The female doctor's back hit the edge of the couch.There was nowhere left to go.Her eyes were wide—wide with the kind of fear that bypasses thought entirely and goes straight to instinct, straight to survival. Her breath was coming in short, uneven bursts, and she pressed herself as far back as the cushion would allow, as though the furniture itself might somehow absorb her and carry her out of this moment.“What are you going to do?” she gasped. “What are you—stop. Stop. Please.”Her voice cracked on the last word.“I can fix this,” she said desperately, her words tumbling over each other. “I told you I can fix it. It was a misunderstanding. Just a small mistake. I can still—I can still make this right. Just give me a chance. Please. Please don't—”But Penelope's brother was not slowing down.Not even slightly.His footsteps were measured and even, his expression composed with a terrible kind of calm the calm of someone who had already made their decision and was simply executing

The male doctor bowed his head.Low and quick.“No problem,” he said. “No problem at all. I have heard everything clearly. I will do exactly as you said. Immediately.”Penelope's brother looked at him for one final moment the look of a man who does not trust easily and never fully, but who has decided that for now, this particular person will do what they are told.“No mistakes,” he said.His voice was quiet but absolute.“Not a single one.”He straightened.“The boss will not tolerate this dragging on any longer,” he said. “If names start spreading—if this becomes noise he is going to be extremely unhappy. And when he is unhappy, everyone around him suffers for it.”He held the doctor's gaze.“Do exactly what I said,” he repeated. “I will handle the rest.”The doctor bowed again, said nothing more, and that was enough.Penelope's brother turned and walked out of the VIP room without looking back.He moved through the corridor with purpose, his footsteps steady and even, his express

Not long after, Liam arrived home.The taxi pulled up to the curb in front of the modest house the one that had been standing there for as long as he could remember, the one that carried more weight in his chest than any building ever should.He paid the driver, stepped out onto the cracked pavement, and was about to close the door behind him when his phone vibrated.Twice, two distinct pulses, one right after the other.He paused, pulled the phone from his pocket, and glanced at the screen.Two messages, the first was from Penelope.He opened it immediately, her words were simple, direct, and warm:"Thank you for everything you did today. I mean it. Thank you."He read it once, then again, and something quiet settled in him—something that felt like recognition. Like being seen by someone who understood what had actually happened in that room and what it had cost him to stay calm through all of it.He would reply later, but for now, he let the message sit where it was and turned his a

The silence that followed the boyfriend's command was thick.Heavy.Every eye in that small stretch of street was fixed on Liam, waiting for the inevitable—for the moment his shoulders would drop, his knees would buckle, and he would fold the way people fold when the numbers are against them and the weapons are real and there is nowhere left to go.But Liam did not move, he stood exactly as he had been standing.His expression had not changed in any dramatic way—no theatrical defiance, no performance of bravery. Just the same quiet steadiness that had defined him all day, through every room and every confrontation and every person who had underestimated him.The boyfriend's eyes narrowed."Didn't you hear what I just said?"His voice had lost its pleasantness now—just slightly, just enough to show that beneath the relaxed exterior, something impatient was beginning to stir."I said get down on your knees," he repeated, slower this time, as though Liam might simply need the words arran

Immediately Liam smiled.It was small and unhurried—the smile of someone who has already decided how this ends and feels no need to rush toward it.“Does that even matter right now?” he said.His voice was calm. Almost conversational.“The battle line has been drawn,” he said simply. “What matters now is that you face the repercussion of crossing it.”At that moment the boss opened his mouth to respond—And then stopped.Because something had just happened that his eyes could not properly account for.The two men who had been standing closest to Liam—the same two who had pulled back half a step after watching their companion hit the ground were no longer standing.They were on the floor, both of them.Writhing.Nobody had seen Liam move. Not the boss. Not the girl. Not the remaining men watching from the edges of the confrontation. One moment the two men had been upright, and the next they were down, rolling against the pavement with the kind of pain that lives deep in the spine—the k