The truth is, Aaron and I go back further than Ethan.
In high school we'd both been at that so-called Iron Gate Academy up on the hill—a private boarding school for the elite. Military-grade security. Shuttles morning and night; they wouldn't let so much as a takeout bag through the gate. My parents sent me there to learn the family business.
But the tighter the cage, the more it choked me. I was a little wild, a little defiant. Sneaking off during morning workout for a coffee, hiding on the roof with comics during study hall.
Aaron, one class over, was famous for how little he talked. So quiet I sometimes wondered if he was real. No cliques, no student-council ambitions—in a place where everyone clawed and posed, he was a shadow that didn't fit.
And me? I liked poking at shadows.
One
