“Building an empire,” he continues as if I hadn't spoken. “You inherited more than money, Alexander. You inherited power. The kind that shapes cities, countries.”
I think about the price of that power. The hollow childhood, the mother who chose wine over intervention, the father who sees people as chess pieces. I think about Brianna, who played the game so well that I almost believed she loved me until the truth came out. Everyone wants something from the Hammond name. No one wants me.
“I don't want it.”
“Want is irrelevant.” Victor's voice drops to that particular register that makes board members sweat. “You are a Hammond. That comes with obligations.”
Helena tries to mediate, reaching for her glass with shaking hands. “Maybe we can all agree to?—”
“Helena.” Victor's voice is silk over a knife edge. “Leave it.”
She shrinks back. I hate him for making her small. I hate her for allowing it. I hate myself for not being able to stop it without becoming him.
The silence stretches taut. I sip my espresso, tasting nothing but bitterness. I watch them through the screen like specimens in an expensive terrarium. My parents are reduced to pixels and disappointment.
Victor leans toward the camera, and I see myself in twenty years if I let him win. Cold, isolated, measuring everyone's worth in market value. “If you won't participate, at least stay out of the way. Your little environmental campaigns are drawing the wrong kind of attention.”
“You mean the legal kind?”
His jaw ticks, the only sign I've landed a hit. “Your company has no value to me.”
I meet his digital gaze with years of repressed rage. “That isn't what you said six months ago when you tried to buy us out. Or when you destroyed Rhodes Industries to make a point.”
“Business is business.” He shrugs like he didn't destroy my grandmother's legacy because I dared to use her name. “When you're done with your tantrum, we'll talk.”
He walks away without a goodbye. Helena lingers. Her eyes are glassy with wine and regret. “You know I only want you to be happy,” she whispers.
“I know you want to want that,” I say, and her flinch tells me I've hit the truth. I sigh. “Maybe we can do lunch? Just us?”
Her eyes widen with genuine surprise, a hurt that cuts deeper than her neglect. “That would be... yes. I'll have Charles coordinate with your assistant.”
She reaches for the laptop and pauses. “Your grandmother would be proud of you.”
She closes the connection and leaves me staring at my reflection in the black screen. I look like both of them and neither of them. I am caught between two legacies I never asked for.
The phone buzzeswith a calendar alert. ELK all-hands in five. I roll my shoulders and feel the pull of the fabric against the healing scar on my chest. All the darkness of a few months ago is still with me, hidden like everything else that is real about me.
I head to the workspace I share with the only real family I've ever had. I carry my father's threats and my mother's weakness like shrapnel.
Logan is already at the main table, sleeves rolled and shoulder-length hair askew, barely covering the birthmark onhis temple, scanning a digital overlay of schematics. He looks up and grins when he spots me.
“Hey, Kai. How did it go with the she-devil?”
I punch him on the shoulder. “She's my mother, asshole. My father, however, is still lying about taking over Rhodes Industries.”
Ethan is at the end of the table, face half-buried in his laptop. His fingers move at a speed that borders on violence. “If you'd given us five more minutes, we might have uncovered who's been feeding Hammond intel about us.”
“Only five minutes to track down another spy,” Logan chimes in, reclining in his chair. “Maybe you should ask Maddox to sniff them out.”
Ethan finally looks up, his expression unimpressed. “Who do you think flagged the problem in the first place?”
I lean against the table and cross my arms. “Focus on reinforcing our security measures instead of playing detective.”
Ethan smirks. “Just think of it as multitasking.”
I drop into my seat and tap the tablet to bring up the agenda. “Where are we?”
Logan sweeps his hands across the blueprints. “Ravenwood. Since Hammond's merger swallowed every independent energy provider in the region, that whole community has been bleeding. Schools can't keep the lights on past five, families are rationing electricity. We're building them a clean energy grid, and if the pilot works, we can scale it across three districts.”
