GABRIEL‘S POV
The Jakes ancestral estate sat on the highest jagged crest of the upper ridge terrace, a brutalist fortress of heavily reinforced dark mountain stone and towering sheets of tinted glass that split the sky. It was a structure engineered to project absolute, terrifying dominance over the surrounding peaks. From its high balconies, the entire mountain chasm was visible, sloping down into the jagged mist where the luxury terrace estates gradually bled into the vast, industrial darkness of the valley flats below. The estate’s boundary lines were fortified by advanced electronic grids, and every physical checkpoint was calibrated to ensure that the family’s privacy remained absolute, impenetrable, and entirely closed off to the lower tiers.
But as I stepped into the vaulted, echo
