CHAPTER 2 — FIVE MINUTES OF SILENCE
Matthew laughed once.
It sounded forced.
“You think I’m afraid of some rich old—”
“Sever NexusCore’s liquidity exposure,” my father interrupted.
A pause.
Somewhere far away, something began to move.
Not metaphorically.
Literally.
On screens in trading floors.
In compliance offices.
In banking dashboards.
“Execute all pending credit recalls,” my father continued. “And notify the board.”
Matthew’s expression shifted.
Just slightly.
But I saw it.
Because I had helped build that system once.
I knew what those words meant.
It wasn’t a threat.
It was an execution.
“You’re bluffing,” Matthew said, but his voice had lost its stability.
My father didn’t respond to him.
Only to me.
“Are you safe?”
I looked at Matthew.
The cane hung loosely in his hand now.
Not raised.
Not certain.
“I will be,” I said.
That was enough.
“Five minutes,” my father said. “Stay on the line.”
The call ended.
Or rather—
The world began to move without it.
Matthew’s phone vibrated.
Once.
Twice.
Then continuously.
He answered.
His face went pale in real time.
“No… no, that’s not possible—who authorized that—”
Silence on the other end.
Then panic.
Then shouting.
He dropped the phone.
It cracked against the marble.
I watched him as something I had once loved disintegrated in slow motion.
“What did you do?” he whispered.
I stood up.
Not fully steady.
But standing.
“You did this,” I said.
The sirens outside began five minutes later.
Red and blue light washed over the glass walls of the penthouse, turning everything—orchids, blood, marble—into shifting color.
Matthew didn’t move when they entered.
He didn’t resist.
May you like
Because by then, there was nothing left to defend.
Only consequences.
