Dark Lord Seduction System: Taming Wives, Daughters, Aunts, and CEOs novel Chapter 306

Chapter 306: Lincoln Heights Gossips

Evening had draped Lincoln Heights in that lazy, sticky kind of calm like the neighborhood itself is exhaling. The usual crowd was assembled at Elm and Third like it was the town’s unofficial meeting of the bored and curious. Porches sagged under the weight of old men, kids were still running around pretending streetlights were lava, and everyone was somewhere between nosy and dangerously opinionated. 𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶

The folding chairs formed a crooked circle under the flickering streetlight, which probably doubled as some sort of unofficial haunted signal. Ray the taxi driver was doing his usual thing—gesturing while holding a coffee cup like it contained the meaning of life.

Tommy perched on the curb, laptop on knees, trying to look like a normal teenager who just happened to be casually hacking the social dynamics of the block. Inside, though? He was internally high-fiving himself—finally, an audience for his Vampire House theories.

"I’m telling you," Ray bellowed, voice bouncing off the cracked sidewalks, "two weeks. Two fucking weeks of trucks. Non-stop. Heading up to the Vampire Estate."

Tommy tilted his laptop to the side. ’This is my moment.’

"What kind of trucks?" asked one of the elderly ladies, leaning forward like she expected him to have diagrams and charts.

"All kinds," Ray said, waving his coffee cup like it was a conductor’s baton. "Quantum Tech logos, moving trucks, even some unmarked black ones. Whatever’s going up there? Big money. Or big blood. Could go either way."

Tommy’s ears perked. ’Blood. Nice.’

"Quantum Tech?" an older man muttered, scratching his beard. "Isn’t that the company all over the news? That fraud thing?"

’Bingo,’ Tommy thought, swiveling his laptop for dramatic flair. "Well, technically," he said, trying to sound like a casual genius instead of a freak on the curb, "I’ve been doing... observational research on the renovations."

Heads turned. Like, actual breaking news levels of attention.

"Research?" Ray’s grin was almost theatrical. "Kid, you got a theory?"

Tommy raised a finger like a professor about to drop knowledge bombs. "Absolutely. Based on my preliminary data, I propose two possibilities: one, we’re witnessing a high-tech vampire modernization project, or two, the mansion’s finally being turned into a haunted Airbnb for billionaires with trust issues."

Several chuckles, which Tommy counted as minor victories. He pressed on, voice dripping with faux gravitas.

"Think about it. Decades-old mansion, sudden massive renovation, cutting-edge tech, workers who appear out of nowhere and vanish like ghosts... Classic vampire modernization. Climate-controlled blood storage, automated garlic sensors, smart mirrors to reflect... eternal youth vibes."

"Vampire modernization?" a skeptical teen muttered, arms crossed like he was the panel judge at a teen debate show.

"Absolutely," Tommy said, nodding as if he’d just explained quantum mechanics in three sentences. "Drafty castles are so last millennium. Smart homes, AI butlers, self-cleaning coffins... the works."

The older folks were eating it up, nodding like Tommy was the keynote speaker at an Expo.

"Or," he continued, pacing his words like a street-corner professor, "it’s just a tech billionaire being secretly creepy. But honestly, where’s the fun in that explanation?"

Ray leaned closer, voice dropping to full gossip mode. "Speaking of rich people, did anyone notice the Carters moved out? Big fancy place, gates, the whole live-like-royalty package."

’Oh no, neighborhood drama incoming.’

"Linda Carter?" one of the old ladies perked up. "Nurse lady? Three kids?"

"That’s the one," Ray said, smug as if he’d just delivered a headline to the group’s collective consciousness.

"And didn’t some man visit them right before?" someone else chimed in.

A kid on a bike, maybe fourteen, piped up like the universe had just handed him a megaphone. "I saw him!"

The circle went quiet. The kid had a scoop.

"Saw who?" Ray asked.

"The man who visited the Carters," the kid said, chest puffed like he was auditioning for Best Kid in a Mystery Story. "Sterling. One of the Sterlings. You know—the hotel family."

"Sterling?" Mrs. Patterson practically spat her tea out. "The Sterling family? Fancy hotels?"

"Yeah! I recognized him from the news." His dad made him watch business channels with him - a torture really, but it finally paid off for something other than putting him go to sleep.

The kid grinned like a fool who’d finally gained a ticket to being the center of attention. "This Sterling guy was all over the news a few months ago. Something about establishing more chain boutique hotels in Boston. The press was talking about how he was using his share of money from some dead Sterling old man - his inheritance or whatever." The group was hanging on every word now.

"So this Sterling guy," the kid on the bike continued, grinning like he’d just discovered the world’s juiciest secret, "maybe he inherited a fortune and apparently decided some of it should go to the Carter family." His dad would probably have a stroke if he knew all those hours of forced business-channel torture were being used for neighborhood gossip instead of grooming a future CEO.

The group went quiet, like someone had just dropped a bomb in the middle of Lincoln Heights instead of Elm and Third Street.

"Or fear," Gutierrez suggested, stroking his chin. "Old rich men get scared. Legacy, taxes, family laws. Maybe he realized he needs those kids for... something."

"Oh, it gets worse," Pat said, leaning back like she was about to deliver the coup de grâce. "Linda’s mother told me the divorce wasn’t even finalized when she moved here. She was still married. He could’ve been paying support all along... just chose not to."

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