2026-05-21 18:06:10By late afternoon, Erick was back at the Laurent estate. He entered through the side gate wearing a tailored black suit. The staff gave him curious glances — they weren’t used to seeing him dressed like this.
Mrs. Hollis met him in the hallway, her voice low. “They’ve been setting things up all day. I think they’re planning to humiliate you again tonight.” Erick nodded. “I know.” He went to his room and checked his messages. Aria had sent an update: [Victor and Martin are coordinating. They’ll use the gala to declare you dead and push the narrative.] Erick typed back: [Let them start the show.] The door opened without a knock. Dominique stepped in. She stopped when she saw him in the suit. “You’re actually coming?” she asked, sounding surprised. “I said I would.” She studied him for a moment. “You clean up well.” Erick adjusted his cuff. “It’s just a suit.” Dominique crossed her arms. “Grandma wants to see you before the gala. She’s at The Pierre, room 401. Something about the divorce papers.” Erick raised an eyebrow. “Why not here?” “She said she didn’t want to do it at the house.” Dominique rubbed her temple, looking tired. “Just go, Erick. The gala starts soon.” He watched her carefully. Something in her tone felt off. “Alright,” he said. “I’ll go.” Dominique left quickly, almost relieved. Erick stood in front of the mirror for a moment, thinking. The Pierre instead of the Plaza. Grandma is sending messages through Dominique. It didn’t add up. He picked up his second phone and texted Aria. [Check room 401 at The Pierre. Who’s actually registered?] The reply came faster than expected. [No reservation under any Laurent name. The suite is booked under Martin Clarke’s assistant. Erick exhaled slowly. Of course. He slipped the phone into his pocket and headed out the back way, avoiding the staff who were busy preparing for the gala. Ivan was waiting in the black sedan behind the building. Erick got in the back seat. “Change of plans?” Ivan asked. “Not really,” Erick said. “Just another trap.” Ivan started the car. “You still want to walk into it?” Erick looked out at the passing city. “Yes. Let’s see how well they planned it.” *** Rain had started falling by the time Erick’s car reached The Pierre. The hotel’s entrance glowed under the lights, polished and expensive in that quiet way that reminded people exactly where they stood. Ivan pulled up to the curb. “You sure you don’t want me to come up?” “No,” Erick said, smoothing the sleeves of his suit. “I’ll handle it.” Ivan gave a short grunt. “That usually means someone’s getting hurt.” “Only if they’re stupid.” Ivan snorted. “Then it’s probably violence.” Erick ignored the valet and walked through the revolving doors. The lobby smelled of wood polish and discreet wealth. A pianist played softly in the corner while a couple laughed over wine. Hotel staff moved around them like shadows. He took the elevator up. In the mirrored walls, he caught sight of two men near the ice machine on his floor. They were trying too hard to look casual. One kept touching his jacket pocket. Amateurs. Room 401. The door was slightly ajar, just as he expected. He pushed it open. “Mr. Gerard?” a nervous voice asked. A young woman stood by the window in a silver silk dress, holding a champagne glass like it might break in her hand. She looked too young for the setting. Her smile was practiced, but her eyes gave her away. “Wrong target,” Erick said calmly. She frowned. “I… I don’t understand.” Erick crossed the room to the bookshelf, spotted the hidden camera, and pulled it down. He dropped it on the floor and crushed it under his shoe. The woman gasped and stepped back. “You were told I’d come in drunk,” he said. “Maybe passed out already.” Her face went pale. The bedroom door opened behind him. A large man in a poorly fitting hotel staff uniform stepped out. “You were supposed to be unconscious,” the man growled. Erick exhaled. “So that was the plan.” The man lunged. Erick moved inside the swing, drove his knee into the man’s ribs, and shoved him hard into the minibar. Bottles rattled and several fell, spilling whiskey across the marble. The man groaned, trying to get up. Erick grabbed him by the collar, slammed his head once against the edge of the marble table—hard enough to finish it—and let him drop. The woman in the silver dress had her hands over her mouth, breathing fast. Erick looked at her. She was staring at him now with something different in her eyes. Recognition. “No…” she whispered. “That’s impossible.” Erick said nothing. “You’re him,” she said, voice shaking. “Quade.” The man on the floor went very still. Erick studied her carefully. “What’s your name?” “Sienna.” “How do you know that name?” “Jacqueline,” she said hoarsely. “She used to carry your picture. She told me stories about you at Columbia. Said you were building something important.” Ivan’s voice came through the earpiece, calm but urgent. “Hotel security is on the way up. Thirty seconds.” Erick kept his eyes on the girl. “You haven’t seen me tonight, Sienna.” She swallowed. “If Martin finds out the plan failed—” “Martin is the least of your problems right now,” Erick said quietly. He took out several folded bills and placed them on the table next to her bag. “When they get here, tell them an intruder broke in, and you panicked. That’s all.” Sienna stared at the money, hands still trembling. “You really are him… aren’t you?” Erick adjusted his cuffs. “No,” he said. “Quade is dead.” He turned and left the room. Just before the elevator doors closed, he dropped a single silver cufflink onto the carpet near the broken glass. It made a small, metallic sound as it hit the floor. *** Twenty minutes later, Martin Clarke burst into the suite. The minibar was destroyed. Whiskey pooled across the marble. A broken camera lay on the floor. His bodyguard was unconscious, bleeding from the mouth. Sienna was gone. “What the hell happened?!” Martin shouted. The bodyguard stirred weakly. “He… knew…” Martin’s eyes landed on something shiny near the table. He picked it up. A silver cufflink engraved with the letter Q. His face went pale. He stood there for a long moment, staring at the small piece of metal in his hand. The wrecked room. The blood. The missing girl. For the first time that night, real fear settled over him. The dead man wasn’t dead anymore.
