Father:
While you’re at it, I want the head of security at my bank erased. By midday.
I stare at the screen, my grip tightening until my knuckles ache. For a split second, I’m not sure if the phone will survive my hold.
Behind me, Jaxon exhales slowly. He’s close enough to read it over my shoulder.
“Fuck,” he mutters, flicking the cigarette away and crushing it beneath his boot. “We knew he’d be pissed.” He looks at me, eyes sharp now. “What’s the move?”
I don’t answer right away.
Because there are too many truths colliding in my chest at once.
“He threatened Emmy,” I say finally, the words tasting like rust. “If this doesn’t get handled.”
Jaxon stills completely.
“And now,” I continue, voice low and controlled, “we’re supposed to make a man disappear to cover somethingweset in motion.”
Jaxon’s hand lands briefly on my shoulder, not comfort, just grounding. “We don’t have to end him,” he says quietly. “We just have to remove him from the board. From here.”
I nod once.
Outwardly calm.
Inside, I’m tearing myself apart.
Because I don’t want blood on my hands for a mess I started. And I don’t want my father realising I hesitated.
If he does,
The first place he’ll look isn’t me.
It’s her.
Little Heaven.
The thought alone is enough to harden something cold and final in my chest. I swing my leg over the bike, jaw clenched, the engine roaring to life beneath me.
There is no version of this where I walk away clean.
There is only the version where I move faster than my father,
or the one where Emmy pays for my failure.
And I will not let the world take her because I wasn’t ruthless enough to protect what I chose.
There is no plan.
There never is when it comes to my father.
Just a name. A location. And a man who doesn’t deserve to be standing at the centre of my storm.
Every mile we put between ourselves and the estate, the weight in my chest grows heavier. Every time I consider finishing this the way my father expects, her face intrudes, uninvited, relentless. Not pleading. Not stopping me.
Justthere.
It doesn’t absolve me. I know that. I’ve ended lives before and slept through the aftermath. But now, now that she chose me, knowing I wasn’t clean or safe or good, the guilt settles differently. Deeper. Like something has finally grown roots where there was only rot before.
