Chapter 4

"Holy shit!" Cage screamed and jumped behind Charlie, grabbing onto his suit jacket with both hands, shaking like a leaf.

Charlie wasn't doing much better. He kept swallowing hard, his eyes locked on Sophia in the hospital bed.

How was this possible?

That drug dosage was enough to put a full-grown elephant down for good.

And this guy just touched her, and she woke up?

Charlie's face went pale with shock.

The security captain and the mercenaries standing by the door all sucked in a sharp breath. The way they looked at Noah had shifted from wariness to pure awe.

"He's actually got something going on," they murmured among themselves.

That light hadn't been some cheap trick, because Sophia really had woken up.

Seeing how things had turned, Charlie -- a seasoned player who'd spent years fighting in the cutthroat world of power and money -- took barely a second to force the fear off his face and replace it with pure joy.

"Oh, God! You've finally answered my prayers!" Charlie lunged forward like he was about to hug Noah.

If it weren't for the strange power Noah had just shown, he probably would have.

Then he burst into tears as he'd just lost his own father.

"Mr. Wilson! You're the savior of the Black family! I haven't slept in days worrying about Sophia's condition. I've been praying to God every single day -- I told Him I'd give up ten years of my life just to see her wake up! Thank you! I can't thank you enough!"

As he wiped his tears, Charlie sneaked a glance at Noah's expression.

Noah didn't even look at him.

Noah just pulled a tissue from the medical tray nearby and wiped his right hand, his whole manner completely detached, like no one in the room even existed.

Brian's accident, Sophia being forcibly cut off from her Metahuman Ability awakening -- Noah didn't believe for a second that Charlie had nothing to do with any of it.

He'd seen plenty of monsters like this wearing human faces in the underground world.

Getting no response, Charlie's smile froze at the corners of his mouth.

He knew that look in Noah's eyes all too well. It was the look of a top predator sizing up prey. He couldn't stay here and give Noah a chance to question him.

"Mr. Wilson, Sophia waking up is nothing short of a miracle! I'm overwhelmed -- I have to go tell the board and the rest of the family right now!"

Charlie didn't give Noah a chance to say a word. He spun around and grabbed Cage by the collar.

"Move! Come with me to share the good news! Security, everyone out -- don't disturb Sophia's rest!"

With that, Charlie dragged Cage and bolted out of the room.

The sound of rushing footsteps and a closing door faded away, and Sophia's room went quiet again, broken only by the steady beeping of the machines.

Noah walked to the bedside and looked at Sophia calmly.

Sophia weakly turned her head, her eyes slowly focusing on this stranger's face. Tears rolled down her pale cheeks and soaked into the pillow.

She never thought she'd open her eyes again. During those long years swallowed by darkness, she could even hear Charlie and his son saying cruel things at her bedside, while she couldn't move so much as a finger.

She had thought she'd rot in that bed like a hollow shell for the rest of her life.

But now she was alive -- and more than that, she could feel a warm energy flowing through her, healing her damaged nerves.

"I'm Noah Wilson, an old friend of your father's."

Noah pulled a chair over and sat down, his voice low and steady. "Brian left everything to me. From now on, I'm taking over the Black family's business."

Sophia's pupils shrank slightly, and her tears came faster.

She opened her mouth, and a hoarse, barely-there sound escaped her dry throat.

"Charlie..." She struggled to lift her hand, desperate to warn this man that Charlie was a monster who would chew you up and spit you out. He had to be careful.

But her body, just barely woken up, couldn't support any movement, and the crushing exhaustion made it impossible to get out a single complete sentence.

"Save your strength." Noah cut her off gently, reaching out to tuck the corner of her blanket in.

"I know exactly what Charlie is. Focus on getting better. I'll deal with the mess from here."

The absolute confidence in Noah's voice let Sophia's tightly wound nerves finally relax. She slowly closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep.

Meanwhile, down in the first-floor study of the Black Estate, Charlie kicked over the table in front of him, sending glass shattering across the floor.

"That bastard! How dare he!" Charlie's face twisted with rage and fury.

He'd just gotten a confidential email confirmation from his lawyer. Brian had actually transferred every single asset -- his estate, his trust funds, and the core shares of the company -- to Noah Wilson before he died.

All that scheming, and he hadn't swallowed the Black family's assets. Instead, some nobody who'd crawled out of god knows what gutter had taken everything.

"Dad, what do we do now? He even woke Sophia up! If she recovers, we're done!" Cage shrank into the corner of the sofa.

Just thinking about the power Noah had unleashed made his heart race.

"Stop panicking!" Charlie shot Cage a vicious glare, his eyes cold and calculating.

"So what if he got the inheritance? The entire board of Black Group is filled with my people! What makes some bottom-feeding nobody who doesn't know the rules think he can run our empire?"

Charlie walked straight to the desk, grabbed the encrypted phone, and quickly dialed several numbers.

Half an hour later, the special phone in Noah's pocket buzzed.

He pulled it out. The screen showed an unfamiliar internal company number.

"Mr. Wilson? Oh, thank God you picked up!"

When he answered, an extremely humble, almost tearful old voice came through the line.

Noah recognized it. Richard Smith, the chief executive director of Black Group -- a slippery old fox and one of Charlie's most loyal dogs.

"Talk," Noah said coldly. He had no interest in being polite to these people.

"Well, Mr. Wilson, we heard that Brian handed the company over to you. We should be throwing you a grand welcome, but... the company is facing a catastrophe!"

Richard's voice was full of desperation.

"A key shipment at our port in Mexico has been seized -- people and cargo both -- by a rival gang called the Blood Skull gang!"

"They're threatening to kill all our overseas employees within three days unless we hand over control of the port! The company's senior people are at a loss. Even the governor couldn't do anything!"

"Mr. Wilson, since Brian chose you as his successor, you must have extraordinary abilities! The lives of tens of thousands of employees are counting on you to step in and fix this!"

Noah listened to the over-the-top plea on the other end of the line and let out a cold laugh.

They were playing humble on the surface, but really, they were putting him on the spot.

The Blood Skull gang was the most brutal armed group on the US-Mexico border, armed with military surplus heavy weapons. The conflict between them and Black Group hadn't started yesterday -- it was a knot that had been tightening for years.

These old-timers couldn't solve it themselves, so they were deliberately dumping it on Noah the moment he took over.

If Noah couldn't handle it, he'd look like a useless fraud, and they'd have every excuse to push him out.

"Address," Noah said, crushing out his cigarette.

There was a clear pause on the other end, like they hadn't expected him to agree so quickly. Then they rattled off the address.

"Before midnight tomorrow," Noah said into the phone, "I'll have the Blood Skull gang's boss personally deliver the shipment to your office."

After he hung up, Richard burst out laughing. "Some wet-behind-the-ears kid thinks he can outplay us?"