BOUND BY HIS TERMS

Hart'

ep that night

e figure in the background-my father. Younger, thinner, but unmistakably him. He was lean

n never

ld was being rewritten in invisible ink,

the street emptied. Not even when I turned off the lights to make my

ot with a walk. Not with a

g for the sun to feel warm again.

something for me," I said the

ven not had coffee. I still hate Jaxon Vale.

fath

le

e ag

. Of him. With J

use. This

u s

need to know everything. When.

a favor. Maybe

ut I w

slacks, a silk blouse sharp enough to cut glass, and heels that

plan

ault. Cold. Isolated. Designed for strategy, not conversatio

e in witho

d no

clipped goodbye, then l

ome to talk

, a warning without words.

His expression did not change. Bu

my fathe

ed evenly. "I

ok that comfortable wit

front of him. "He was pitching something to my fat

id

d. "You were what, nineteen? He

first concept sketches, those late-night conversations with my

you not

me of it. And because I did not thi

not your

ned. "I was pr

my designs for years. You positioned yourself to

did not wrest

k you calculated every an

d around the desk unti

he politics of Vale Industries. He had enemies. And friends who turned

face, looking

only s

oject Phoenix files," I

oward his assistant, who stood just out

m, alone with a tablet and a digital archive. E

es. Meeting transcripts. There's even an ear

all along,"

arting to think Jaxon Vale di

hter. "I think he wanted

And you just

air. The sky was bruised purple, and the air had t

one b

wn Nu

ed, then

oice. Cal

you want the whole truth about Project Phoenix, about your fa

are

e in Jaxon Vale. Before he

ne wen

dle of the sidewalk, phon

second time that

ife had ever be

at the contract again. That c

ment, profession

gned. Eva confirmed it was not in the copy we r

nd searched for meta

One day aft

by: Dia

ale. It was not Jaxon who change

g strings from b

t she tampered with the contract,

se...

Bryan

oodie and jeans, hair tied up beneath a cap. Eva sat

d exactly

oes. Sunglasses. Everything

eside me but never looking dire

iffe

spers in the industry. A rival of Jaxon's

ad information.

But he trusted the wrong people. People who

Jax

irst. Then a

ove

rom a board meeting. Seven years ago. Your father prese

you hel

use I want to take them down. And you?

that, my world

not just a des

to dismantli