The city had reached its verdict without knowing the truth. Whoever had brought down the Greene family was untouchable. And anyone foolish enough to stand in their shadow would be next.Across the city, inside Mia and Alex's apartment, the evening had been quiet. Alex was sitting on the couch reading something on his phone. Mia was in the kitchen making tea, her movements slow and her mind clearly somewhere else. The swelling on her cheek had gone down slightly but the bruise had deepened into a dark shade of purple.A knock came at the door.Mia set down the kettle and walked over. When she opened it, her body went stiff.Her father stood in the hallway, his face tired and heavy with worry. Behind him, half hidden and clutching his arm, stood her mother. The woman looked like she had aged ten years in a single day. Her skin was pale, her eyes were swollen from crying, and her clothes were wrinkled as if she had been wearing them since yesterday.Mia's hand tightened on the doorframe.

"Stop lying." Mia's jaw tightened. "You put a blindfold on me. A blindfold. You made sure I could not see where we were going. You made sure Alex stayed behind at the apartment cleaning rooms. Every single step was calculated. So do not stand there and tell me you thought it was going to be a simple meeting.""I was scared, Mia!" Her mother's voice cracked and fresh tears rolled down her cheeks. "I was terrified of Tom. He called me and ordered me to bring you. I did not have a choice. If I refused, he would have cut us off completely. We would have nothing. No home. No status. No future.""And what about my future?" Mia took another step closer. Her eyes were burning but completely dry. "Did you think about that when you were tying that blindfold? Did you think about what Simone would do to me? Did you think about the fact that his grandfather slapped me so hard that I could taste blood? Or did none of that matter because Tom promised to give you back your precious seat at the family

Then Mia's father pushed his plate forward, stood up from the table, and walked out of the kitchen. He did not slam the door. He did not sigh dramatically. He simply walked into the guest room and closed the door behind him with a soft click.Mia finished her juice, placed the glass in the sink, and began rinsing the dishes. Her movements were calm and unhurried.Alex folded his napkin, placed it beside his plate, and stood up. He carried his dishes to the sink, set them down next to Mia's, and walked toward the living room. He picked up a book from the side table and sat down on the couch, opening it to a bookmarked page.Mia's mother stood in the middle of the kitchen. Alone. Her accusations echoing off the walls and bouncing back to her without finding a single target.She looked at the guest room door. Closed. She looked at Mia's back, turned toward the sink.She looked at Alex on the couch, reading as if the last five minutes had never happened.Her fists slowly unclenched. Her s

Alex watched them for a moment. Neither instructor noticed him.They moved on to the administrative wing. Through a half open door, Alex could see a senior employee leaning back in his chair with his feet on the desk, talking loudly into his phone about a poker game.Mia raised an eyebrow and glanced at Alex. His face was blank but his jaw was working slowly, grinding back and forth as he absorbed everything.As they rounded the corner near the break room, a group of four senior employees spotted them. The men were standing around a coffee machine, laughing about something. One of them, a tall man with a thick mustache named Douglas, elbowed the guy next to him and nodded toward Alex.Douglas looked Alex up and down and smirked. "Well, well. Look at this, boys. Another suit walking around pretending he knows what a fire hose looks like."The others chuckled.A shorter man with a shaved head named Gary tilted his coffee cup toward Jenkins. "Hey Jenkins, who is your new friend? Another

Russell's goatee trembled. He crossed his arms tighter as if that would protect him. "I have been with this organization for eleven years. You cannot come in here and accuse me of...""On four separate occasions in the last two months, you signed off on training sessions that never happened. You marked fifteen trainees as present for drills they did not attend. In exchange, those trainees paid you directly. Cash. Five hundred dollars per session." Alex pulled out another sheet. "We have security footage from cameras you apparently forgot existed in the east corridor. Would you like me to play the recordings for everyone here?"Russell's arms slowly uncrossed. His hands dropped to his sides and hung there uselessly. His jaw clenched and unclenched but nothing came out of his mouth.Peter stood at the side of the stage with his arms crossed and a grin stretching from ear to ear. He glanced at Jenkins, who stood beside him with a more restrained expression but whose eyes carried deep rel