Chapter 16 - The Ghost from the Past
The name hung in the air between us like a faint echo of a distant storm.
Ethan.
I hadn't seen him in over three years. After his mother’s defeat in Geneva and the total collapse of his family estate, he had vanished into Europe, drifting through forgotten towns, living off meager savings, completely stripped of the wealth, status, and luxury he had taken for granted his entire life.
"Did security run a background check?" I asked calmly, leaning back in my chair.
"Thoroughly," Marcus nodded. "He's alone. No money, no corporate backing, no influence. He looks like a man who finally realized what he threw away."
I stared out the floor-to-ceiling glass window, watching the tiny ants of traffic crawl along the highway far below. A part of me wanted to refuse him. A part of me wanted to tell security to throw him out onto the street just like his mother had thrown me out five years ago. But curiosity—and a strange, detached sense of closure—won out.
"Send him up," I instructed quietly. "Let him see what a real empire looks like."
Ten minutes later, the private elevator pinged.
The doors slid open, and Ethan Montgomery stepped out into the pristine, sunlit lobby of my penthouse office.
If he had looked like a ghost three years ago, he looked like a corpse now. His hair was streaked heavily with gray, his designer clothes replaced by a cheap, unpressed thrift-store jacket. His shoulders were permanently slumped, and his once-sharp gray eyes were dull, hollow, and exhausted.
He stopped a few feet from my desk, looking around at the sweeping view of the city, the modern art adorning the white walls, and the framed photograph of my three boys on the side table.
May you like
"You built an empire," Ethan whispered, his voice trembling slightly. "A real one. Not built on inherited gold, but on sheer will."
"I told you I would, Ethan," I replied evenly, not bothering to stand up. "You just didn't think a woman you discarded could do it without your permission."
