The city had always been a battleground—a place where dreams were buried beneath the weight of ambition, where the desperate fought tooth and nail for a glimpse of power. The rich grew richer while the poor clawed for scraps left behind. But for Robert James, the real fight had always been the race against the clock.
He'd never been a patient man, yet science had beaten patience into him, grinding his temper until it was smooth enough to withstand failure. Even so, he found himself adrift whenever everything he'd built threatened to crumble.
He'd always known his path would demand more from him than it would from others. With limited resources and a background far from privilege, he'd accepted that he'd need to work twice as hard to earn half as much. What he hadn't realized was how much it would take from him.
Whenever he was home, the weight of his absence pressed down on everyone in the house. The missed dinners, the broken promises—they were shattering his family piece by piece. He told himself he'd fix things "when he had time," but lately, he'd started to wonder how much time he had left before the glass shattered beyond repair.
Years of sleepless nights and relentless experiments had led to this moment, yet none of his victories felt like triumphs. The world applauded his accomplishments, but what did applause mean to a man whose family was slipping away? Every breakthrough pulled him further from them, every success a temporary escape from the quiet ache of guilt.
He was on the verge of something monumental. His latest project was his greatest—an advancement so profound it could reshape human history. But Robert couldn't shake the feeling that in reaching for greatness, he was losing everything that made him human. He was becoming what he had once despised in so many of his peers—hollow.
Then there was Derrick—slick-talking, charming, dangerous Derrick. Every time Robert saw him, he felt disgust, anger, and a strange familiarity—like staring at a reflection of every compromise he'd ever made. Derrick didn't deserve to be in his life, but like the viper he was, he slithered in anyway. Sometimes people closed their eyes to what they knew just to taste what it felt like on the other side of failure. But what no one told Robert James was that every shortcut—every bad deal—comes at a cost.
Derrick had appeared out of nowhere, a ghost from Robert's past—a reminder of the man he'd tried to bury in the ashes of old mistakes. A wolf among sheep, skilled at twisting weakness into leverage, he knew exactly how to play on Robert's ambition. When he laid the offer before him, it was impossible to ignore: funding for his research—enough to push his work beyond imagination and finally live out the dream his family had placed on his shoulders since childhood.
Robert hesitated. He told himself it was temporary, just to keep the lab running. But deep down, he knew exactly what he was doing. Deals with men like Derrick were never clean—they were traps made of promises.
Now, standing on the edge of success and ruin, Robert realized he'd gambled everything for the illusion of control.
He stared at the gleaming trophy in his hands—the symbol of his sacrifice—and felt the old ache return. As he looked at his distorted reflection in the trophy's golden surface, he wondered if it had been worth it. His family had stood by him through every storm, but how long before they turned away, tired of the man he'd become?
And when the truth surfaced—when Gabriel learned what his father had done—would it destroy them?
The answers were coming, and fast