Later that day, after Kevin had spent hours quietly turning things over in his mind, something clicked into place that made his entire body go still.He remembered the car wash. He remembered the black car that had pulled up in front of him weeks ago, how he’d assumed without thinking that it was Camilla coming to pick him up, how he’d climbed inside without hesitation only to find a strange man waiting for him instead. He remembered the fight that followed, the way he’d left that man bloodied and broken on the side of the road before finding his own way home.He had never told Camilla about it. At the time it had felt like a minor inconvenience, something he’d handled on his own, nothing worth burdening her with when she’d already been dealing with so much stress from the drugging incident at the event and everything with Alan and Ivy. He remembered brushing it off, cleaning his own wounds quietly, telling her a half truth about running into some trouble that wasn’t fully explained.

Fenris arrived at the mansion within twenty minutes of receiving Marco’s call, his expression already carrying a mixture of confusion and unease the moment he stepped into the study and saw the look on his boss’s face.“Boss, what’s going on? You sounded strange on the phone,” Fenris said, closing the door carefully behind him.Marco gestured for him to sit down, though he himself remained standing, pacing slowly behind his desk as he tried to organize his thoughts properly before speaking. “I received a call earlier. From the Lion.”Fenris’s eyes widened immediately at the name, his entire posture shifting from casual confusion into something far more alert. “The Lion called you directly? Boss, that man doesn’t personally call anyone unless something extremely serious is happening.”“I’m aware of that,” Marco said, his voice tight with frustration. “He said someone under his protection was harmed because of us and something one of my men did, and he demanded I figure out exactly who

The sirens grew louder with every passing second, and within moments the flashing red and blue lights of approaching police vehicles could be seen cutting through the darkness at the edge of the warehouse district.“Boss, we have to leave now!” Fenris shouted over the continuing chaos of gunfire, grabbing Marco roughly by the arm and pulling him toward one of the parked vehicles that hadn’t yet been hit.Marco stumbled along beside him, his mind still reeling from the violence that had erupted so suddenly, bullets still whizzing past them from both directions as the remaining men on both sides scrambled for whatever cover they could find. He caught glimpses of bodies on the ground as they ran, some of his own men, some belonging to the Lion’s side, all of it blurring together into a horrifying mess he couldn’t fully process in the moment.They reached the car and Fenris shoved him inside before diving into the driver’s seat himself, tires screeching against the pavement as he floored

Alan stood in the kitchen that evening staring at the ingredients spread out across the counter, feeling a strange mixture of nervousness and determination settling over him as he began preparing dinner for the first time in longer than he could properly remember.He had grown tired of the distance stretching between himself and Ivy, tired of the clipped conversations and the way she barely looked at him anymore when they passed each other in the hallway. Every time he thought back to the night he’d slapped her, a knot of guilt twisted uncomfortably in his stomach, and no matter how many times he told himself the stress of everything had simply pushed him past his breaking point, he couldn’t fully remove the memory of her stunned expression in that moment.He hated it and berated himself for attempting that. He clearly made her feel insecure about being with him. The last thing he wanted her thinking was that Kevin was better than him in any way. He wasn’t a man who apologized easily

Alan sat alone in his study that evening, his laptop open in front of him though he’d stopped actually reading anything on the screen several minutes ago, his mind instead consumed entirely by the images still burned into his memory from Camilla’s marriage announcement.Every single comment praising Kevin, every single article calling their love story beautiful and inspiring, felt like another small blade twisting deeper into wounds that had never properly healed since his brother had first returned into his life months ago.He thought about their grandfather, about the way the old man had reacted to news of the sex scandal, the disappointment and disgust so evident in his voice during that phone call. He wondered now whether his grandfather had seen this latest announcement about Kevin’s marriage, whether the old man was sitting somewhere right now comparing his two grandsons and finding Alan lacking in every possible way.The thought made his stomach twist with a familiar, bitter re