Chapter 143: Chapter 143: A Different Trend Line

The silence that settled over the penthouse after Mable Roys departed was different from the quiet Jake usually sought. It felt heavy, layered with the unspoken history of a decades-old blood feud and the scent of a trap neatly laid.

Jake remained motionless by the window, his eyes still fixed on the glass crown of Apex Plaza. Slowly, he shifted his focus, his gaze dropping back to the leather armchair where Mable had been sitting just moments before.

The memory of what he had seen right before she walked out lingered uncomfortably. For the first time since his eyes could see trend lines, the golden projection hadn’t behaved. Back when he saw Alice, Elias, or even Aliya’s which didn’t have a strong bullish power which he assumed was due to the car accident, there was still an upward-climbing bullish trend line which hovered above them—a straight indicator that their momentum was solid.

Her trend line line defied the mechanics. It wasn’t bullish, and it wasn’t bearish. It was a bizarre, unstable oscillation—a violent, horizontal frequency that compressed and expanded without ever establishing a clear direction. It vibrated with intense energy, yet it refused to declare a trend.

’What does a sideways market trend line mean for a human life?’ Jake’s brow furrowed, ’A flat line in the markets meant an explosion was brewing, heavily manipulated behind the scenes before a massive breakout. It must mean Mable is hiding something massive, making her a walking powder keg. She isn’t just adjusting her assets. She is a localized market anomaly.’

This realization made trusting her completely impossible. She had painted herself as a vengeful exile looking for a weapon to shatter her brother’s legacy, but she was holding back the true catalyst. A billion-mark discount wasn’t just a fee to buy an executioner; it was a premium paid to hide a much larger position. What else was she gaining from handing the physical data hub of the financial district to Aurelia Capitals?

"Elias," Jake said without turning around.

"Sir," the bodyguard replied, stepping out from the shadows of the foyer, his posture as rigid as a stone pillar.

"Keep a close watch on Metropolitan Asset’s filings tonight. If Mable moves so much as a single administrative shell company, I want to know about it."

"Understood."

He leaned back against the glass, letting out a slow, controlled breath. "It shouldn’t matter though. Whether she is using me as a shield or a trigger, Apex Plaza is now on my ledger. In his world, once the capital cleared, the intent of the seller becomes irrelevant. I will simply manage the risk as it materializes."

After a few minutes of cold calculation, the tension in his shoulders began to give way to a more human fatigue. He had extracted over twenty-one billion marks from the gold market and negotiated a multi-billion-mark property acquisition all before late afternoon.

He pulled his phone from his pocket. The digital screen illuminated his face, showing a few missed notifications, but he bypassed them and dialed a familiar, lovely person’s number.

The line rang twice. "Hey. I was wondering when the big tycoon would remember he has a girlfriend," Catharine’s voice came through, light and immediately breaking the tension in the room.

The hard edge of Jake’s expression softened. "It’s been a chaotic afternoon. Are you still at the office?"

"Just wrapping up the final invoices," she said, the faint sound of a stapler clicking audible over the line. "Are we still on for dinner? I’m starving, but full disclosure—I look like a mess. It’s been a long day."

"That’s no problem. I’ll pick you up in an hour," Jake said, grabbing his coat from the back of the leather chair. "We’ll head over to the Zenith together, get cleaned up, and then head out to that Italian place you wanted to try."

"Perfect. I’ll be waiting for you then."

Jake pocketed the phone and nodded to Elias. "Let’s move. We have a stop to make at my parents’ place first."

---

The Rivers family house was quiet when the black RS 6 pulled into the driveway. Leaving Elias by the vehicle to maintain perimeter security, Jake walked into the house and headed straight for the courtyard.

Aliya was propped up on the outside couch, a laptop resting on her knees. Her legs were crossed, a half-empty mug of tea sat on the side table, and she was aggressively typing away. Aside from a slight paleness from being discharged from the hospital that morning, she looked perfectly capable of causing trouble.

"Look what the storm blew in," Aliya drawled, not even glancing up from her screen as Jake entered. "The golden boy actually took a break from hoarding his secret inheritance to visit the sick."

"You’re supposed to be resting," Jake said, leaning against the doorframe with his arms crossed. "The doctors explicitly said no screens for forty-eight hours."

