Tous les chapitres de : Chapitre 31 - Chapitre 40

Enraged, David completely lost it and swung a furious fist straight at Ethan's temple.Before Ethan could consciously realize it, his instinct had already taken over the situation. For a reason he couldn't quite explain, his senses tilted, his body shifted—just ever so slightly as to let the flying fist pass his face by. Even more to his surprise, he saw the fist moving in slow motion. And he wasn't even a trained fighter. David blinked. How's that possible? he gasped in thought. There's no way in hell he could have dodged that. David had good reason to be shocked. Back in his campus days, people had nicknamed him "Fast Fist"—not because he was the strongest fighter in school, but because his punches came quicker than anyone else's. He'd built his entire reputation on that speed, had watched countless opponents fold before they even registered the blow.So it came as a genuine shock to see Ethan dodge his strike with such effortless ease, as though he'd been anticipating it for hou

The following morning, Ethan woke long before his alarm was set to ring.For several minutes, he lay completely motionless beneath the thin coverlet, his gaze fixed on the quiet hairline cracks in the bedroom ceiling. The faint morning light filtered through the blinds, casting long, muted shadows across the floor, but his mind was already miles away.Fragments of the previous afternoon kept sweeping back through his thoughts:The factory.The blocked corridors.The angry face of David Cole.The punch that had somehow seemed to move through the air slowly enough for him to avoid it.The bewildered expression on David's face when Ethan had artfully stepped aside from getting hit.He remembered the quiet, miraculous moment when the digital production counter had flickered, climbing from eighty-seven up to one hundred and twenty, and finally settling at a triumphant one hundred and fifty-two."You didn't touch the machinery," Meglo had muttered, staring at the humming floor like a man wh

"The first time, I assumed the portal was pulling data from a dummy test environment," Ethan explained, his analytical mind laying out his line of thought. "The second time, I thought it was a browser cache error. By the third time, I was considering a synchronization failure between the regional distribution server and central accounting."Harper’s laughter lingered. "And what did you conclude on the fourth refresh?"Ethan let out a quiet sigh. "I was beginning to suspect that Horizon’s payroll department possessed an absurdly expensive sense of humor.""I can assure you," Harper replied, her amusement gradually softening into a warmer, settled tone, "our financial officers are entirely devoid of humor. There is nothing wrong with the transfer. The math is completely sound."Ethan leaned back against the headboard again, staring at his reflection in the dark windowpane across the room. "You are telling me, without qualification, that the figure sitting in my contractor account righ

The day moved with the quiet, heavy rhythm typical of the Hartwell estate. Having returned from his morning walk with Grandma Margaret’s words still echoing in his mind, Ethan found himself seeking out the one person in the house he usually took great care to avoid crowding.He found Selin in her private study, tucked away in the east wing. It was a room he rarely entered—a bright, minimal space lined with heavy oak bookshelves, dual monitors, and neatly stacked leather binders.She sat at her mahogany desk, her hair tied back in a loose, elegant knot, her eyes fixed on a dense spreadsheet spread across her screens. Her slender fingers moved over a mechanical keyboard with rapid, effortless precision.Ethan stood near the threshold, holding his worn leather portfolio. He had spent three years living under the same roof with her, yet looking at her now, surrounded by ledgers, tax codes, and corporate audit logs, he realized how little he actually knew about her daily life.Selin wasn'

"Mother, that's enough!" Selin interjected firmly, giving her mother a look that silenced further ranting.Derby huffed, snatching up her mail from the counter. "Just make sure whatever little 'consulting' firm hired you doesn't expect the Hartwell family to bail you out when your little stipend runs dry," she muttered, turning on her heel and marching out toward the main hallway.The room fell into a quiet, peaceful calm."Peace on Earth, at last," Grandma Margaret, who had been conversationslly quiet all the while, said. However, that peace didn't last forever. It only lasted for half a minute. Derby stormed back in as though she had forgotten something, her heels clicking aggressively against the marble floor as if her exit hadn't been dramatic enough the first time. "And oh..." she snapped, her eyes narrowing as she glared at Ethan up and down, pointing an accusatory finger. "Since you've suddenly declared yourself the heavyweight resident benefactor of this house, you can make