A betrayal in the boardroom
The lights of glass buildings reflected the empire Adrian had once ruled over as the metropolitan skyline shimmered in the distance. From afar, the city still looked like a monument to inevitability—steel, ambition, and money fused into something eternal. Cross Industries had shaped this skyline in quiet, decisive ways: towers financed, deals brokered behind mirrored windows, futures altered by a single signature from Adrian’s hand. To the outside world, nothing seemed broken.
But Adrian knew better.
Fault lines ran deep beneath the polished surface, fractures hidden behind quarterly reports and carefully curated headlines. Empires did not collapse in a single moment. They rotted slowly, betrayed piece by piece by those who smiled while sharpening knives.
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