to believe. To believe that there was more to his life than being a joke. “And why now?” Ethan asked quietly. “Why tonight?” Jonathan’s voice dropped lower. “Because Alexander Cole is dead. He left behind one heir. You.” The words hung heavy in the air. Ethan stared blankly, his mind a storm of disbelief. His grandfather — alive all this time? And now dead, leaving him… what? An empire? “That’s insane,” Ethan muttered. “Even if it’s true, I wouldn’t know the first thing about running an empire.” Jonathan’s lips curved faintly. “Which is why he left you something else.” From the opposite seat, Jonathan drew out a sleek black device, no larger than a phone. Its screen glowed softly, lines of cryptic code flickering across it. Ethan stared. “What… is that?” “This,” Jonathan said, placing it carefully in Ethan’s hand, “is the System. Your grandfather’s final creation. A tool, no, a guide. for his successor. With it, you can learn, adapt, and master anything. Business, Strategy. Even combat. It was designed to make you unstoppable.” The screen pulsed with light. Words appeared across it: Welcome, Ethan Cole. Initialization in progress. Ethan’s breath caught. His thumb brushed against the glass, and for an instant, he swore the device responded to him alone. “This is insane,” he whispered. Jonathan’s eyes locked onto his. “Insane? No. Destiny. Your humiliation tonight was necessary, Ethan. Because only now are you ready to rise. And when you do, every person who mocked you will bow. Including the woman who discarded you.” Lily’s cold laughter echoed in Ethan’s memory. His chest tightened, torn between rage and despair. For the first time since the banquet, he felt a flicker of something else — not hope exactly, but fire. Could it be true? Could the man who had lost everything rise again — not as a joke, but as someone powerful enough to change everything? His grip tightened around the device. Jonathan leaned back, his voice calm but commanding. “The world sees you as trash, Ethan Cole. They laughed while you bled. But that was only the prologue. Your real story begins now.” Ethan’s pulse thundered in his ears. Humiliation still weighed on him, but beneath it, something new stirred. A dangerous thought. What if this is real?
Previous Chapter
Latest Chapter
Chapter 17
The night after the Westbridge dinner, the city carried a quieter hum … but the ripples from the event were only beginning to spread.The skyline shimmered beneath a cold moon, its light washing over glass towers and lonely streets. Somewhere above that restless glow, in a high-rise apartment overlooking the river, Lily sat motionless at the edge of Daniel’s leather sofa. Her golden gown still clung to her like a ghost of the evening before. Mascara trailed faintly down her cheeks, the remnants of pride dissolving into exhaustion.Her glass of wine remained untouched on the table. It reflected the pale city lights, trembling slightly with the faint vibration of the air conditioning. The silence in the room was heavy …the kind that pressed on the lungs and demanded someone to speak first.Then the door to Daniel’s study opened.He stepped out, the knot of his tie loosened, the top button of his shirt undone. But the confident, unflappable composure that usually defined him seemed thinn
Chapter 16
Chapter 16The city glittered beneath the afternoon sun, glass towers cutting the sky like polished knives. Lisa Roman’s driver opened the door of her black Bentley, and the cool scent of leather wrapped around her as she slid inside.For a long moment, she didn’t speak. The engine hummed softly, a steady rhythm against the silence. Her manicured fingers drummed lightly on her knee…once, twice, then stilled. The confrontation replayed in her mind, each word sharper than when it was spoken.Cowardice. You used him. Ethan isn’t the boy you humiliated.Lisa closed her eyes, inhaling deeply. She had meant every word she’d said to Lily. But what unsettled her wasn’t the argument…it was how easily old emotions had risen to the surface. Emotions she had spent years suffocating under ambition, under Roman Luxe, under everything success demanded she become.She pressed her fingers to her temples. “Ma’am?” her driver, Colin, asked gently.“Just drive,” she murmured. “Anywhere quiet.”The car me
Chapter 15
