# CHAPTER 1 — THE PRICE OF A DYING EMPIRE
360 Words
The Avelin empire was dying.
The newspapers didn't know it yet.
The public didn't know it yet.
But Dorian Avelin knew.
Every morning brought new losses.
Every evening brought new debts.
The company that had taken decades to build was collapsing faster than he could save it.
Investors withdrew.
Partners vanished.
Banks stopped answering calls.
And for the first time in his life, Dorian Avelin was desperate.
That desperation led him to the Obsidian Court.
The most feared mafia organization in the country.
The kind of people respectable businessmen pretended didn't exist.
Until they needed them.
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The meeting lasted less than an hour.
Dorian sat across from men who looked completely unimpressed by his reputation.
"You are requesting a considerable investment," one of them said.
"I only need time," Dorian replied.
"You have already run out of time."
Silence followed.
Dorian swallowed.
"My company can recover."
"No."
The answer came immediately.
Cold.
Certain.
Final.
"You have nothing left that guarantees repayment."
Dorian's jaw tightened.
"What do you want, then?"
The room fell silent.
Then a voice spoke through the speakerphone placed at the center of the table.
A voice calm enough to be terrifying.
"If you want our support," the man said, "you will provide collateral."
Dorian frowned.
"What collateral?"
A brief pause.
Then:
"One of your children."
The room became impossibly quiet.
Dorian froze.
The voice continued.
"We are searching for a suitable bride."
Dorian's thoughts immediately turned to his daughters.
Carly.
Lily.
His real heirs.
His beloved children.
Not once did he think about Haru.
Not until opportunity appeared.
Slowly.
Cruelly.
Perfectly.
"I have two daughters," Dorian said.
The Obsidian Court accepted.
The contract was drafted.
The terms were agreed upon.
And when the final document arrived—
Dorian smiled.
Because the mafia didn't know his daughters.
They didn't know their names.
They didn't know what they looked like.
They only knew he would provide a child.
So when the time came to write the name—
he wrote:
Haru Avelin.
Not Carly.
Not Lily.
Haru.
The son nobody wanted.
The son nobody would miss.
The ink dried.
The contract was sealed.
And Dorian never looked back.
- Writer
