ALAN POV
Sitting in our father’s office, I felt like I was suffocating. The weight of the room pressed down on me, the scent of leather and his cologne clinging to the air like a phantom. Alek sat across from me, his posture deceptively relaxed as he lounged in one of the armchairs. But I knew better. His fingers tapped an erratic rhythm on the desk, and his jaw was clenched tight. We were both hanging on by a thread.
The interrogation had given us something—finally. Rose had cracked under pressure, sobbing as she spilled her guts in the dungeons. She wasn’t much of a mastermind, just a pawn in Jennifer’s schemes. But even pawns could be dangerous if they were given the right tools.
“She said she used an altercation at a café to spill the liquid into Amber’s food,” I said, my voice