Previous Chapter
Latest Chapter
Chapter 84—We Attack
The first contract delay arrived at 9:03 a.m. as a polite email.A mid-tier logistics partner that had worked with GD Tech for four years requested a temporary pause on a pending infrastructure renewal agreement. The language was careful. They cited internal review processes and the ongoing federal matters surrounding the company. No accusation. No open withdrawal. Just a pause that could stretch indefinitely if no one pushed back.By noon there were three more.Erick read each one in the restricted operations room without comment. The federal oversight already limited major transfers and system changes. Now the quiet isolation the intermediary had described was beginning to take shape in real time. Partners were not cutting ties. They were simply becoming cautious in ways that required no public explanation.Remi stood beside him, arms folded. “They’re doing exactly what he said they would. No speeches. No visible attack. Just distance.”“Yes,” Erick said. “And distance is harder to
Chapter 83— What We’re Searching For
The two dark cars stayed with them for eleven blocks.Jacqueline took a sudden left, then two rights through narrower streets. The cars adjusted without hurry, as if they already knew the route options. When she finally cut through a service alley and emerged on a different avenue, the tails were gone — but the message was clear.They had been allowed to notice.Back at the secondary facility, the atmosphere had changed. No one raised their voice. No one wasted movement. Erick stood at the central table while Aria replayed the surveillance fragments she had captured from street cameras. The vehicles were clean. No plates that led anywhere useful. No faces visible through the tinted glass.“They’re not trying to grab us,” Jacqueline said. “Not yet. They’re showing us they can sit on our shoulder whenever they want.”Remi stood with her arms folded tightly. “The general reported the conversation immediately. That was the point of letting you walk out.”Erick nodded. “He gave us a name f
Chapter 82— Very Confident or Very Stupid
The car stopped two blocks short of the address.Erick sat in the back seat with the window cracked just enough to let in the cold air. Remi was beside him. Jacqueline drove. No one spoke for a full minute after the engine cut off.The building was a quiet brick residential block on a tree-lined street. No doorman. No visible cameras at street level. The kind of place that looked forgettable on purpose.“Third floor,” Jacqueline said. “Corner unit. He’s been inside for forty minutes.”Erick checked the time. “We don’t go up. We wait.”Remi’s hands rested still in her lap. “If he panics—”“He won’t see us,” Erick said. “Not yet.”They watched.At 9:17 the general left the building. He was older than the photographs, silver hair cut short, dark coat, walking with the controlled pace of a man who had spent decades expecting to be observed. He carried nothing in his hands. A black car was already waiting at the curb. He got in without looking around.The car pulled away.Jacqueline follow
Chapter 81—Silent Pressure
The federal oversight order hit at 7:14 a.m.It arrived as a sealed digital packet, locked behind three layers of encryption and stamped with a court seal that basically said, don’t even try to argue.Erick read it once in the secure conference room of the secondary GD Tech site, then read it again, slower.While the investigation into the Global Tech Summit and the related system activity continued, operational control of Gerard Dominion Technologies was being placed under temporary federal review. From that moment on, any major money transfers, core system changes, or public statements needed prior clearance.He set the tablet down without saying a word.Remi watched him from across the table. The exhaustion from the Summit was still written all over her face, but she kept her posture
Chapter 80 — First Names
The temporary safe house was quieter than the Summit had been, but the silence carried more weight.Erick sat at the central table with the lights dimmed. The damp navy suit had been replaced by a clean black shirt and dark trousers, though the bandages under the fabric still pulled when he moved. Remi sat across from him. Jacqueline leaned against the wall. Aria’s hologram hovered above the table, already pulling data streams.“We start with the two names Dominique gave us,” Erick said. “The retired general and the private equity woman. We treat everything else as noise until we have a real trail.”Aria’s interface expanded. “I’ve cross-referenced both names against every financial and communications log we currently control. The general is easier to surface. Retired three years ago. Still holds informal advisory roles on two defense technology committees. The woman is harder. She operates through a private equity fund registered under three different holding companies. Most of the r
Chapter 79 — The Next Layer
Remi remained beside him, her hand still resting on the table near his.“They didn’t even flinch when you asked about the Clarkes,” she said quietly. “That’s not caution. That’s protection.”Erick nodded once. “Leroy lost the public battle today. His name is toxic now. Michel is finished. Evelyn will spend the rest of her life managing the fallout. But the Clarkes walked out of here without a single question. That doesn’t happen by accident.”He stood and walked to the glass wall, looking down at the main hall. Leroy was no longer visible. Neither were Martin nor the Congressman. The space they had occupied was already being cleared by event staff and federal personnel.Jacqueline entered the room a moment later, followed by Adrian. Ivan waited just outside with two of his men.“Federal agents are setting up a temporary command post on the third floor,” Jacqueline reported. “They’re treating the recordings as primary evidence against the Laurents. But there’s no active warrant for Mar
You may also like
National Asset: The Marvelous Tyler Wood
Emerald74.6K viewsRise of Power: Return of The Pathetic Commoner
Iwaswiththestars77.4K viewsFrom Darkness to Light: Darwin's Rise
Magical Inspirations77.5K viewsUnexpected Trillionaire.
Max Luthor93.9K viewsThe Ex-husband Return
Israel Kingsley 40 viewsLEVEL UP: HAREM EMPIRE
HO PE167 viewsReclaiming Back My Empire
Ivy Rogers89 viewsTrillionaire: Humiliation's Reckoning
Beibe395 views