The world didn't explode.
That's what surprised Ethan most.
After his video, reporters camped outside both estates. Speculation ran wild on blogs and podcasts—Was Ethan suing the Neals? Would he disown the Blakes? Would a media empire rise from the ashes?
But Ethan ignored all of it.
He had more important work.
He'd started building his own company—CodeCore, a tech-for-good initiative aimed at giving underprivileged youth access to coding education. No shareholders. No pitch decks. Just laptops, servers, and a mission.
He didn't want to inherit empires.
He wanted to build something no one could steal.
He took coffee meetings with old friends. He met with mentors. He even took Russell's old code, buried in dusty hard drives, and reengineered it—not for profit, but as open-source software, credited under both their names: Blake & Neal.
It was the first time he saw Russell smile without drinking.
---
His relationship with the Neals was slower.
Miriam invited him to dinner once a week. They didn't talk about the past. Not yet. But she listened. Really listened.
Jonah offered to invest in CodeCore.
Ethan declined.
Instead, he said, "Be a mentor. Not a backer."
Jonah nodded. "I think that's who I always wanted to be."
---
And Diana?
She struggled the most. Ethan saw it in her eyes—the fear of being replaced. Of being forgotten.
One evening, as he left the lakehouse, she hugged him tighter than usual and whispered, "Even if you never call me Mom again… you'll always be my boy."
He didn't respond. But he didn't pull away either.
---
The world slowly adjusted to the new Ethan—not the heir, not the ghost child, but a young man who had taken back his name, his voice, and his path.
He wasn't trying to repair what had been broken.
He was building something stronger.
---
End of Chapter 9