Chapter 83: To City Hall

The morning sun cast long shadows across the concrete courtyard of the City Holding Facility.

Evren, Amber, and Director Mikay walked through the security doors of the administration wing. Mikay carried a slim leather briefcase under his arm, while Amber walked in silence, wearing a tailored navy suit and looking calm.

A guard led them down a secure hallway and unlocked the door to a private legal conference room.

"Fifteen minutes," the guard said, stepping aside.

Sitting at the center of the metal table was Garrett Sterling.

He was wearing a drab gray prisoner uniform with his wrists handcuffed to an iron ring bolted into the steel tabletop. It was just two days since he was apprehended but his hair was already looking unkempt, his face was pale and sunken, and dark circles shadowed his eyes.

When the door opened and Garrett saw Amber walk into the room, his shoulders flinched.

"Amber..." Garrett rasped, his voice trembling as he leaned forward as far as the chain allowed. "Niece... thank God you came."

Amber didn’t sit down.

She stood on the opposite side of the table, looking down at him in silence. Evren stood calmly beside her with his hands in his pockets, while Mikay set his briefcase on the table and opened the brass latches.

"Amber, please listen to me," Garrett pleaded. "I know you’re angry with me. I know I made terrible mistakes. But I’m your mother’s brother! We are the last of the Sterling bloodline!"

"You stopped being my mother’s brother the day you watched her die and thought only about what you could steal from her vault," Amber replied in a quiet, icy voice.

Garrett swallowed hard, sweating through his collar.

"You have Chairman Evren now," Garrett stammered, gesturing frantically with his cuffed hands. "Apex is becoming the most powerful force in the city! You don’t need the old Sterling foundries or the warehouse leases. Prescott is locked in a cell... you already won! Please, Amber... leave me something. Just a small monthly allowance, or a little house in Sector Four so I don’t rot away with nothing!"

Amber looked at him with a disgusted expression.

"When my spine was shattered and the doctors said I would never walk again, did you leave me an allowance?" Amber asked. "When you packed my clothes into black garbage bags and dumped me on Prescott, did you think about family?"

Garrett flinched as if struck across the face. His mouth opened, but no words came out.

"You took my mother’s heirloom tea set and tried to sell it to Prescott like cheap junk," Amber continued, looking directly into his eyes. "You don’t care about family, Garrett. You only care about yourself."

Mikay pulled a thick stack of legal documents from his briefcase and slid them across the steel table, placing a black ink pen beside Garrett’s trembling fingers.

"These are the emergency forfeiture and transfer deeds prepared by City Hall," Mikay stated in a formal tone. "By signing, you officially surrender all shares, real estate, foundries, commercial transport permits, and bank reserves belonging to the Sterling Guild to Vice-Chairman Amber Sterling. Permanently and unconditionally."

Garrett stared down at the documents, his breath coming in ragged gasps. "Everything...? If I sign this, I have nothing left in the world..."

"If you don’t sign it," Evren said in a flat, cold voice from beside Amber, "the State Prosecutor will add thirty years of commercial fraud to your terrorism indictment. You will never see daylight again."

Garrett looked up at Evren’s eyes. Seeing that there was zero mercy in this room, Garrett broke down completely.

Sobbing openly, he picked up the pen with shaking fingers. Page by page, his tears smeared across the paper as he scribbled his signature on every line.

When he finished the final document, a guard standing near the wall stepped forward. He placed a polished wooden box with brass corners on the table and opened the latch.

Resting inside on blue velvet was a heavy, square seal carved from dark green jade and capped with polished silver... the Sterling Ancestral Patriarch Seal.

Amber reached out and lifted the heavy seal into her hand.

The jade was cool against her palm. She looked at the engraved crest of her family... the crest her mother had defended with her life.

"My mother built this guild on honor and strength," Amber said softly, looking down at her weeping uncle. "You dragged our name through the dirt for thirty pieces of silver. From this day forward, the Sterling name is finished with you."

