The Drunken Sovereign The penthouse was as quiet as a grave. For three days, the massive doors had stayed locked. Inside, the air was thick with the smell of alcohol and the heavy silence of a man who didn't want to be found. Damien sat on the edge of a chair, his head hanging low. The room was pitch black, save for the tiny, blinking green light on a router in the corner. On the glass table in front of him sat that faded ultrasound picture. It looked like small, harmless things, but to Damien, they were bombs that had gone off in his hands. A key turned in the lock and the heavy front door swung open, hitting the wall with a dull thud. "Damien?" It was Amelia. Her voice was steady, but there was a hint of anger in it. She didn't wait for him to answer as she marched across the room, her heels clicking on the floor. Without a word, she reached out and gripped the edge of the heavy curtains, and with one violent tug, she ripped them open. The Sun brightened the room immediately,

Unmasked- Public ExecutionDamien's voice was quiet, but it filled the room.Daniel paused. And then raised his eyes to meet Damien's."Now? You don't want to wait for the lawyers to look at it?""No," Damien said, his eyes turning back to the TV. Nicholas was now talking about how Chloe was "wailing for mercy" while Damien laughed. "Upload it to the SRI main page. No caption. No fancy editing. Just the raw video. Let the world see exactly what a 'grieving father' Nicholas Pierce really is."Daniel didn't waste another second, he sat down and began typing fast. "It’s going up. Linking it to the show’s live feed... and... it’s live. The world is watching."Damien leaned forward, watching the TV. On the screen, the host's earpiece seemed to buzz. She blinked, her face changing from pity to confusion. She looked down at a tablet off-camera, then back at Nicholas."Mr. Pierce," the host said, her voice sounding different; cooler. "We are getting word of a video released by SRI. It’s t

Desperation Has A Face"Let’s talk about this instead."Chloe’s breath hitched. She looked at the box like it was a poisonous snake."I found your journal, Chloe," Damien said. "And the ultrasound from four years ago. The one you tried to hide under your scarves."Chloe began to shake, she reached out for the desk to steady herself. "That... that was nothing. It was just clumsy writing. I was a young girl and I was lonely. I was just making up stories because I missed you.""Making up stories?" Damien stepped around the desk, closing the distance between them. "You wrote about a 'little miracle.' You wrote about protecting a baby from Nicholas because he didn't want a 'bastard' around. That sounds very specific for a made-up story.""It was a mistake!" Chloe shouted, her voice high and panicked. "I lost that baby, Damien! It died right after you went to jail. The stress was too much. I just wrote those things because I was losing my mind."Damien looked deep into her eyes. He coul

The Su-Amelia ConnectionThe clock on the wall ticked softly, marking the hour past midnight. The rest of the SRI building was dark, but the lights in the main office were still burning. Papers were spread out across the large table, and the blue light from the monitors cast a glow over Amelia’s tired face.Damien sat across from her, rubbing his eyes, he had spent the last few hours looking into the bank records of the Su family. They were a maze of shell companies and hidden accounts, but Amelia was better at reading them than anyone else."Damien, look at this," Amelia said, her voice sounding small in the quiet room, and stood up, walked over to her side. He leaned over her shoulder, looking at the spreadsheet on her screen. "What am I looking at?""These payments," she said, pointing to a column of numbers. "Every month, for the last twenty years, the Vane Group, my father’s company, has been receiving 'service fees' from a private donor. But look at the source."Damien squint

Ticking ClockThe morning air inside the SRI building was still, Damien sat at his desk, his hands resting flat on the surface. The skin on his knuckles was red and slightly swollen, but the bleeding had stopped. He looked at the new monitors that had been installed just an hour ago. They were bright and clear, showing maps of the city and blinking lights that tracked every movement of the Pierce family.There was a light tap on the door and Daniel walked in, followed by five men. They were all dressed in dark, simple suits. These men were the leaders of the Vanguard, the security team only answered to Damien. They, they didn't look like soldiers; they looked like shadows."The team is ready," Daniel said, his voice low.Damien didn't act like he had heard Daniel's words. His gaze was cool, and still on the monitors. Still seated, he crossed his arms to his chest, and finally lifted his gaze at them. "I have two locations. A motel on the edge of town and an apartment near the cente