The Trillionaire’s Rise: Powered by a System Ring

CHAPTER 5 The Garage at the End of the Alley

Rendi knew the man. His name was Marco, his personal driver for six years.

Three months ago, Marco was fired. Rendi remembered the termination letter because he had signed it himself.

"Marco," Rendi said quietly.

Marco picked up his bag of oil without taking his eyes off Rendi. He noticed the wrinkled shirt, the coffee stain, and the flip-flops Rendi had borrowed from Grandpa Harun.

"Good lord, Boss," Marco finally said. "You look worse than on TV."

Grandpa Harun came out of the house. "You two know each other?"

"I used to be his driver, Grandpa," Marco said, handing over the bag of oil. "Before his fiancée called me a thief."

Rendi did not reply. He had no answer to that statement.

Grandpa Harun looked back and forth between the two of them, then went back inside the house. "Don't chat in my yard. There are too many mosquitoes."

Marco's garage was at the end of the alley, only five houses away from Grandpa Harun's. The building was small, with a corrugated iron roof and a floor blackened by oil drips. Hanging on the wall were a calendar with a picture of a motorcycle and Marco's faded wedding photo.

Marco turned on a fluorescent light that blinked twice before buzzing to life. He pulled up two plastic stools and offered one to Rendi.

"Sit down, Boss. My garage doesn't have any leather sofas."

Rendi sat down. The stool wobbled because one of its legs was shorter.

Marco brewed two glasses of instant coffee with water from a thermos. He placed one glass in front of Rendi, then sat on a used tire.

"So it's true?" Marco asked. "Everything was taken?"

"Everything. The houses, the apartments, the companies."

"The cars?"

"The cars, too."

Marco whistled softly. "That black car I used to wash every morning? The one you yelled at me over because of a tiny scratch?"

"That one."

"Well then. That means Evelyn is driving it now." Marco took a sip of his coffee. "I hope she crashes into a utility pole."

Rendi almost laughed. He held it back by drinking the coffee, which was way too sweet.

They sat in silence for a moment. The sound of crickets could be heard from the empty lot behind the garage.

"Marco," Rendi said. "Back then, you were fired because you were accused of stealing Evelyn's watch."

"I didn't steal it."

"I know."

Marco stopped raising his glass. "Now you know, Boss. Three months ago, you wouldn't listen."

Rendi stared at the black garage floor. He remembered that day clearly.

Marco had come to his office early in the morning, his face pale. Marco said he wanted to talk in private about Evelyn.

Rendi told him to wait because he had a meeting. That afternoon, Evelyn came crying and said her watch was missing from the car.

That very afternoon, Rendi signed Marco's termination letter without ever hearing what Marco had to say.

"What did you want to say that morning?" Rendi asked.

Marco placed his glass on the floor. For the first time that night, he wasn't joking.

"The night before, I was told to pick up Miss Evelyn at a downtown hotel. She said she had just met a friend." Marco rubbed the back of his neck. "I saw her come out through the side door. There was a man who walked her to the car."

"Alex."

"I didn't know his name at the time. I only found out from your wedding video." Marco sighed. "Evelyn saw me looking at them. The next afternoon, the watch went missing."

Rendi gripped his coffee glass tightly. The coffee had grown cold, but he didn't let go of it.

Three months. If he had only been willing to listen for five minutes that morning, maybe he would still have a house. His mother would still have a house.

"I'm sorry," Rendi said, his voice hoarse. "I was wrong. I chose to believe her over you."

Marco stared at him for a long time.

"You're apologizing now, Boss?" Marco shook his head. "Three months too late, Boss."

"I know."

"I had to sell retail gasoline for two months before I could rent this place. My wife almost went back to her mother's house."

Rendi did not defend himself. He just nodded.

Marco picked up his glass again and finished his coffee in one gulp.

"But you came here, sat on my rickety stool, and drank instant coffee without complaining." Marco grinned. "You used to demand freshly ground coffee beans. Now you'll finish a three-dollar box of instant coffee just fine."

"Your coffee is too sweet."

"Now that's the Boss I know. Full of complaints."

Rendi finally laughed. It was his first laugh since the wedding day, and it came out louder than he expected.

Marco laughed along. Then he reached into his pants pocket and pulled out a keychain full of customers' motorcycle keys.

Among those keys was a single black car key with a luxury logo.

"Your spare car key, Boss," Marco said. "When I was fired, I forgot to return it. So I just kept it."

"Why keep it? The car isn't mine anymore."

"Who knows, maybe you'll need a driver again someday." Marco tossed the key to Rendi. "I don't want to work for anyone else."

Rendi caught the key. The metal was cold and slightly greasy from Marco's hands.

Rendi gripped it for a long time, then slipped it into his shirt pocket, right next to the piece of paper with Nadia's number.

"Are your wages high?"

"Expensive. But for you, Boss, I'll give a discount. You can pay with labor first." Marco pointed at a pile of tires in the corner. "Tomorrow morning, help me change tires on three motorcycles. Consider it an installment on your apology debt."

"I don't know how to change tires."

"That's why you learn. A bankrupt man has to know how to do everything, Boss."

Rendi nodded. Then he remembered something that had been weighing on his chest since morning.

"Do you know where my mother is? I called her this morning, but no one answered."

Marco's face turned serious again. "Your mother called me yesterday afternoon. She asked if you had another number, because your phone was dead."

"Is she okay?"

"She sounded tired, but she wasn't crying. She said she's staying at her sister's house now, on the outskirts of the city." Marco grabbed his cracked phone and looked for a number. "Her own phone was left behind when she was kicked out of the house. She's using her sister's number. Here."

Rendi stared at the number on the screen. His hand reached out, then stopped in midair.

"Tomorrow," he said quietly. "I don't know what to say yet."

Marco didn't push it. He just copied the number onto a piece of garage receipt paper and slipped it into Rendi's hand.

Nearing midnight, Rendi returned to the back room of Grandpa Harun's house. The fan was still squeaking, and his hands smelled of oil because Marco had forced him to hold a wrench.

Rendi lay down and stared at the ceiling. For the first time, his mind wasn't entirely consumed by Evelyn's face.

Unconsciously, his thumb rubbed the silver ring on his ring finger.

[Ding!] [Day 2 login has not been claimed.] [Day 1 login was granted automatically upon revival. Starting on Day 2, the Host must claim the daily login by touching the ring.] [Time remaining today: 4 minutes.] [Claim now?]

Rendi immediately sat up. It turned out today's reward had been waiting since morning, and he didn't know how to claim it.

"Claim."

[Day 2 login successful.] [Reward: Expert Level Investment Skill.]

Rendi's head felt full. Stock charts, financial reports, and market patterns flooded into his memory, as if he had been studying them for twenty years.

Rendi closed his eyes. When he opened them again, he knew exactly what to do with the remaining seven hundred dollars in his wallet.