Without waiting for another word from him, Amber turned around.

"Let’s go," she said to Evren.

They walked out of the conference room as Garrett’s pathetic wailing echoed down the empty concrete corridor.

—

They stepped out through the main gates into the bright morning sunlight of the facility courtyard.

The cool autumn breeze blew gently, rustling the leaves of the trees outside the perimeter fence.

Amber stopped in the center of the courtyard. She held the jade seal tightly against her chest till her knuckles turned white. She stood there for a long moment, closing her eyes and taking a slow, deep breath.

Evren walked up beside her. "You okay?"

Amber opened her eyes and looked up at Evren. Tears of pure gratitude welled up in her eyes, glistening in the sunlight.

"A few weeks ago, I was a nobody, waiting for my body to give out," Amber’s voice shook. "I had no legs, no home, and no family left. Everyone looked at me like I was garbage."

She looked down at the seal in her hands, then back into Evren’s eyes.

"You bought me medicine. You healed me. You stood between me and every person who ever tried to hurt me. And today... you gave me back my mother’s honor and my family’s legacy."

A single tear slid down Amber’s cheek.

"You gave me everything, Evren," she whispered, stepping closer to him. "And you never once asked me for a single thing in return."

Amber reached out and wrapped her arms around Evren’s neck, burying her face against his chest. She held him tightly, her feelings for him going far beyond mere respect.

Evren smiled gently and wrapped his arms around her, holding her close. At that exact moment, a clear, resonant chime chimed inside Evren’s mind.

DING!

[HEROINE #1 (AMBER STERLING) — EMOTIONAL DEVOTION MILESTONE REACHED!]

[CURRENT DEVOTION LEVEL: 80%]

[REWARD 1: HEROINE #1 PERSONAL REBATE MULTIPLIER UPGRADED — 100x ➔ 200x PERMANENT REBATE ON ALL FUTURE INVESTMENTS IN AMBER STERLING!]

[REWARD 2: SPECIAL QUEST UNLOCKED — "HOUSEHOLD HARMONY (SOUL-CORE RESONANCE)"]

Condition: When both primary heroines (Amber Sterling and Zephyra Nightshade) achieve 80%+ Devotion and full harmony under the Host’s roof, the Global System Multiplier will permanently ascend to 1,000x!

Evren’s eyes widened slightly as he read the system prompt in his vision. A two-hundred-times rebate on Amber, and a clear path toward a staggering one-thousand-times global multiplier.

Evren gently ran his hand over Amber’s dark hair, letting her hold him until her breathing steadied.

"I promised you, Amber," Evren murmured softly. "As long as you’re with me, no one will ever look down on you again."

Amber stepped back slightly, wiping the tear from her cheek with a smile. "I know."

They walked toward the black armored car parked near the gate, where Mikay was waiting by the passenger door.

Just as Evren reached for the door handle, Mikay looked up from his phone screen. "Boss," he said in an urgent voice. "City Hall just made a major announcement."

Evren paused, looking at his director. "What is it?"

"With Lord Alistair in holding, the Prescott Clan’s private creditors panicked this morning," Mikay said, showing Evren the public document on his screen. "The High Court officially declared the Prescott Clan commercially bankrupt. Their entire industrial portfolio... the three heavy smelting foundries, the transport fleet, and the Sector Two deep-water shipping port is being liquidated at an emergency auction at City Hall today at noon."

Mikay swallowed, his eyes going wide.

"The opening reserve price is one billion dollars liquid cash on the spot," Mikay added. "Out-of-province merchant syndicates from Sector Five are already scrambling to wire funds. If anyone else buys that port, they’ll control all shipping in and out of the province."

Evren looked down at the official auction notice on the screen, a faint, cold smile spreading across his lips.

"One billion dollars in liquid cash?" Evren said calmly, opening the rear door for Amber. "Get in the car, Mikay. We’re going to City Hall."