This Time, I Owe You Nothing

Claire’s eyes turned red. If people hadn’t held her back, she would have torn me apart. “You’re a stray dog who begs for scraps from my family, and you think you get to call me disgusting?” She looked at me no differently than she would a dog she could order around. After calming down a little, Claire gave me an icy stare. “Whoever fathered him, Jamie is my child. He’s a Bennett!” I pressed my lips together, unable to swallow the bitterness in my mouth. All I had to do was count backward from Jamie’s age to know when Claire had conceived him. This was our belated wedding ceremony. We had legally married five years earlier. That evening, Claire and I had invited our friends over to celebrate. Halfway through the party, I discovered the two of them having sex in the bedroom. Standing outside the door, I heard everything. I couldn’t bring myself to go in, but I didn’t dare walk away either. I was terrified someone would discover that my wife had cheated on me the day we got married. Only after the noises stopped did I push open the door. I still remembered Nathan resting his head on Claire’s shoulder as he humiliated me. “Isn’t this your husband?” Claire had wrapped herself in a sheet, leaving plenty of skin exposed. She didn’t even look at me before giving her order. “My clothes are torn. Go buy me something to wear.” I no longer remembered how I had bought those clothes and delivered them. I only remembered feeling as though my soul had left my body, taking every emotion with it. I had already repaid the Bennett family with my life. This time, I would live for myself. With the Bennett heiress backing him, Nathan put his arm around Claire and joined in. “Well, since it’s all out in the open, file for divorce and leave with nothing.” They played off each other perfectly. They wanted to kick me out of Northcrest without paying a cent. Inside, my anger was a volcano ready to erupt. My face stayed calm. “Leave with nothing?” “I can leave Northcrest. But I’m taking what belongs to me.” “Haven’t you always wanted control of the company? I’ll sell you my shares.” Claire’s eyes lit up. They had only hoped to force me out. Getting my shares too was an unexpected bonus. After all, once she had complete control, she could use her memories of our last life to make Northcrest thrive. I couldn’t read minds, but her expression told me enough. I laughed inwardly. Claire had badly miscalculated. In our last life, she had blamed Northcrest’s bankruptcy on my bad decisions. Failed bids, substandard building materials, a collapsed building—years of work destroyed overnight. She had never realized that the real cancer was standing right beside her. Once Nathan joined Northcrest, its shares would plummet. Eventually, they would be worthless. I was selling early so I could walk away with enough cash. Nathan looked thrilled. After whispering with Claire, he made up his mind. “Fine. But you’ll only get half their market value.” Even Mr. Bennett frowned at that. I walked over to Claire, drew her aside, and spoke into her ear. “You know exactly how much dirty business Northcrest has buried over the years. Unless you want us all to go down together, don’t haggle with me.” Suspicion filled her eyes. She was probably wondering whether I had been reborn too. But after studying me and finding nothing unusual, she snorted and agreed to my terms. “Take your money and get the hell away from us. I never want to see you again.” “Northcrest has barely stayed afloat all these years under you. Once Nathan takes over, he’ll make it an industry leader!” No matter when or where, Claire always had blind faith in Nathan. Yet she didn’t trust me at all, even though I had grown up with her too. She seemed to have forgotten that I had also been accepted into graduate school. I had abandoned my education because Northcrest was on the brink of bankruptcy. A weight settled over my chest, heavy enough to make it hard to breathe. I stared at Claire, searching her face for some trace of the girl I once knew. I was the one who had worked day and night. I had drunk myself into gastrointestinal bleeding at business dinners, landed in intensive care, and endured hospital stay after hospital stay. That was how I had dragged Northcrest back from bankruptcy. Yet with a few careless words, Claire could erase everything I had done. At last, I understood. Claire wasn’t incapable of love. She had simply never loved me. We signed the agreement right there. As I left, Jamie stood nearby and spat at me. “Useless loser! Ethan is a useless loser!” In my last life, years of trying to teach Jamie respect had accomplished nothing. He would only call me Ethan. Now I understood. The rotten blood in his veins had won out.

