2026-05-16 21:55:12Warning: Mentioned Abortion, minor violence
“Erick, what the—?” Martin immediately switched tactics, clutching his bleeding nose dramatically. “He attacked me! I was just—”
“He’s lying,” Erick cut in flatly. “He said—”
“ENOUGH!” Dominique burst out of the dressing room in her half-finished gown, face pale with fury. She grabbed Erick’s arm, nails digging painfully into his skin, and dragged him outside onto the sidewalk.
The moment they were alone, she shoved him away like he was toxic.
“You humiliated me!” Dominique snapped. “In front of everyone! You ruined everything, Erick!”
Erick stared at her, voice low and tight. “He talked about you like you belonged to him. Like you were still his.”
Dominique let out a bitter, sarcastic laugh. “So what? Maybe I should’ve stayed with him. I already ruined my life once by marrying you.”
Erick’s stomach twisted. “What does that mean?”
She crossed her arms tightly. “I wasn’t ready, Erick.”
“Ready for what?”
Dominique gritted her teeth. “Can we not do this right now? I still have to finish my dress.”
A cold dread settled deep in Erick’s chest. “Dominique… were you pregnant?”
She looked away. “I took care of it.”
The words landed like a hammer. Traffic roared past them, but Erick felt the world go dead silent.
“You handled it?” he repeated, voice barely above a whisper.
“I wasn’t bringing a child into that family,” she hissed. “Into that life.”
Erick stood frozen on the sidewalk. He had just learned he could have been a father — and she had ended it without telling him.
Dominique turned and walked back into the boutique without another glance.
Erick didn’t follow.
His fingers found the burner phone hidden in his jacket. It vibrated.
Aria’s message appeared:
[Boss. Problem. Helix flagged unauthorized access — core systems. Origin: inside the Laurent estate. That camera? No surveillance. Someone’s brute-forcing your network.]
Erick’s eyes narrowed.
Michel.
***
The Laurent estate was eerily quiet when Erick returned that afternoon. He slipped in through the service door.
In the kitchen, Mrs. Hollis gave him a silent, knowing look. Thirty years with the Laurents had taught her when to stay quiet.
Erick went straight to the storage room. A hidden panel clicked open. He placed Arias’s frequency jammer directly beneath Michel’s camera.
As he stepped out to make tea, familiar footsteps approached. Mrs. Hollis.
Erick melted into the hallway shadows and listened.
She rounded the corner carrying a tray. “Earl Grey, Mr. Erick?” she asked softly, pouring steaming tea into a chipped cup. “You look like you need it.”
He took the cup. The heat burned his palms, but he barely felt it.
“I’ve watched this family for thirty years,” Mrs. Hollis murmured. “They have no idea what they’re dealing with.”
A loud, arrogant laugh echoed nearby. Michel.
Erick raised a finger to his lips. Mrs. Hollis disappeared into the shadows.
“…so fucking funny!” Michel’s voice boomed from his phone speaker as he neared the pantry. “I rigged the feed outside that loser’s room. Hoped to catch him jerking off or something, but nothing. The pathetic bastard just sleeps like a corpse.”
“Get off that camera, Michel,” Dominique snapped, her voice sharp with warning.
“Oh, relax, princess…”
“You stole two hundred million from Dad’s festival project,” she hissed. “He doesn’t know yet. If I were you, I’d be fucking terrified right now.”
Michel’s tone turned nasty. “You’re lecturing me? Don’t think I don’t know about your dirty little secrets, Dominique. The abortion. The affair with Martin. All of it.”
“That’s my business, you idiot!” Dominique’s voice rose dangerously.
The front door slammed hard enough to rattle the walls. Mrs. Hollis let out a shaky breath.
Erick stared into his tea, jaw clenched so tight it ached.
Inside the storage room, his fake smile vanished completely. A hidden screen glowed behind a panel. Encrypted data streamed across it.
Erick had built GD Tech long before the Laurents ever learned his name.
He scanned the latest acquisition reports and froze.
Laurent Corporation — Partnership Status: ACTIVE. Victor Hale Industries.
Erick’s jaw tightened until it hurt. Victor — his childhood friend and former second-in-command — had betrayed him.
His phone buzzed again.
Aria: [Board meeting tomorrow. No-show = Victor controls the story.]
Erick leaned back in his chair, eyes cold and calculating.
For the first time that day, a dark, dangerous smile touched his lips.
It was time to stop hiding.
