ETHAN'S POV
The night air bit at my face as I stood at the edge of the parking structure, watching the city sprawl beneath me in golden flickers.
My phone buzzed in my pocket, but I ignored it for the moment. I needed this silence, the clarity it offered, even if fleeting.
Carl was real. The betrayal was real.
The files Ava had gathered, the patterns we traced, they all pointed to a deception too intricate to be a coincidence.
Whoever had orchestrated this wanted more than control. They wanted destruction.
And now, the person orchestrating this wasn't just a stranger.
It was someone who had once stood in the same boardroom, toasted to our victories, and looked me in the eye with a brotherly smile.
Carl.
I tightened my grip around the rail. My mind ran through every interaction we had over the years, every subtle hint I'd missed.
His absences. His deflections.
That smirk he wore when the board questioned our security.