I never imagined it. The last time I visited Northcrest, I brought my divorce papers. Neither Claire nor Nathan was there. After the wedding, they had flown overseas for their honeymoon. Still, even in their absence, I heard their names all the way through the office. “Who exactly is this new vice president? He just got here, and he’s already changing our hours.” “All I know is, he doesn’t understand the first thing about this business. All he knows how to do is squeeze the employees.” Everywhere I went, people were complaining about their absurd new policies. I left the divorce papers on Claire’s desk. When I opened the door to leave, Ryan was waiting outside. Ryan was my assistant and the person I trusted most in the company. In my last life, he had vanished without explanation. It wasn’t until one of our buildings collapsed that I found his body. By then, the company’s use of substandard materials had been exposed. An influencer’s coverage sent the scandal viral. They pushed me out as their scapegoat. Buried under the public’s hatred, I had no way to investigate Ryan’s death. But now... “Ethan, look at this.” Ryan handed me his phone, showing me his messages with Nathan. After my departure, Ryan had been responsible for handing over my work. The screen was packed with work updates from Ryan. Nathan hadn’t answered a single one. “He won’t answer me, but he keeps posting vacation pictures on Snapchat.” “Are you really okay leaving the company to them? You poured your life into Northcrest.” I shrugged helplessly. “What can I do? I’ve already sold my shares. Northcrest has nothing to do with me anymore.” A knowing smile crossed Ryan’s face. He lowered his voice. “Other people might believe that, but I know you. You’ve already lined up your next move, haven’t you?” I gave him a mysterious smile instead of answering. Some plans worked best when kept quiet. Ridgeview Estates was the biggest residential development available in years, with seven phases in total. Northcrest couldn’t handle it alone. It had to split the project and the profits with Summit Construction. Summit had been Northcrest’s bitter rival ever since Mr. Bennett founded the company. And Ridgeview Estates was my ticket into Summit. I promised that within three months, I would get Northcrest to give up its share of the project. Summer was in full swing. By the time I reached the workers’ dormitory at the site, my clothes were soaked with sweat. During those three months, I kept visiting Northcrest’s section. I genuinely couldn’t remember when that worker’s accident had happened. In my last life, a worker had fallen into wet concrete and died. To avoid paying compensation, Nathan had covered it up. When the truth came out, he blamed me. I was forced to hold a press conference and apologize. I remembered that the worker had a daughter. She had fought tirelessly to uncover the truth about his death, gradually becoming an influencer and finally exposing what had happened with the public’s help. My inspections weren’t just about preventing his death. I also wanted to use his daughter’s influence to crush Claire and Nathan for good. But I didn’t know the exact date of the accident. “Ethan, what are you doing here?” After another fruitless visit, I was about to leave when a voice called down from above. I looked up. Jamie was balancing on his toes on a framework of steel rebar. It had only been a week since I last saw him. His clothes were torn and filthy, his face smeared with dirt. He looked like an abandoned child. I guessed Claire had been too busy taking Nathan overseas to bother with him. “What are you doing here? Why aren’t you in school?” Jamie curled his lip and looked down at me. “I’m Northcrest’s future heir. Why should I go to school with a bunch of poor kids?” “I knew I wasn’t your kid. Have you ever smelled yourself? You stink of poverty.” He pretended to gag. For a moment, I had no words. I couldn’t imagine what Claire had been teaching him to turn him into this. I shook my head, unwilling to say anything more. “Ethan, don’t leave. Stay and play with me.” Still giving orders. I started to walk away. Jamie screamed after me. “You’re the Bennett family’s servant! How dare you ignore me!” Furious, he bounced on the steel bars, oblivious to the danger. “Mom was right! You’re an ungrateful bastard with no parents!” The last word had barely left his mouth when I turned and saw his foot slip. He fell. A steel rod pierced his chest. Blood poured from the wound. Jamie reached toward me, his eyes filled with terror. “D-Dad, help me...” It was the first time he had ever called me Dad. But it was too late. I didn’t stop walking. I only called an ambulance and watched it take him away. That was the last kindness I owed him. As they lifted his stretcher into the ambulance, Jamie stared at me and murmured, “Why? Why didn’t you save me?” “You always used to warn me when something was dangerous. Why didn’t you this time...” For the first time, I saw panic in his eyes. He begged me to go to the hospital with him. I slowly peeled his fingers off my hand and smiled. “I’m not your dad. Ask your real father.”