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Father gestures at the chair in front of him. “Sit, Adam.”
Moving to the chair, I check to make sure there isn’t a plastic tarp underneath it.
Chuckling quietly at me, Father knows what I’ve done but doesn’t speak of it.
He can’t blame me for my thoroughness. All the men in the inner circle know a plastic tarp under their chair is a bad way to start a meeting.
“How are things, Adam?” Father asks me.
“Good, sir,” I reply. “I’m fully on track to graduate from high school within the year. I should be ready to start UGC right after my sixteenth birthday. Lodestone Aggregate LLC has begun to turn a higher profit. With the removal of its former HR manager, we no longer have phantom workers clocking in.”
“Good. That was an unfortunate bit of business,” Father says and leans back in his chair to study me.
What is he looking at?
He’s always testing those around him, always trying to read into their minds like some physic fucking alien. But why is he trying that annoying inspection trick he likes to use on those who work for him on me?
If I wasn’t so tired, I might actually give a shit about whatever he needs to find in me.
“Unfortunate but necessary,” I say, and my mind flitters back to the splatter of blood directly behind a man’s head.
The red, white, and gray clashing obscenely with the baby blue paint on the walls.
A pistol in my hand, a tiny trail of smoke coming up from the barrel. Files splayed across a desk and the sickly-sweet smell of burnt copper in the air.
Jude stood in the corner of the office, a melancholy smile flitting across his lips.
Father wasn’t there, nor was his Spider.
Lodestone Aggregate is my company, after all, and any issues that come up must be dealt with by me alone. Father was not exactly happy with that statement when I explained why I had Jude assisting me in disposing of the body. But I’m of the firm belief that it’s better to give my reasons after the deed has already been done.
Kenneth was the head of Human Resources and Project Management. His mistakes reflected directly on me, and that was not something I could allow. To show weakness is a sin in this world.
When I discovered Kenneth’s embezzlement scheme, I went to the only person I could.
Jude may be my father’s man, but he’s my godfather, and most importantly my friend. Jude understands the world as I understand it. He sees the infection that seeps into the seams. He knows that the only true way to fix everything would be to burn it all to ashes and leave it to rot.
He also knows of the cravings.
The urges.
The numbness.
The rage.
Jude saw them in me, and he knew what I needed.
He knows of the pressure that builds behind my eyes. The pressure that only finds relief when I can be my true self. The pressure caused by the screams begging to be let loose. They must be let loose. And some days, I can barely contain it. It builds and builds, right behind my eyes. Almost blinding in its intensity.
Father could perhaps understand if he didn’t have to pretend to Mother that I’m not the heir to the throne.
If not for Jude and my angel Abigail, I would be lost in a sea of darkness with no one to keep me afloat.
Abigail is like Jude in a way. She soothes my inner dragon, as she likes to call it. She sees into me like no other, and she understands on some level even if she doesn’t truly know why.
The gentle touch of her hand against mine... the brief smile when she thinks no one is looking. It’s always a small gesture, so small, and yet it stills all that screams inside me.
I kissed Abigail for the first time when I still had the blood of a traitor on my hands.
