Bill's POV
Those years changed him.
Louis stopped fighting openly. He listened, nodded, obeyed—at least on the surface. He became what his father wanted everyone to see: quiet, cold, precise. But I knew better. I saw the way his hand trembled before he picked up a knife. I heard the way his breath caught whenever footsteps echoed down the hallway too loudly.
He was becoming a perfect heir to the Alvara name…
…but inside, he was still just a child trying not to break.
As he got older, his rebellions became different. Not loud. Not dramatic. Louis was too smart for that. Instead, he would delay an order by a few seconds longer than necessary. He would "misplace" important files. He would give the wrong report, just subtly enough to frustrate but not incriminate.
Small, quiet acts of defiance.
Like a trapped animal testing the bars of its cage.
