Aiden Vale had always known how to disappear. He'd learned from the best or the worst, depending on how you looked at it.
Tonight, he sat on the roof of a run-down building two blocks from Ashford Tower, legs dangling over the edge, the city humming beneath him like a secret he hadn't decided whether to keep or expose.
In his hand, the burner phone buzzed again. E. Ashford. He didn't pick up.
Graham's voice echoed in his head. "You want justice, Aiden? Then burn down the house that silenced your father."
But justice wasn't supposed to taste like this metallic and bitter.
Liam had looked at him with eyes that weren't hollowed out by power. Vivian had spoken like someone who'd been broken and stitched herself back together. That mattered more than he wanted to admit.
He scrolled through the messages Graham had sent over the past week: codes, access, half-truths spun like silk. Then he opened a second file the one Charlotte's team had planted in the dummy contract.
The trap.
He wasn't the only one who'd been playing both sides.
Aiden clenched the phone in his fist.
"I'm not your weapon," he muttered to the wind.
But if he walked away now, he'd never know the truth. About his father. About what Ashford buried.
And something told him… the real fire hadn't even started.
Aiden Vale didn't like being followed. But tonight, he let it happen.
He walked the narrow alley behind the café, hands in his pockets, pace slow. The footsteps behind him tried to match his rhythm subtle, but not invisible. Amateurs. Or a warning.
He turned the corner and paused by a rusted fire escape. Listened.
No voice. Just breathing. Controlled.
"If this is how you greet allies," he said aloud, "you've got trust issues."
A man stepped out from the shadow. Not Graham. Not anyone from Ashford. Someone new. Younger. Eyes too sharp for his age.
"They're asking questions," the man said. "About your father."
Aiden's jaw clenched. "Let them."
"You're slipping."
"No," Aiden replied. "I'm deciding."
The man smirked. "You think Evelyn will just let you walk away?"
Aiden's reply came like ice. "I'm not walking. I'm burning the bridge."
The man vanished just as fast as he came.
But Aiden didn't move for a long time.
Somewhere inside, something was cracking.
And it didn't feel like revenge anymore.
Vivian leaned over the glass table in the strategy room, brow furrowed. "I don't trust it," she said. "He said he'd think about it. Then disappeared."
"He's not ready," Charlotte replied, typing rapidly on her tablet. "But he didn't slam the door either. That's something."
Liam paced behind them. "He's conflicted. That's leverage. We don't push. We let him come to us."
Vivian crossed her arms. "What if Evelyn reaches him first?"
Charlotte didn't look up. "She already has. But he hasn't followed through yet. He's teetering."
Vivian's voice dropped. "He's a time bomb."
"Then we build a cushion," Liam said. "Trap the fallout before it hits."
Charlotte glanced between them. "Speaking of fallout we have to talk about the leak."
"What leak?" Vivian asked sharply.
Charlotte sighed. "An old Ashford transaction. One we thought was buried. Someone dug it up. It's trending now. Framed to make it look like Liam falsified investor reports five years ago."
Vivian straightened. "It's a setup."
"Of course. But it's elegant. Subtle. And gaining traction."
Liam exhaled slowly, the weight settling over his shoulders again. "Evelyn's cutting the brakes before we hit the hill."
By morning, Ashford's public image had started to buckle.
The story exploded across investor blogs, then mainstream media.
'Ashford Industries Under Fire for Historical Financial Deception'
Liam and Charlotte stood in front of a live feed, watching analysts dissect his career in real-time. They didn't care about the facts. They cared about the scandal.
"They're going after trust," Charlotte said. "Evelyn wants you to lose the public before the boardroom."
"And if I fall," Liam said, "Vivian falls with me."
Charlotte didn't answer.
At that moment, Vivian was down the hall, fielding calls from legal and PR in turns. Her hands shook with every new headline.
Then her phone buzzed a private line.
Her aunt.
Vivian answered instantly.
"He's safe," her aunt said quickly. "But… something happened."
Vivian's breath hitched. "What?"
"There was a car. Parked for hours. Same one as before. This time, I think they were taking pictures."
Vivian's knees nearly gave.
"I'm bringing him in," she said. "We'll rotate again."
Her aunt hesitated. "Vivian… he's starting to ask if he's the reason you're scared."
Vivian closed her eyes.
"He's not. He's the reason I'm still standing."
That night, in a borrowed safehouse just outside the city, Vivian sat beside Daniel on a low bed. He clutched his stuffed otter, eyes too tired for his age.
"Why can't I go home?" he asked softly.
Vivian smoothed back his hair. "Because there are people who want to hurt the ones I love. And I won't let them."
His eyes welled. "Did I do something wrong?"
Vivian pulled him close. "No, baby. You didn't do anything wrong."
He sniffled into her shirt. "Then why am I hiding?"
She couldn't answer right away. Her throat wouldn't let her.
Instead, she whispered, "Because sometimes grown-ups don't play fair. But you? You're the bravest person I know."
He looked up at her. "Will you stay?"
Vivian nodded. "All night. I promise."
Outside, the city churned with noise. But inside that room, it was just a mother and her son. A moment of stillness in a world unraveling.
It was just past midnight when Charlotte's encrypted terminal lit up.
A single message.
FROM: AV
"If I talk… I want truth. All of it. Even if it burns."
Charlotte stared at the screen.
And then forwarded the message to Liam and Vivian without a word.
Because she knew what it meant.
Aiden Vale was stepping into the fire.
And the next move would either save Ashford…
Or finish burying it.