Chapter 36
Remy found himself thinking about how surreal his life had become.
It was hard to believe that six months ago, he'd been planning his suicide.
But now he was eating bacon and eggs with three beautiful women while watching a billionaire get arrested based on evidence they'd helped gather.
"What happens now?" Lyra asked, eventually, voicing the question they were all thinking.
"The Parstons are done. Your transformation is complete, from victim to victor, from powerless to powerful.
You've accumulated enough wealth to never work again. You've helped all of us escape our various traps. What's the next chapter?"
Remy was quiet for a long moment, his golden eyes distant as he considered futures.
Not the Foresight that showed him stock prices and federal raids, but the longer-term vision of what kind of life he wanted to build.
"I want to finish college," he said finally. "Actually learn things, not just grind for grades.
I want to help you three achieve your goals, Lyra rebuilding her family's empire, Nyx pursuing knowledge freely, and Indigo creating meaningful art.
And I want to figure out how to use this gift for more than just making money and destroying enemies."
"Saving people," Silas's voice echoed, though only Remy could hear him.
The ghost appeared near the window, his translucent form outlined in the morning light.
"You saved Indigo from that car. You saved the Castellanes from bankruptcy.
You saved Nyx from her parents' crushing expectations. You saved yourself from suicide.
That's a good start, but it's still reactive. It's still you responding to crises.
Real power comes from being proactive. Building systems that prevent crises before they happen."
"What are you thinking?" Nyx asked, noticing the distant look in Remy's eyes that meant he was either using Foresight or listening to his ghostly advisor.
"I'm thinking we should start a company," Remy said slowly, the idea crystallizing as he spoke.
"Not just buying into existing businesses, but creating something new.
A venture capital firm that invests in ethical companies, using Foresight to identify innovations before they become obvious and builds wealth while actually making the world better."
"That's ambitious," Lyra said, but her silver eyes were bright with interest. "How would it work?"
"You'd run the real estate division," Remy said, gesturing to her.
"Take your family's business and expand it beyond what they imagined. But do it right.
Through affordable housing, sustainable development, communities that actually serve people instead of just extracting wealth."
He turned to Nyx. "You'd lead our technology and innovation department.
Use your intelligence to identify breakthrough companies, provide capital and mentorship, and help brilliant people who don't have access to traditional funding."
"And I'd be what, the face of the company?" Indigo asked, a slight edge in her voice, old insecurity surfacing.
"The pretty girl you use for marketing?"
"No," Remy said firmly. "You'd be our ethics officer.
The person who asks the hard questions about every potential investment,
Stuff like, is this actually making the world better? Are we exploiting anyone? Does this align with our values?
Your gift isn't just beauty, Indigo. It's seeing through bullshit.
You spent years performing, which means you're an expert at recognizing when others are performing. That's invaluable."
Indigo's eyes went wide, then filled with tears. "You actually see me. Not the model, not the face, not the body. You see the person underneath."
"I see all of you," Remy said quietly. "Lyra's strength under the boss lady exterior.
Nyx's passion under the analytical precision.
Indigo's depth under the beautiful surface. That's why this could work.
We're not just a romantic relationship. We're a team with complementary skills."
"Beaumont Ventures," Lyra said suddenly. "That's what we call it. Your name, because you're the one with Foresight. But all of us are equal partners."
"Equal partners who happen to be in a polyamorous relationship," Nyx added with a slight smile.
"That's going to be interesting for the business press."
"Let them talk," Remy said. "The old guard already thinks we're weird.
Might as well lean into it. Build something so successful they can't ignore us, even if they don't understand us."
His phone buzzed, a news alert. He glanced at it and smiled. "Thomas Parston's net worth just dropped by $200 million as investors dump his company's stock.
The market's processing is what happened faster than I expected."
"And your net worth?" Lyra asked with a knowing smile.
"Up $37 million as of this morning," Remy admitted. "I bought short positions on Parston stock yesterday.
When you can see the future, it's hard not to profit from it."
"See, this is what concerns me ethically," Indigo said. "You're using divine gifts to profit from someone else's downfall. Is that really okay?"
"It would be wasteful not to," Remy countered. "The downfall was going to happen either way.
