Chapter 3: A Favor From a Stranger
1181 Words
The first thing Ethan noticed was the silence.
The second was Marcus staring at him.
Not angrily.
Not gratefully either.
More like he was trying to decide whether Ethan was the luckiest man alive or the strangest.
Ethan couldn't blame him.
Five minutes ago, they had been strangers.
Now they were standing in an empty conference room while half the building had been evacuated, and Ethan still had no reasonable explanation for how he had known Marcus was going to die.
Lily sat on one of the chairs, swinging her legs.
She looked completely exhausted.
Ethan crouched beside her.
“You okay?”
She nodded.
“Hungry?”
Another nod.
“Good. That's a much easier problem to solve.”
He reached into his pocket.
Two hundred and forty naira.
Ethan stared at the money.
Then he remembered the restaurant.
The rent.
Amelia.
His bank balance.
He quietly put the money back.
Marcus noticed.
“You haven't eaten either, have you?”
Ethan looked up.
“I'm fine.”
Marcus gave him a look.
“You've been running around a burning building with a child. You nearly got hit by a car earlier, didn't you?”
Ethan frowned.
“How did you know that?”
“You have a very obvious taxi tire mark on your trousers.”
Ethan looked down.
“Oh.”
Marcus laughed.
It was the first time either man had smiled since the elevator incident.
“I'll get food,” Marcus said.
“You don't have to.”
“I know.”
Marcus picked up his phone.
“I'm doing it anyway.”
Ethan didn't argue.
He had learned a long time ago that pride didn't pay bills.
Sometimes you accepted help.
Sometimes you returned it later.
---
Twenty minutes later, the three of them sat in a quiet restaurant across the street from the building.
Lily was eating like she had not seen food in three days.
Ethan watched her for a moment.
“Slow down.”
She ignored him.
Marcus smiled.
“She seems comfortable around you.”
“She's been through a lot tonight.”
“So have you.”
Ethan looked at him.
“You don't know anything about me.”
Marcus took a sip of water.
“I know you saved my life.”
“That was mostly luck.”
“No.”
Marcus shook his head.
“Luck doesn't tell you which elevator is going to fail.”
Ethan's hand tightened around his glass.
He needed to be careful.
Very careful.
There was still the matter of the bracelet.
He had no idea what it was.
He had no idea why the system had chosen him.
And he definitely wasn't ready to tell a stranger about a mysterious voice that appeared in his head and claimed it could change people's fate.
Marcus leaned forward.
“Who taught you?”
“Taught me what?”
“That.”
He pointed toward Ethan's wrist.
Ethan looked down.
The bracelet was quiet now.
Just an old piece of silver.
“My grandfather gave it to me.”
Marcus's expression changed.
“Your grandfather?”
“Yeah.”
“What was his name?”
Ethan hesitated.
“Adrian Vale.”
Marcus stopped moving.
For several seconds, he said nothing.
Then he slowly put down his glass.
“Adrian Vale was your grandfather?”
Ethan leaned back.
“You know him?”
“I knew of him.”
“That sounds serious.”
“It was.”
Marcus looked toward the window.
“My father mentioned that name once.”
Ethan's attention sharpened.
“Your father?”
“Richard Reed.”
Ethan recognized the surname.
Reed Financial Group.
So Marcus wasn't just some random employee.
He was part of the family that owned the building.
Marcus continued.
“My father doesn't talk about the past very often. But I remember one thing he said.”
“What?”
Marcus looked directly at Ethan.
“Never do business with an Adrian Vale.”
Ethan's eyebrows rose.
“That's it?”
“That's it.”
“Why?”
“I don't know.”
The answer bothered Ethan more than it should have.
His grandfather had always been a quiet man.
He never talked about money.
Never talked about powerful people.
Never talked about his past.
Ethan had simply assumed there wasn't anything interesting to tell.
Maybe he had been wrong.
Very wrong.
His bracelet suddenly warmed against his wrist.
Ethan glanced down.
A faint blue message appeared.
[Hidden connection detected.]
[Marcus Reed's fate is connected to the Host's family.]
[Additional information unavailable.]
The message disappeared.
Ethan's expression remained calm.
Inside, his thoughts were racing.
Connected how?
And why had the system waited until now to tell him?
Marcus noticed his silence.
“You all right?”
Ethan looked up.
“Yeah.”
He forced a smile.
“Just thinking.”
“About your grandfather?”
“Among other things.”
Marcus nodded.
He didn't press.
That alone made Ethan trust him a little more.
---
After dinner, Marcus insisted on taking them home.
Ethan refused at first.
Then he remembered that his phone was dead, Lily had nowhere safe to sleep, and he was standing several kilometers from his apartment.
So he accepted.
Pride had limits.
Common sense had to win sometimes.
The black sedan stopped outside Ethan's apartment building.
Ethan stepped out and looked up at the old three-story building.
The paint was peeling.
One of the windows on the second floor was cracked.
It wasn't much.
But it was home.
Marcus stepped out behind him.
“You live here?”
“Unfortunately.”
Marcus looked at the building again.
“How much is your rent?”
Ethan laughed.
“You're not paying my rent.”
“I didn't say I was.”
“You were thinking it.”
Marcus smiled.
“Maybe.”
Ethan shook his head.
“I appreciate tonight. Seriously. But I don't need charity.”
Marcus's expression became more serious.
“Then don't treat it like charity.”
He reached into his wallet and handed Ethan a business card.
“Come to my office tomorrow morning.”
Ethan looked at the card.
“Why?”
“I might have a job for you.”
Ethan stared at him.
“A job?”
“You said you were unemployed.”
“I also said I don't need charity.”
“Good.”
Marcus smiled.
“Because I'm not offering charity.”
He opened the car door.
“I'm offering an opportunity.”
The word stayed in Ethan's mind.
Opportunity.
The same word the system had used.
Marcus drove away.
Ethan stood there for a moment.
Then he looked down at his wrist.
The bracelet was glowing again.
A message appeared.
[New Fate Opportunity discovered.]
[Marcus Reed has offered the Host an opportunity.]
[Accepting may significantly alter the Host's financial fate.]
Ethan stared.
A second message appeared.
[Warning.]
[Not every opportunity is worth accepting.]
Then everything disappeared.
Ethan looked at Marcus's business card.
For the first time that night, he smiled.
Tomorrow might be interesting.
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