Chapter 15The mahogany-paneled study of Wilson Flake was silent, save for the faint hum of the city bleeding through the floor-to-ceiling windows. The room was a reflection of its master…severe, precise, ruthless. The desk, imported from Florence, gleamed under the muted glow of an antique lamp. Every book on the towering shelves had its place, spines aligned like soldiers.Wilson sat at the desk, a crystal glass of bourbon untouched before him, his broad shoulders angled forward. His face, weathered but sharp, was lit from the side, emphasizing the hard lines of his jaw and the cold calculation in his gray eyes.Across from him, two men shifted uncomfortably. One was dressed in a dark suit, his tie a fraction off-center…a mistake Wilson had already noted with contempt. The other clutched a folder so tightly that his knuckles whitened. They had come bearing news. And it was bad.Wilson’s voice broke the silence, smooth yet heavy with restrained menace.“Well? Tell me why Orbitway jus
Chapter 14
Chapter 14 The salon smelled of roses and expensive oils, a soft blend that clung to the air like memory. Its mirrors caught every angle of beauty and vanity, reflecting laughter, perfume, and the practiced smiles of women who wore luxury as armor. The rhythmic hum of dryers filled the room, occasionally drowned by bursts of chatter and the snapping click of manicured nails against phone screens. Lily sat poised in one of the reclining chairs, her reflection glowing beneath warm light. Her stylist, a young woman with steady hands and nervous eyes, teased her hair into perfect waves that shimmered like bronze silk. Lily’s fingers scrolled lazily across her phone screen, occasionally pausing when a message flashed or when she caught sight of herself from a better angle. She loved this world—the polished floors, the soft gossip, the illusion that everyone inside mattered. Here, she wasn’t the girl who once begged Ethan Cole for his lecture notes, sitting in the back of a crowded univ
Chapter 13
Chapter 13The penthouse was quiet that morning. The kind of quiet that carried weight, not peace. The kind of quiet where every sound was sharper, every thought heavier. Ethan stood before the floor-to-ceiling windows, staring at the city that sprawled below like a living beast.From this height, the streets looked insignificant…ants moving about in patterns they thought they controlled. Cars glided like beetles, neon signs blinked like restless eyes, and somewhere down there were the voices that had mocked him, laughed at him, dismissed him as nothing.But up here, in silence, he could almost believe he was above it all. Almost.The System chimed softly in his head, its voice smooth, neutral, but unrelenting:Task Completed: Physical Foundation Achieved.Confidence Level: Stabilizing.New Task Unlocked: Attend Cole Consortium Board Meeting.Ethan’s breath caught. “A… board meeting? Already?” His voice cracked in disbelief.The very thought made his palms damp. He had survived Grayso
Chapter 12
Chapter 12 The penthouse gym didn’t look anything like Grayson’s Boxing Club. There were no sagging ropes, no duct tape holding bags together, no peeling paint clinging to damp walls, no mildew thickening the air. Instead, everything gleamed here—chrome weights aligned in neat rows, polished floors shining under recessed lights, and state-of-the-art equipment that looked less like instruments of sweat and struggle and more like prototypes stolen from a science-fiction laboratory. Even the air smelled different—filtered, crisp, faintly laced with citrus, as though money itself had disinfected the space.But Grayson looked the same. Arms folded across a barrel chest, nose crooked from too many breaks, the same blunt, unimpressed expression carved into his face like granite. The gym might have changed, but the man was immovable.“You still remember how you walked into my gym the first time?” he asked, voice gravelly with disuse, or maybe just life. “Couldn’t hold your guard for thirty s
You may also like
The Strongest Esper
Icemaster36019.4K viewsValkyrie Black
Drew Archeron22.0K viewsWorld System Among Gods
M_jief117.4K viewsThe Golem Mage
Destiny Foromeh110.5K viewsThe Tycoon System
Aster_Pheonix85.2K viewsTHE HIDDEN DRAGON
YATES748 viewsBillionaire God System
Dark Crafter17.5K viewsCheated No More: The All-in-One System
WillyCatchFish62.2K views