Thomas Parston chose his own destruction. All I did was position myself to benefit from the inevitable consequences of his choices.
And now I have $37 million more to invest in companies that actually help people."
"Ends justifying means," Nyx observed. "Classic ethical dilemma. I can see both sides."
"Which is why we need you three," Remy said.
"To question me. Challenge me. Make sure I don't turn into another Thomas Parston, so focused on accumulating power that I lose sight of why I wanted it in the first place."
The TV in the background continued its coverage, but they'd stopped paying attention.
Instead, they were sketching out the future on napkins, organizational charts, investment philosophies, and plans for something that didn't exist yet but could change everything.
"This is insane," Lyra said, but she was smiling as she drew connections between departments.
"We're twenty years old. We have no business experience. We're in a relationship that most people think is scandalous at best.
And we're planning to build a venture capital empire that challenges how wealth and power work."
"Insane is good," Indigo said. "Insane got us here. Being Insane saved us all. Why stop now?"
"Because insane only works if you're competent," Nyx cautioned.
"We need to actually learn things. Get real experience. Build credibility. We can't just rely on Remy's Foresight and assume we'll succeed."
"Agreed," Remy said. "Which is why we finish college.
Why we spend the next two years learning, building connections, and making smaller investments to prove our model works. And then..."
His eyes glowed gold briefly as Foresight activated. "...and then, in exactly Twenty-seven months, there's going to be a crash in the cryptocurrency market that most people won't see coming.
But I will. And we'll be positioned to buy assets at 10% of their value, then ride them back up as the market recovers. That's when we go from wealthy college students to serious players."
"Twenty-seven months," Lyra repeated. "That's specific."
"I can see twenty-four hours ahead clearly," Remy explained.
"But sometimes can also see patterns, trends, the setup for major events further out.
The crypto crash is building now, regulations, environmental concerns, and a specific CEO's scandal that hasn't broken yet.
All the pieces are in place. It's just a matter of time."
"And we'll be ready," Nyx said, her analytical mind already working through the implications.
"We spend these twenty-seven months preparing, learning, building our team. And when the crash comes, we execute perfectly."
"Exactly," Remy confirmed.
They worked through breakfast and into the afternoon, their plans growing more detailed and ambitious.
By 4:00 PM, they had the outline of a company that would invest in clean energy, affordable housing, ethical technology, and breakthrough medical research.
A company that would use Foresight to identify opportunities before they were obvious but would filter every decision through a values framework that prioritized positive impact over maximum profit.
It was idealistic. It was ambitious. It was probably impossible.
But six months ago, Remy's transformation had been impossible, too.
As the sun began to set, painting the warehouse apartment in shades of gold and yellow, Remy looked at the three women who'd somehow become his partners in every sense, romantic, business, life.
They were sprawled around the living room now, Lyra, on the couch sketching real estate concepts, Nyx at her laptop building financial models, Indigo at the window watching the city and thinking about ethics
"Thank you," he said quietly.
All three looked up.
"For what?" Lyra asked.
"For choosing this," Remy said. "For choosing us.
For believing that something unconventional could work. For being willing to build something impossible together."
"You saved us," Indigo said simply. "All of us, in different ways. This is just us returning the favour. Helping you build something worth saving yourself for."
"Plus," Nyx added with a slight smile, "it's statistically proven that diverse teams with complementary skills outperform homogeneous teams in complex problem-solving scenarios.
We're basically optimizing for success through our relationship."
"Only you could make romance sound like a business strategy," Lyra laughed.
"I contain multitudes," Nyx replied primly.
They worked until late into the night, ordering pizza for dinner, making more coffee, filling notebooks with plans and ideas, and the architecture of a future that didn't exist yet but would soon.
And in the invisible realm, Silas watched his great-great-grandnephew building something beautiful from the ashes of despair and felt peace.
The boy who'd stood on a chair with a rope had become a man building an empire.
The victims were becoming victors.
The broken were becoming healers.
And somewhere, a goddess who'd taken pity on a suicide in 1850 smiled, knowing that her gift had been used well.
The fall of Thomas Parston was complete.
But the rise of something better had only just begun.