"This..."
Arthur Lynn stood frozen, his mouth agape. The sight before him defied all logic. The notorious Vance Family and the terrifying Thorne Family, lined up like disciplined schoolchildren, bowing at a perfect ninety-degree angle? It was surreal.
Martha Pierce and Caroline Lynn, still kneeling on the floor in anticipation of a beating, looked up with glazed eyes. Their brains couldn't process the data. They had expected baseball bats and lawsuits. Instead, they were getting... deference?
Only Conrad Stone remained seated, calmly sipping a cup of tea he had poured for himself, watching the spectacle with the detached amusement of a director watching a play he wrote.
The bow lasted for a full two minutes. It was an eternity of silence.
Finally, Marcus Vance and Silas Thorne straigh
