Chapter 4 - The Midnight Transfer
Before I could argue further, my phone buzzed loudly on the wooden bench.
I pulled it out of my pocket. It was a push notification from my banking app: Deposit Received — $5,000.00. Reference: E. Hale.
I gasped, looking up at him in sheer disbelief. “Ethan! You can’t just—that’s way too much! My rent is only eighteen hundred—”
*Consider it an advance on future translations,* Ethan signed, a mischievous, boyish smile breaking across his face for the first time. He quickly jotted down a string of numbers on a napkin and pressed it into my hand. My personal cell. If my father fires you tomorrow—which he will try—call me. I’m launching an independent tech accessibility startup next week. I need someone who actually understands how to communicate.
I stared at the napkin in my hand, then at the banking notification on my phone screen. The $1,800 eviction notice was covered, leaving enough to buy groceries, pay for my brother’s upcoming physical therapy session, and finally breathe without feeling like a heavy weight was crushing my chest.
“You’re crazy,” I whispered, though I couldn't stop the corners of my own mouth from curving upward.
*Maybe,* Ethan signed, tapping his temple with a grin. Or maybe I’m just finally waking up.
He turned, pulled the locker room door open, and slipped back out into the night, leaving me standing alone in the quiet room with my life completely altered in the span of a single evening.
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Little did I know, Ethan’s father was already sitting in the back of his bulletproof limousine parked outside the alley, watching his son get into a separate cab—and Christopher Hale was making a phone call that would change the stakes entirely.
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