"I know." Dorian set the plastic bag down on the chair on the other side, then knelt in front of his wife, at the same level, not above her. Like someone who had long since learned that talking down to a person who's suffering never gets you what you want."You think I'm not worried about Mara?" His voice didn't rise, didn't push. "But you're sick too. And if you don't eat, you're only going to get worse." His hand gently touched her back. "Eat. Not for yourself. For Mara. She needs her mom here, strong enough to be here."Norman watched the man from where he stood.The face of the Dorian he had once known. Calm to the core, with a calm that didn't come from nothing happening, but from so much having happened that there was nothing left that could make his face change dramatically anymore. And now that face held an exhaustion Norman had never seen on it before.Not just physical exhaustion.The exhaustion of someone who had worked every gap of time he had. One job, then another, anyth

The Calloway name opened doors that didn't open for just anyone.One call from Norman to the right number, and in under fifteen minutes, Corholt General Premier had set up something that had never existed in anything Dorian had experienced before.A special suite on the sixth floor. Not ordinary rooms, but two adjoining rooms with walls already fitted with vital-sign monitors linked directly to the nurses' station on the same floor. Beds already adjusted, equipment that didn't need to be hunted down in some storage closet because it was already right where it should be, and air that somehow felt different from the public hospital they'd just left behind.Five specialists.Not five doctors called in one after another, but five present at the same time across those two rooms, each of them having already read the medical records sent over from the previous hospital during the ambulance ride, each of them already knowing what they were dealing with before the patients even arrived.A pulm

Then the seventeen men knelt, almost in unison.Not a move drilled to look dramatic, but a habit of men who had worked a long time for someone whose position never needed explaining twice."We're ready to carry out any order you give, Mr. Calloway."Charles looked at them for a moment.Then he turned to Norman.And something moved behind his eyes. Not approval, not yet, but something closer to an opportunity that had opened up from a situation he hadn't planned for tonight."You want me to test this man?" His voice dropped to a tone that wasn't questioning anymore, just confirming. "Fine." One small nod. "Let's see how well your claims about him hold up."His eyes shifted to Dorian."Pick three of them." The way he said it already carried a conclusion he didn't think needed saying out loud, that three was more than enough to prove whether someone was worth it or not. "Beat all three, and I'll consider letting you stand at Lily's side."Dorian didn't answer right away.His eyes moved t

Meanwhile, Charles's eyes never left Dorian. They followed every move the man made, the way someone who'd spent long enough in a business world that wasn't always clean knew that real power didn't always show on the outside, but when it did, there were certain signs that couldn't be faked.He doesn't block.That was the first thing Charles noticed.The men he'd seen fight before, in training, in situations he didn't always want but couldn't avoid, mostly fought in predictable ways: block, counter, back off, look for an opening.But Dorian didn't do any of that.He moved "with" the attacks, not against them. He used whatever came at him as part of what he sent back. And every touch, whether a grip, pressure, or a strike, came from a position that was already perfect before his target even realized which angle had opened up.Not raw strength.This was technique.The kind of technique that doesn't come from a year or two of training.Charles glanced at Norman.His son was standing by the

In Dorian's room.Warm water poured from the showerhead above Dorian's head.He stood under it without moving. Not because he was tired, but because there was something more comforting than tiredness in the way the water touched his back and ran down to the floor, carrying away everything that had been clinging to his body since before this night even began.But his mind didn't go quiet with him.Norman Calloway.Dorian closed his eyes for a moment.Even before the fight with those seventeen men, Norman Calloway had never been worried. Not calm in the way of someone hiding his worry, but genuinely unworried, in a way that could only come from someone who already knew the outcome before the process was over.Seventeen men.And Norman had stood by the wall with the look of someone waiting for confirmation of something he was already sure of.It was obvious. He knew what I'm really capable of.Dorian opened his eyes.But how?He'd never met Norman before. Not in any context. Not at the d