Chapter 94

Chapter 94

The wind outside Vertex Holdings Group didn't fully die down until just before dawn.

Decker was still hanging at the entrance, head down, knees half-bent, barely holding himself together, his body swaying slightly in the breeze. Not a single person dared go up and say a word for him. The crowd outside kept cycling through, one wave after another.

But what really made people uneasy wasn't Decker.

It was Ethan.

Because even now, hardly anyone could say with any certainty who this man actually was or where he came from.

Someone inside Vertex Holdings Group had quietly dug through Ethan's file, but what they found left them colder than finding nothing at all.

Some said he was someone who had done something big once, then been buried completely.

Others said he was someone with too much blood on his hands, someone who had to have his past wiped clean.

And some said a man who could crush the Black Tiger Society overnight and bring the police department to its knees couldn't possibly be the kind of person who lived openly in the light.

But none of that got said anywhere near the front of Vertex Holdings Group. People only dared whisper it behind closed doors, or probe at it from a safe distance.

And compared to all that speculation outside, Lena's home was a different kind of quiet.

Her mother had started picking up scattered bits of news early that morning. At first she only knew something big had gone down in the south district the night before. Then she heard Decker had gone to his knees, that the Black Tiger Society was finished, that even the police had been squeezed into silence.

She'd wanted to find someone who could give her the full picture, but the more she asked, the less she dared keep going. Because every answer pointed to the same thing.

And what sent a chill down her spine was that the whole thing, from start to finish, circled around Lena. Whoever moved against her, something happened to them.

This wasn't protection in any ordinary sense. It was a clear message to everyone: there was someone standing behind Lena that nobody could afford to mess with. Whether that someone was Ethan, or someone even deeper behind Ethan, nobody dared say for certain.

Some people even said quietly that Schumann's bow that time might not have been for Lena at all, not for any of the visible players in the south district either, but for whoever was truly behind Ethan, the one who still hadn't shown their face.

The more that talk spread, the quieter things got outside. Because once someone actually believed it, they stopped making any moves.

But Ethan himself had no interest in any of it.

After dawn, he slept less than two hours before he got up and came downstairs. The living room still held some warmth from the night before. None of the kids had slept soundly.

Nia was curled up at the far end of the couch with a blanket. Ewan had woken up earliest, and when he saw Ethan come down, he sat up a little straighter. After a moment he asked quietly, "That guy outside, still there?"

"Still there," Ethan said.

Ewan was quiet for a second. "What about the people behind him?"

"Jennifer and Julian are handling it." Ethan walked over and swapped out the water on the table for a fresh glass. "Today will be busier than last night, but nobody's going to find their way here again."

Ewan nodded and didn't ask anything else. He understood by now that when Ethan said something wouldn't happen, it wouldn't.

Nia was awake too by then. She rubbed her eyes and looked at him for a moment, then asked softly, "Where's Lena?"

"Still sleeping." Ethan's voice dropped a little. "She wore herself out last night. Let her rest."

Nia made a small sound of acknowledgment, then seemed to remember something and looked up at him again. "Are you going out today?"

"For a bit."

"To beat someone up?"

Ethan glanced at her. He actually paused for a rare moment before answering. "Not necessarily."

Nia blinked, looking a little skeptical, but she didn't push it.

Just then, a door opened softly upstairs.

Lena came down holding the railing, looking better than she had the night before but still carrying a tiredness that hadn't quite lifted. She spotted Ethan standing in the middle of the living room and stopped for a second, then asked, "You haven't left?"

"Not yet."

"What about the police station?"

"Jennifer's on it." Ethan looked up at her. "You rest. Don't touch anything else today."

Lena started to say something, but after holding his gaze for a couple of seconds, she let it go. She understood by now that after last night, a lot of things needed time to settle. Jumping in too fast would only pull her back under.

She came down and sat, took the glass of water Ethan handed her, and after a sip asked, "So where are you going today?"

Ethan looked at her, his voice even. "Drop the kids off. Then take care of something small."

"What kind of small thing?"

"Get you a car."

It came out of nowhere. Even Lena blinked.

Nia reacted fastest, her eyes lighting up immediately. "Really?"

Elysia lifted her head too, a flash of excitement crossing her face.

Ewan didn't say anything, but his eyes moved to Ethan.

Lena set her glass down and looked at him. "What made you think of that all of a sudden?"

"It's not sudden," Ethan said. "I've been thinking about it. The house isn't fully sorted yet, but the car should go first. Safer than you driving that old one around."

Lena looked at him and found she didn't know what to say. She knew Ethan wasn't trying to make her happy, and he wasn't saying it offhand. The fact that he brought it up now meant it had been sitting with him for a while, and only now was there finally enough space to actually do something about it.

Nia had already perked up. "Can I come?"

"No," Ethan said. "You're going to school today."

Nia's face fell completely.

Ewan glanced at her and, unusually, added, "You'd just get in the way."

Nia glared at him. "I would not."

The heaviness that had pressed down on the living room all night finally broke apart a little with that small argument.

Lena sat where she was and watched them, and the tension in her face eased just a bit.

After dropping the kids off, Ethan didn't turn back. He drove straight to a fairly large car dealership in the south district. It wasn't tucked away, the signage was bright, the windows were spotless, and a row of brand-new luxury cars sat out front gleaming in the sunlight.

Which was probably why, when he walked in wearing plain black clothes, the security guard at the door took one look at him and his expression went flat.

"Sir, we have scheduled appointments today. General browsing will have to wait."

Ethan kept walking. "I'm not waiting."

The guard stiffened, his face souring. "Then I'm sorry, but the floor isn't open right now."

Ethan turned and looked at him.

The look wasn't heavy. But somehow the guard's next words caught in his throat, and something in his chest pulled tight without warning, like he'd just been noticed by something dangerous.

And right at that moment, a woman's voice came from behind, sharp with mockery.

"Well, look who it is."

Ethan didn't need to turn around to recognize the contempt in it.