Rowan
The world stopped.
My photograph remained on every screen.
Every monitor.
Every display.
Every angle.
Everywhere I looked—
I saw myself.
A ten-year-old boy smiling beside the man I had called my father.
Beneath the image were the words I couldn't stop reading.
ASHFORD SUCCESSOR CANDIDATE #1
No.
No.
No.
This had to be fake.
A setup.
A lie.
A manipulation.
My pulse hammered violently.
The warehouse felt too small.
The air is too heavy.
The walls are too close.
Beside me, Lena stared at the screen in shock.
Kane looked ready to destroy every monitor in the building.
Claire looked sick.
Actually sick.
Like she already knew what this meant.
Then the voice returned.
Calm.
Patient.
Almost satisfied.
"You finally see it."
My fists clenched.
I wanted answers.
