2025-04-17 19:11:33CHAPTER 3: Not Just a Nobody
The hospital room was so pristine, it almost felt fake.
White sheets. White walls. White light seeping in through floor-to-ceiling windows. Machines humming quietly, monitoring his pulse, oxygen, and God knows what else. The beeping was steady, almost hypnotic.
Rowan lay motionless in the adjustable bed, bandages wrapped tightly around his ribs. His lip was swollen, and his left eye still throbbed from the beating. The IV drip beside him was halfway done, its slow drip the only reminder that time was passing at all.
But what haunted him wasn’t the pain.
It was the silence.
He'd spent 23 years with the Coopers, 7 years in a house full of voices, judging, barking, belittling him and now, this hush felt strange. Too clean. Too calm.
He glanced at the ceiling, half expecting the system’s white interface to flash again. But it didn’t.
He blinked his eyes multiple times, but nothing appeared.
“Is there a way to put on this thing?”. He wondered to himself, still blinking eyes and then touching his face to see if there was an on button.
But nothing appeared.
The door opened with a soft click.
Conrad entered, looking like he stepped out of a secret agent film. Dark charcoal suit, leather gloves, expression unreadable. He held a tablet in one hand and a bottle of water in the other.
“You’re awake,” Conrad said, placing both items on the side table.
“No thanks to you,” Rowan muttered, wincing as he tried to sit up.
Conrad pulled the chair closer. “I didn’t beat you to a pulp, remember? I’m the one who pulled you out of the gutter.”
Rowan sighed. “Yeah. You and this mysterious system. How do they turn this thing on? Is there like an switch button”
Conrad just chuckled lightly.
“Speaking of,” Conrad said, tapping the tablet, “your vitals are stabilizing. System sync is now at 3.4%. Higher than expected. Welldone”
“I don’t even know what that means,” Rowan snapped. “You’re gonna have to stop speaking like I’m part of a sci-fi movie.”
Conrad smirked. “You kind of are.”
“Then explain.”
Conrad nodded slowly, leaning back in the chair. “You’re not just anyone, Rowan. You’re the biological son of Jonathan Stormont, the man who built Stormont Corp. The wealthiest man in America before he and your mother died... suddenly.”
Rowan blinked. “You’re saying... I’m the heir?”
“Not just the heir. The only rightful heir.”
Rowan stared at him. “Why didn’t anyone come for me all these years? Why was I left with the Coopers like some unwanted dog?”
“Because you weren’t just hidden... You were protected.”
“From what?”
“From who,” Conrad corrected. “But that’s not mine to tell.”
Rowan’s eyes narrowed. “Then whose is it?”
A new system alert pulsed softly in his vision.
‘Parental Archive: Locked
Memory Tier 1: Pending System Access Level 2Objective: Strengthen Sync to Unlock’“Oh its back” Staring amused at the hologram and then let out a sharp breath. “Figures.”
Then Conrad hesitated, like he was wrestling with something. “Rowan... There’s something else you need to know.”
Rowan glanced over. “What now?”
“You weren’t the only one hidden.”
The words hung in the air like a blade.
Rowan’s heart skipped.
“What does that mean?”
Conrad stood and walked over to the window, facing the city. “You have a twin.”
Rowan’s blood ran cold.
“A what?”
“A twin. Born seconds apart.”
Rowan sat up straighter, despite the pain gnawing at his side. “You’re serious? No, you're kidding me right?”
Conrad didn’t answer.
“ I have a twin?”
Rowan swung his legs off the bed. “Where is this person? What’s their name? Are they…are they alive? Is he male like me?. Or shit…” he ran his hand through his hair. “Is the person a woman?”
Conrad turned, slowly. “That... you’ll have to figure out yourself.”
“What? Why?”
“You heard me.”
Rowan blinked. “You’re telling me I have a twin, after twenty-three years, and now you’re telling me nothing else?”
Conrad folded his arms. “Some truths aren’t meant to be handed to you. They have to be earned. Especially this one.”
“Is it a woman or a man?”
Conrad didn’t flinch. “I can’t say.”
“Can’t or won’t?”
“Both.”
Rowan’s jaw clenched. His heart thudded in his ears.
‘System Update: Subject RST-002 Exists
Status: Active. Connection: Blocked. Access Level: Unknown.Note: Host must identify subject to unlock shared data.’“System says they’re alive,” Rowan murmured. “But blocked.”
Conrad nodded once. “Exactly.”
Rowan’s head spun.
A twin. Out there. Somewhere. With access to the same system. Or maybe a different one?
Were they rich? Dangerous? Did they even know he existed?
“How could I have a sibling and not remember?” Rowan whispered.
“Because memories were suppressed,” Conrad said softly. “Your parents took drastic measures before they died. You were separated and placed in different environments.”
“For protection.”
“For survival.”
Rowan fell back against the pillows, his mind in a thousand places.
He had a twin.
He didn’t know their name. Face. Voice.
Nothing.
And now his system was partially locked because of it.
Of them.
Access Limited Until Primary Block Is Removed.
Status: 25% System Lock.“So what now?” he asked quietly.
“Now,” Conrad said, picking up the tablet, “you dig. You observe. You infiltrate. And you reclaim.”
“And the money? The company?”
Conrad nodded. “Mostly yours already. Legally. But the system won’t release certain controls until the block is lifted.”
Rowan scoffed. “So I have everything. And yet... I have nothing.”
“Not nothing,” Conrad replied, a slight grin on his lips. “You have a storm coming. You have to claim your father’s company back”
Rowan stared at the ceiling.
This was a lot. A lot to process.
His thoughts returned to the Coopers.
The abuse. The humiliation.
***
FLASHBACK – THREE YEARS AGO
“Pick up your damn phone, Rowan!” Mrs. Cooper’s voice screeched through the hallway.
Rowan rushed out of the laundry room, a towel in one hand, baby formula in the other.
“I was changing Sofia, I’m sorry” he said, breathless.
“Excuses!” she spat. “You’re home all day, and the only thing you manage to do is burn dinner and let the baby cry.”
“I’m doing my best, Mother,” Rowan said through clenched teeth.
Mr. Cooper laughed from the living room. “Some man you are. Aurora married a nanny. And i’m not your damn mother, Idiot”
“She married a mistake,” Aurora added from the couch, not even glancing up from her phone.
Rowan turned away, back to the kitchen, back to the crying baby, back to the prison he called home.
Every single day...ever since he turned 20, this was his life.
****
PRESENT.
He shook the memory away, standing slowly.
His legs were sore but steady.
He walked to the window and stared out at the city lights.
This city didn’t know him yet.
But soon, it would.
He wasn’t just Rowan Cooper anymore.
He wasn’t their housemaid. Or their mistake. Or their doormat.
He was a Stormont.
A twin.
A system host.
And he was about to find out why everything had been taken from him.
Because now, it was his turn to take it all back.
The tablet on the table pinged.
‘Incoming Transmission: Encrypted Signal Detected.
Origin: Unknown. Tracing…Content Preview: "They found him. Begin extraction."Rowan turned sharply.
“What the hell was that?”
Conrad picked up the tablet, brows furrowed.
“That,” he said slowly, “is someone realizing you’re no longer asleep.”
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