As they reached the entrance to the viewing room, one of Juliette’s cousins, a woman with hair the color of rusted iron and eyes full of venom, stepped into their path. She lacked Juliette’s restraint and the elders' caution; her chest heaved with suppressed rage at how the Moretti name had been handled all evening."You really think you can just walk in here and treat us like subjects in a deposition?" she hissed, her voice trembling. "After everything your family has done to the trade lines? After the way your husband has been hunting our kin?"She stepped closer, her face inches from Persis’s, ignoring the way Tedmond’s hand shifted toward his jacket."Tell me the truth, Damon," she spat, using Persis's maiden name like a slur. "Are you actually pissed? Or is this all just a performance for the man holding your leash?"Persis stopped. She didn't flinch, nor did she look to Tedmond for protection. She simply turned her head, locking onto the woman with a gaze of such cold, absolut

“They’re baiting you,” Persis whispered, pressing her shoulder into his to lend him her strength. “They want to see you break. They want the room to see the Washington lion lose his composure over a piece of iron.”Tedmond’s chest rose and fell in a slow, jagged rhythm. He scanned the room again. This time, he didn't see peers; he saw the hunger. The Van den Bergs were leaning forward, eyes wide and glassy. The Sokolovs were already huddled with their financial advisors.The Morettis had turned their trauma into a commodity, and they were inviting the world to bid on the wreckage.“Look at them,” Tedmond hissed. His voice was a low, guttural rasp that barely sounded human. “They’re sitting here like it’s a theater performance. They have his things, Persis. They have the tools he used to... to curate.”His hand trembled against hers for a fraction of a second before he forced it still. The tension in him was so volatile it felt as if the very air might ignite.“I’m not going to

In an instant, the ghostly silence of the house was replaced by the heavy, synchronized thud of boots. From behind silk tapestries and the dark corners of the gallery, a phalanx of men in matte-black tactical gear swarmed the exit. They moved with predatory efficiency, faces obscured by balaclavas, forming a human wall of carbon fiber and steel that blocked Tedmond and Persis’s path.“Return to your seats,” Lorenzo commanded, his voice shaking with a newfound, jagged authority. He stepped forward, his hawk-like face twisting into a mocking grin as he looked at the couple, then at the empty spaced them.“You came here alone, Tedmond,” Lorenzo sneered, finally dropping the 'Mr. Washington, as he gestured to the wall of guards. “You showed up with nothing but a gold-clad wife and a sense of entitlement. Did you really think we would let you insult the Moretti blood and walk out into the night?”One of the younger Moretti men stepped forward, leaning in with a chuckle. “Look at them.

A collective flinch rippled through the Moretti line.Lorenzo’s eyes darted to the floor; Marcella’s stoic mask finally fractured. Even Juliette looked away, the long cigarette holder trembling in her grip. They hadn't rehearsed a lie for this. They were staring at a man who had unearthed the one secret they couldn't bury with a checkbook.The reaction was momentary, a hairline crack in a dam before the flood of denial rushed back.Lorenzo recovered first. He smoothed his silvered hair with a hand that had found its way from shaking to a rigid, unnatural stillness."Delusional," Lorenzo breathed, the word escaping as a soft, pitying huff. He glanced at the other elders, a hollow, mocking chuckle passing between them. "Mr. Washington, I knew you were grieving a legacy you barely understood, but I didn't realize you had drifted so far from reality."He stepped forward, spreading his hands wide as if appealing to the very stones of the Atrium. "Think about what you are suggesting!

Lorenzo leaned in closer, his voice a frantic, wet wheeze. "We want to see the look on your face when you realize that Thomas wasn't the only one who watched your grandfather beg. We want to be the ones who finally put the Washington name in the sold column!"Tedmond didn't respond with anger. He didn't even stand up.Instead, he leaned back, closed his eyes for a brief second, and exhaled a long, weary sigh. It was the sound of a man who had finally heard enough."Unhinged," Tedmond murmured to the ceiling. "You’ve spent so much time in the dark that you’ve started eating your own lies."*****Three hundred yards away, the air inside the surveillance van vibrated with the hum of high-end servers. Albert sat with his headset pressed tight to his ears, fingers hovering over a glowing red override key. The audio from the necklace was coming through with crystal clarity; Lorenzo’s frantic ranting filled the monitors."He's lost it," Albert muttered, eyes tracking a cluster of green d