Too Late for Your Tears

Chapter 3

Meanwhile, back inside the grand Sterling family villa, the three eldest sisters sat on the plush sofas. Charlotte Sterling, the eldest sister, had a very cold and tight face as she looked toward the doorway.

"Amelia," Charlotte said to the third sister, her voice sharp and strict. "Go and follow Ethan right now. See if that ungrateful beggar stole any of our family's expensive items before he left."

"You are right, Charlotte," Amelia Sterling replied, standing up and straightening her crisp police uniform. "He has always been greedy and ungrateful, and I will make sure he did not take a single penny from this house."

Back at the old orphanage, the heavy iron crowbar was still raised high over Grandfather Joseph’s head. The brutal loan shark, Garrick Thorne, let out a mean laugh as his thugs blocked the exit.

Ethan Vance stepped forward smoothly, his eyes turning into freezing, ice-cold slits as he placed his own body directly between the old man and the weapon.

"Drop that crowbar right now," Ethan commanded, his deep voice sounding like a freezing winter wind. "Are you completely unaware of my identity? How dare you come here to bully my people?"

Garrick Thorne stopped his hand in mid-air, his angry eyes locking onto Ethan’s face. He squinted through the dim light of the dining room, his brute face suddenly turning very pale as he remembered a grand event from the past.

Garrick Thorne had once been a low-level guard at a massive Sterling family banquet a year ago. He had seen this exact young man standing right at the center of the grand hall, serving tea and water to the guests. He had assumed Ethan was just a high-ranking servant—but even a servant of that house was someone an underworld thug couldn't afford to offend.

The Sterling family was the single most powerful and terrifying family in the entire city. The six daughters of the house were living legends, and their names made everyone in the underworld shake with primitive fear.

The eldest, Charlotte, commanded the multi-billion business empire. The second, Beatrice, was a world-renowned medical genius. The third, Amelia, held absolute, terrifying power in the city's police department. The fourth sister was a ruthless, brilliant lawyer. The fifth was a top celebrity, and the sixth was an emerging, bestselling writer.

It was a well-known law in the city that anyone who offended the Sterling sisters would be found kneeling at their villa gates the next morning, weeping and begging for forgiveness.

Garrick Thorne’s own former big boss had once been foolish enough to cross the third sister, Amelia, in a street dispute. The very next day, that boss was found kneeling and pleading for his life, only to be dumped into the deep sea to feed the fish anyway.

Thinking about that terrifying memory, Garrick Thorne frowned deeply, his eyes darting cautiously between Ethan's face and the surroundings. He did not want his crew to accidentally provoke the Sterling family over a minor debt, so he slowly lowered his heavy iron crowbar.

"So, you are a servant dog for the Sterlings," Garrick Thorne sneered loudly, a mean, predatory grin twisting his lips as he stepped right into Ethan's space. "You are lucky I don't want your masters breathing down my neck today, boy."

Garrick leaned in closer, whispering with pure malice as he pointed his iron bar toward the back room. "Enjoy your little shield for now, servant. The moment you leave this property, my men will return to strip this place bare and take the girl."

He turned around with an arrogant wave of his hand, signaling his men. "Put your weapons down, you idiots! We are leaving this place right now before—"

"Ethan! How dare you use the prestigious Sterling name to threaten people out here?" a loud, cold voice suddenly boomed from the open doorway.

Amelia Sterling walked straight into the dining hall, the silver badges on her police uniform gleaming under the light. She looked at Ethan with an expression of supreme, unyielding disdain.

"Do not let this broke loser trick you," Amelia sneered at Garrick Thorne, crossing her arms tightly over her chest. "He no longer has any ties with the Sterlings, and he has no backing whatsoever. He was completely kicked out of the Sterling family tonight."

Garrick Thorne’s eyes lit up instantly as he realized Ethan was completely defenseless, a cunning grin replacing his previous caution. He immediately stepped toward the police officer, completely ignoring Ethan as if he were a ghost.

Ethan tried to step forward, his voice tense with frustration. "Amelia, you don't understand the situation here. These men are criminal loan sharks using illegal, predatory lending practices to steal this property!"

"Predatory? Miss Amelia, don't listen to this liar's nonsense," Garrick Thorne interrupted smoothly, pulling a crumpled paper from his vest and flashing a signed loan agreement. "These old parasites maliciously refused to repay their legitimate debt when the deadline hit at noon today. We were just being kind and trying to help them find part-time work as strippers in a local bar since it's the fastest way to make money to cover what they owe! We were just doing them a favor, but this street rat stepped in to cause trouble!"

Amelia frowned deeply, barely glancing at the paper before turning a cold, judgmental glare onto Ethan. "Debts must be repaid, Ethan. There is completely nothing wrong with these men collecting what is legally owed to them under a signed agreement. A loan is a loan."

She sneered openly at him, her voice dripping with sharp, cruel contempt. "But I shouldn't be surprised. You will always be a low-class person at heart. Even after living with our prestigious family for ten entire years, you still couldn't shake your inferior, street-beggar nature."

Ethan felt a heavy, agonizing ache strike deep into his chest. His heart bled into invisible pieces. He had given his sisters everything—his youth, his health, and his devotion—yet he couldn't even earn their basic trust over a common street thug.

