In the bustling, high-stakes ecosystem of Crown City, social status was the only currency that truly mattered, and a university class reunion was nothing more than a formal audit of one’s net worth. As the alumni gathered in the marble-clad lobby of the grand hotel, the air was thick with the scent of artificial lilies and the suffocating tang of over-applied, expensive cologne. For most, this was a theater of pretension, a place to showcase promotions, new cars, and designer watches. For Ace Kane, however, it was a sudden plunge into a sea of cold indifference and sharp-tongued mockery.
Ace stood in the center of the lobby, his clothes slightly rumpled and dusted with a thin layer of grit from the afternoon’s chores at his new Duplex. To the casual observer, he looked entirely out of pla