Previous Chapter
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Chapter 165 — Soft Points
The conduit was barely wide enough for single file.Residual dampeners lined the walls in old Continuity patterning, most of them dead or flickering. Aria’s route kept them inside the seed’s blind angles—maintenance channels it had left under-reinforced so it could keep talking to the older signatures.Remi went first. Erick followed, every step measured against the tear in his side. Pain had settled into a constant hot pressure. He used it as a metronome.Aria’s voice stayed low in their ears.“Eighty-one minutes on the handshake estimate. Seed is still consolidating the forty-seven. Twelve of the named are clustered in a residual holding lattice two levels above the core proper. That’s your target. Ivan has overwatch on the secondary exit route. If the negotiation locks ea
Chapter 164 — We Still Have That Conversation
The first visible proof hit the city at 03:17.Aria’s alert cut across every hard-line in the clinic at once.“Residual spike. Midtown administrative cluster. Seed defensive core just pushed a coordinated pulse through three abandoned Continuity channels. Not an attack pattern. A broadcast.”Remi was already on her feet. Erick had forced himself into a sitting position against the raised bed, residual leads still taped to his chest. The monitors complained. He ignored them.“Content?”“Catalogue language mixed with something else. It’s trying to redefine boundaries in real time. Claiming residual sectors it already lost. And—” Aria paused. “It’s addressing the older signatures directly. Formal structure. Almost like a treaty proposal under residual law t
Chapter 163 — Boundary Negotiation
Erick woke to the low hum of residual dampeners and the smell of antiseptic gel.His left side felt packed with wet sand and broken glass. Breathing still hurt. Consciousness came in pieces—ceiling lights, the weight of monitoring leads, the distant sound of someone arguing in a corridor.Remi’s voice cut through first.“He’s awake. Give us the room.”A residual specialist muttered something about vitals and stepped out. The door sealed. Remi stayed where she was, arms crossed, residual light under her skin dim but steady.“You look like shit.”Erick’s throat worked. “Feel worse.”“Good. Means you’re still processing pain like a person instead of a residual event.&rdqu
Chapter 162 — Spite and Unfinished Business
The service corridor spat them out into a loading alley behind a shuttered logistics depot. Night air hit as a slap—exhaust, rain, distant sirens layered over each other.Remi kept Erick upright against the brick wall. His breathing was a wet, uneven scrape.Aria’s voice stayed tight in their ears.“Extraction van is ninety seconds out—Black GD Tech medical unit, no markings. Driver is one of ours. Trauma kit onboard is better than nothing. Clinic is seven minutes from your position once you’re moving.”Ivan set Jacqueline’s body down under the shallow overhang and checked the alley both ways.“Street’s too quiet.”“Residual infrastructure in this sector is partially offline,” Aria said. “Seed failure is creating dead
Chapter 161 — What’s Left of the City
The incline steepened.Remi adjusted her grip under Erick’s arm. His weight kept shifting the wrong way.“You’re drifting. Stay on your feet.”“Trying.”“Try harder. I’m not dragging a corpse the rest of the way.”Ivan walked ahead with Jacqueline’s body. The residual burns on his arms had stopped spreading, but the skin looked wrong—dark, stiff, half-claimed by the field they were leaving.He didn’t look back when he spoke.“How much further until we hit something that still answers to city infrastructure?”Calder’s voice came from the front, layered and thin.“Two more vertical shafts. After that the residual density drops. Continuity systems—or what’s left of them—will start registering again.”Remi glanced at Erick’s face. Gray. Eyes half-lidded.“You hear that? We’re close. Don’t quit.”“Not quitting.”“Good. Because if you die in this tunnel I will be extremely angry with you.”A faint breath that might have been a laugh escaped him.“Noted.”They reached the first vertical shaf
Chapter 160 — Backlash
The residual scream from above cut off like a throat being closed.For several seconds the only sound in the memory core chamber was the slow drip of Erick’s blood hitting scar-tissue. The white cracks that had spiderwebbed across the walls faded one by one. The pressure that had been trying to rewrite everything in the chamber simply… stopped.Remi kept both hands pressed against the worst of the wounds in Erick’s side. Her residual light was so dim it barely showed under her skin.“Hey. Look at me.”Erick’s eyes were open but unfocused. She slapped his cheek, not gently.“Erick. Eyes on me.”He blinked. Focus returned in fragments. His voice was barely air.“Did it work?”<
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