Amelia didn't care about his silence. She turned back to Garrick Thorne with an indifferent wave of her hand. "He has already been officially kicked out of our family tonight. He has zero power, zero backing, and zero money. You can do whatever the hell you want with him and this trash house."

Garrick Thorne’s pale face instantly changed back into a mean, brutal grin as he realized Ethan was completely defenseless and abandoned. He stepped back and raised his crowbar once more.

Amelia walked closer to Ethan, her eyes full of unyielding contempt as she looked at his tattered jacket. "Charlotte sent me to check on you, Ethan. Did you steal any jewelry or bank cards from our villa before you ran away? Speak!"

"I took absolutely nothing from your house, Amelia," Ethan answered directly, his knuckles turning white as he clenched his fists in a wave of calcified anger. "I gave your family ten years of my life, and I left with nothing but my own clothes."

"I do not believe a single word from a liar's mouth," Amelia sneered coldly, turning her head toward the lead thug. "Garrick, use your hands and search his body thoroughly right now. Check every single pocket."

Ethan stood perfectly still in the middle of the room, enduring the ultimate, raw humiliation with forced restraint as Garrick Thorne’s dirty hands roughly ripped open his jacket and searched his clothing.

Garrick pulled out a few copper coins and the crumpled medical report, tossing them onto the muddy floorboards with a loud, mocking laugh. "He is clean, Miss Amelia! The dog has nothing but trash in his pockets!"

Amelia looked down at the papers on the floor with supreme disdain, not even bothering to read his terminal cancer diagnosis. "Listen to me clearly, Ethan. Do not ever dare to misuse the prestigious Sterling name to protect your worthless skin outside again."

"You do not have to worry about that anymore," Ethan said, his voice dropping into a deep, freezing register full of a palpable sense of pent-up frustration. "From this exact millisecond, I am changing my surname. I will have absolutely nothing more to do with the Sterling family."

Amelia let out a sharp, mocking laugh that cut through the quiet room. "What an ungrateful, prideful brat you are! Our family raised you for ten years, fed you, and gave you a home! And now that you are completely useless and see no more advantage left to take from our wealth, you think you can just cut ties with us?"

"Amelia, you are the ones who—" Ethan tried to defend himself, his voice cracking with deep, unadulterated heartbreak.

"Shut your dirty mouth, you ingrate!" Amelia cut him off instantly, her voice exploding with a harsh, unyielding heat. "You are nothing but a traitor to our father's memory! Enjoy the gutters!"

She turned around sharply, her heavy boots clicking loudly against the floorboards as she marched out into the rain, leaving Ethan completely alone with the brutal loan sharks.

Garrick Thorne burst into a loud, manic laugh the exact second the door slammed shut behind her. "Well, well, well! Look at the big master now! You are just a dog without a home!"

"I am giving you one final warning," Ethan stated plainly, shooting straight as he looked directly into Garrick's eyes. "Get your men and get the hell out of this orphanage immediately, or you will end up in a very bad state."

"Are you threatening me, you powerless piece of garbage?" Garrick Thorne ranted fiercely, laughing even harder as his face turned an ugly shade of red. "Boys, smash this entire place to pieces! Break everything they own!"

The five thugs immediately began roaring with laughter, swinging their clubs to violently smash the wooden chairs, the clay pots, and the dining tables into small splinters.

Grandfather Joseph could no longer stand the destruction of the children's sanctuary. He stepped directly in front of Garrick Thorne, dropping to his knees in the mud as he begged for mercy.

"Please, Mr. Thorne, stop this madness!" Joseph pleaded frantically, tears streaming down his wrinkled face. "I have already paid your office one hundred thousand coins last month! I truly cannot pay the full million tonight!"

"Please, just give us a few more days to gather the money!" the old man wept, holding onto the thug's dirty boots. "Don't destroy the home of these poor children!"

"Get away from me, you old parasite!" Garrick Thorne cursed loudly, raising his heavy boot and violently kicking Grandfather Joseph straight in the chest.

The old man let out a painful gasp, his fragile body flying backward to crash hard against the stone floor, pooling blood from his mouth.

"Grandfather!" Chloe shrieked in absolute terror, running forward to hold his bleeding head as she sobbed violently.

Garrick Thorne didn't care about the old man at all; his dirty eyes moved slowly toward Chloe’s beautiful face, a disgusting, predatory leer appearing on his lips.

"You know, old man, your granddaughter is such a fine, beautiful piece of goods," Garrick Thorne sneered, walking closer to Chloe with a nasty grin. "I think I will have to try her out for myself first before I sell her to the entertainment houses tonight."

He reached out his rough, dirty hand to grab Chloe's silky hair, entirely ignoring Ethan standing just two feet away.

The ultimate, raw wave of calcified fury completely exploded inside Ethan Vance's soul. He could no longer hold back his deadly strength.

Moving like a blinding flash of lightning, Ethan lunged forward and delivered a thunderous, bone-shattering kick straight into Garrick Thorne’s ribs.

The massive force of the hit launched the heavy lead thug sideways, sending him crashing violently through a wooden cabinet before he hit the dirt floor with a painful groan.

"You dirty dog!" Garrick Thorne screamed out as he struggled to stand, clutching his broken ribs with an intense, unbridled fury. "You dare to play dirty and strike me from behind?!"

"Boys, do not leave him alive!" Garrick roared to his men, pointing his iron crowbar at Ethan’s chest. "Attack him all together! Break his limbs and kill him right now!”