The voicemail turned out to be nothing, a wrong number from a Swiss pharmacy confirming a prescription refill for someone named Kellermann, close enough to his own name to explain the confusion but nothing more. Kellan listened to it twice, felt something loosen in his chest that he hadn't realized was still coiled tight with dread, and let it go. Whatever else remained unresolved about his family's history, that particular thread had simply run out, and for the first time in two exhausting weeks, he let himself feel relief instead of hunting for one more hidden layer beneath it."Nothing," he told Reginald, setting the phone down. "A wrong number. That's the end of it."Reginald studied him a moment, something like quiet approval in his tired expression. "Good," he said simply, and Kellan understood he meant it in more ways than one.By the following week, the frantic urgency of the previous days had finally begun to settle into something more sustainable, Meridian's dissolution proc

Kellan folded the note carefully, the warm ease of the evening now tempered by old, familiar caution, and slipped it into his jacket pocket before Sienna could ask what had pulled his expression tight again."Everything alright?" she asked anyway, catching the shift despite his effort to hide it."Someone's interested in a partnership," Kellan said, keeping his voice light even as unease coiled tighter in his chest. "Anonymous, for now. Probably nothing.""You don't sound like you believe that.""I don't," he admitted. "But I'm not going to let it ruin tonight. Not after everything it took to get here."The party wound down gently after that, guests drifting home in twos and threes, and Kellan found himself, near midnight, sitting alone with Reginald in the quiet study, the note spread between them on the desk."No signature, no letterhead, no return address," Reginald said, turning the paper over in his hands. "Whoever sent this wanted you to know they're watching, without revealing

Kellan let the phone ring twice before answering, steadying himself against the cold weight of suspicion sitting heavy in his chest."Marcus.""Kellan, thank God." Marcus's voice came through ragged, breathless, nothing in it resembling the careful, guarded tone of someone caught in a scheme. "Have you seen the news? The takeover attempt?""I've seen it," Kellan said carefully. "Reginald also tells me you requested access to the foundation's legal filings three weeks ago."A pause, brief but telling. "You think I'm involved in this.""I think the evidence points somewhere uncomfortable, and I need you to help me understand why," Kellan said, keeping his voice level despite the turmoil beneath it."I requested that access because I've been quietly building something," Marcus said, urgency replacing the earlier panic in his voice. "I wanted to prove I could contribute meaningfully instead of just apologizing for my father's sins forever. I've been studying the foundation's structure, tr