Chapter 17
The Price of Cleanliness
Adrian realizes his dream of a clean empire is impossible. To dismantle the system, he must become a more ruthless version of the boss he despises.
The polished mahogany of his uncle’s desk felt alien beneath Adrian’s fingertips. It was a relic of a life lived in stark contrast to his own carefully curated existence. Elias Thorne, the forensic accountant, sat across from him, a man whose meticulous nature seemed as out of place in this room as a dandelion in a granite quarry. Thorne’s eyes, magnified by thick spectacles, darted between Adrian and the sheaf of papers splayed across the desk. The air in the study was thick with the scent of old leather and something else, something acrid and unsettling that Adrian couldn’t quite place. It was the smell of decay, he realized, the slow rot of a dynasty built on sinew and shadow.
“Mr. Vale,” Thorne began, his voice a reedy whisper, “I… I believe I’ve found something significant.”
Adrian inclined his head, his expression carefully neutral. He’d expected Thorne to find irregularities, minor discrepancies that could be smoothed over with a few discreet payments. He hadn’t anticipated this. Thorne’s discovery wasn’t a smudge; it was a gaping chasm, a testament to a corruption so pervasive it threatened to swallow the city whole.
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