Chapter 36

• There was no way to investigate the matter now. The people responsible had either been silenced or disappeared, slipping beyond reach like whispers in the wind.
• I clenched my fists, an old, familiar bitterness rising in my chest. My father and brothers had built our empire from the ground up, reclaiming what was rightfully ours with sweat, strategy, and sacrifice—only to have it torn away. And now, as I stood on the precipice of a new battle, I knew that if Vincent Sinclair succeeded, if he took back what my family had died for, it would finally bring meaning to their sacrifice.
• That first night back in my penthouse, sleep evaded me. Every time I closed my eyes, I saw them—my mother, my sister-in-law, my nieces and nephews—faces frozen in terror, caught in a nightmare that had become my reality. I woke in a cold sweat, my pulse erratic, my breath uneven. There was no solace in the silence, no comfort in knowing the past was over. Because the past never truly ended; it just disguised itself in the present, lurking in the shadows.