By morning, I stopped waiting for things to “settle.”
They wouldn’t.
Not with Mathew.
Not with his family.
Not with everything already in motion.
So I did the only thing that made sense—
I moved first.
---
Kinks didn’t waste time.
Her office was quiet, organized, and cold in a way that made you feel like mistakes didn’t survive in that space.
She didn’t even offer me a seat before she started.
“Tell me everything that changed since yesterday,” she said, flipping open a file.
I sat anyway.
“Mathew knows I’m serious,” I said. “And his mother called. She’s already threatening—just… indirectly.”
Kinks nodded like she expected it.
“Good,” she said.
I frowned. “Good?”
“Yes. It means they’re reacting. And when powerful people react early, they make mistakes.”
She pushed a docume