"The doctors don’t have to study for advanced macroeconomics," Aliya snapped, finally looking up with a sarcastic smirk. "Unlike you, some of us actually have to pass our exams when the second year starts next semester. I can’t just wake up one day, miraculously inherit billions of marks, and refuse to share a single cent with my favorite sibling."

Jake let out a dry chuckle. "If I gave you a single cent, you’d spend it all on designer shoes and overpriced coffee before the semester even kicked off."

"It’s called stimulating the economy, Jake. You should try it sometime instead of burying your money in a digital vault," she shot back, rolling her eyes.

Jake walked closer, his humor fading slightly as he looked at her face. "Jokes aside. How are you feeling? Seriously."

Aliya’s typing stopped. Her fingers hovered over the keyboard, her jaw tightening defensively. "I’m fine. I told Mom, I told Dad, and now I’m telling you. My vitals are normal."

"I heard about your visit to Carroll," Jake said, his voice dropping into a serious, level tone. "If you need to talk to someone... a professional counselor, completely confidential, I can arrange it. It’s not a sign of weakness."

Aliya stared at him for a long, dead-silent second. Then, a sharp, mocking laugh burst from her lips. She looked at him as if he had completely lost his mind.

"Counseling?" she asked, her voice dripping with pure incredulity. "What’s gotten into you all of a sudden? Why would I pay someone to sit in a room and ask me about my feelings? That’s stuff for weak people who can’t handle real life."

"Aliya—"

"No, spare me," she interrupted, slamming her laptop shut with a loud thud. She pointed a finger at him, her eyes flashing with a stubborn, defensive fire. "I’m about to go into my second year of university, and I don’t have time to sit on a couch and cry about things that are already over. The threat is gone. I’m fine. If you want to be useful, go buy me a car with that massive inheritance you’re hiding. I’m gonna need it since I lost the A4."

Jake watched her aggressive posture, realizing it was useless to push further. The sarcasm and the anger were her armor, the only way she knew how to claw her way back to normal.

"A car? Definitely not," Jake said, a faint smile returning to his face as he backed toward the exit. "I’m still crying for my beloved A4. What if I gave you another and this time you parked it in a trench or something?"

"Just get out," she tossed a couch pillow at him, which he easily dodged. "It’s not like you’d give me a small billion if I went."

Jake let out a low chuckle, turning back toward the door. "I’m leaving. I have a dinner arrangement to keep."

"Go," Aliya muttered, reopening her laptop screen before he had even crossed the threshold.

---

Twenty minutes later, the RS 6 pulled up to the front curb of Catharine’s office building. Elias opened the door from the front passenger seat, stepping out to scan the street before Catharine slipped into the back next to Jake.

"Hey," she breathed, immediately leaning over to kiss his cheek. She looked exhausted, but her eyes were bright. "You look like you’ve been fighting a war."

"Dealing with Aliya is always the same as fighting a world war." Jake said, wrapping an arm around her shoulders as the car pulled back into traffic, heading toward the residential core.

"You need to cut her some slack this time around. The poor girl has been through a lot recently." Catharine said as she laid her head on his shoulders.

"Don’t worry. She doing well considering everything."

The ride to the Zenith was smooth, with Elias maintaining a silent, watchful presence in the front.

When the private elevator opened directly into the foyer of the penthouse, Catharine let out a long sigh of relief, kicking off her heels. "Oh, thank god. I feel like I’ve been wearing those for a week."

"Go ahead and use the main master bath," Jake said, tossing his jacket onto the foyer bench. "Take your time. I’ll use the secondary suite to change."

"Don’t fall asleep in the shower," she called out over her shoulder, already walking down the grand hallway toward the master bedroom.

Jake watched her go, a genuine sense of peace settling over him for the first time all day. He turned to Elias, who stood near the entrance doors, adjusting his earpiece.

"Take some time off and recharge, Elias. We won’t be needing the car until 18:00."

"Understood, sir," Elias bowed slightly, stepping back into the elevator foyer as the doors slid shut.

Jake walked into the secondary bedroom, stripping off his shirt and turning on the shower. As the hot water began to steam up the glass, he caught his reflection in the mirror. The market was closed for the night, Mable Roys’ strange trend line was a problem for tomorrow, and the military old guard would have to wait. Tonight, he was just Jake going out for dinner with his girlfriend.

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