Chapter 31

• The sterile scent of antiseptic clung to the air as I flipped through the stack of documents Max had handed me. Each line I read only deepened the weight pressing on my chest. Numbers, names, threats—every damn page carried another reminder of the bloody empire I’d built and the vultures circling, waiting for me to slip.
• A dull buzz rattled against the metal table. My phone. Again. The screen lit up, message after message flooding in like waves against a shore I didn’t want to face.
• Vanessa.