novelraw Chapter 383: The Collision of Worlds
Chapter 383: The Collision of Worlds
McKenzie scanned the room, his eyes lit with a greedy hunger. He turned to Chloe and her father with a dismissive wave. "Forgive me, I need to attend to some high-level business. The ’Big Fish’ have already arrived, and I cannot miss this opportunity," said McKenzie, his voice trembling slightly with a mix of excitement and nerves.
As McKenzie hurried off to network, Mr. Brooks led Chloe toward a seating area. His face was a mask of suppressed rage. "If your grandfather were well, they would never have dared to treat us with such blatant disrespect. To be sidelined like common merchants..."
Chloe didn’t respond. She simply lowered her head, her face an empty, emotionless void as she sat down, her hands folded tightly in her lap.
Ethan stared at her, his mind racing. Why is she here? What is happening to her family?
Before he could move toward her, a large group of men in expensive suits approached his table with practiced, subservient smiles. At the front of the pack was McKenzie, looking like a beggar who had just found a golden coin. I have bowed deeply.
"Great Leader of Royal! It is a profound honor," said McKenzie, his voice dripping with sycophancy. "I am the head of the McKenzie Group, the largest construction alliance in the country. We are beyond thrilled to be working under your banner. We’ve already coordinated with your representative, Miss Lena."
Ethan blinked, momentarily stunned. Crul’s voice echoed in his mind.
[Master, this is the construction conglomerate Lena vetted last week. They offered a 15% lower overhead than the nearest competitor and guaranteed a 24/7 labor rotation with a high-density logistics framework. Their structural integrity metrics for the new sectors are technically superior.]
Ethan nodded curtly, his eyes still darting toward Chloe. He wanted to brush them off, to get to her, but McKenzie wasn’t finished.
"I’ll only take a moment of your time, sir, but I simply must introduce you to my fiancée," said McKenzie. He turned and made a sharp, commanding gesture toward the seating area. "Chloe! Eat here!"
Chloe froze. Slowly, she stood up and began to walk toward the group. As she drew closer and realized exactly who McKenzie was talking to, her eyes met Ethan’s.
In that instant, a terrifying, suffocating wave of killing intent erupted from Ethan. The temperature in the room seemed to drop ten degrees. At the main table, Anne—the Crimson Matriarch—paused with her wine glass halfway to her lips. She turned her head, a predator’s smile spreading across her face.
"Who was the idiot that made the little demon angry?" Anne thought, her eyes shimmering with dark amusement. "It seems this meeting is finally going to get fun."
The atmosphere in the grand hall shifted from festive to funereal in an instant. McKenzie, oblivious to the predator standing before him, continued to preen, his hand reaching out to pull Chloe closer to his side.
"This is my fiancée, Chloe Brooks," said McKenzie, his voice filled with a shallow, possessive pride. "A beauty worthy of the future of the McKenzie-Royal alliance, don’t you think, sir?"
Chloe took a final step forward, and her breath hitched. Her world, which had been a gray blur of duty and despair for months, suddenly snapped into sharp, agonizing focus. Her eyes locked onto Ethan’s, and the confusion on her face began to melt into a look of pure, raw disbelief.
Behind her, Mr. Brooks froze in his tracks. He looked at the young man standing with the legendary "R" on his lapel, then back at his daughter’s trembling form. The realization hit him like a physical blow. This was him. This was the face his daughter traced on her phone screen every night until she fell asleep from exhaustion. This was the ghost she whispered to in the dark.
Mr. Brooks tried to step forward to intervene, but a wall of pure, concentrated killing intent slammed into his chest.
McKenzie and his young associates didn’t feel it; they were too green, too insulated by their wealth and boardrooms to recognize the scent of death. But Mr. Brooks was a veteran. Though he was only at the early stage of Organ Tempering, he had once followed his own father into a true clash of monsters. He knew what a real apex predator felt like.
The aura Ethan was emitting wasn’t just powerful—it was terrifyingly refined. If his father’s power had been like a turbulent, roaring river that crushed everything in its path, Ethan’s presence was like a vast, bottomless lake. It was unnervingly still on the surface, but the depth and density were so immense that they threatened to swallow the entire room whole.
Ethan didn’t speak. He didn’t even acknowledge McKenzie. His amethyst eyes were fixed solely on Chloe, burning with a cold, protective fire that made the surrounding air hum with static.
Beside him, Anne leaned back, her red-lipped smile widening as she watched the color drain from Mr. Brooks’ face.
"Ethan, darling," said Anne, her voice a silky contrast to the suffocating tension. "You’re scaring the poor veteran. And the little fiancé... he seems to be missing the fact that he’s standing in the middle of a graveyard."
McKenzie finally blinked, noticing the sudden, heavy silence and the way Mr. Brooks was sweating despite the air conditioning. "Is... is everything alright, Mr. Brooks? Sir?"
Ethan finally moved. He took a single step toward Chloe, the movement so smooth and predatory that the Falcons in front of him instinctively shifted to create a path.
"Chloe," said Ethan, his voice low and vibrating with a power that made the wine glasses on the nearby tables tremble. "Who is this man to you?"
Chloe opened her mouth, but no sound came out. She looked at her father, then at the arrogant McKenzie, and finally back to the man she thought she had lost forever.
Her breath came in ragged hitches, her hands trembling so violently that the small clutch she held nearly slipped to the floor.