He said nothing.
“It didn’t.”
“Sloan.”
“You weren’t tricked into becoming cruel.”
“I was raised by her.”
“So?”
He inhaled sharply.
“She manipulated me.”
“Yes.”
“She controlled everything.”
“Yes.”
“You don’t understand.”
I looked at the scar healing near my wrist.
“No, Flynn.
You don’t understand.”
My voice remained calm.
“Your mother may explain why you learned cruelty.
She does not explain why you enjoyed mine.
”
He stopped crying.
“I never enjoyed—”
“You smiled when I signed the house away.”
Silence.
There are silences that answer everything.
I continued.
“The night she pushed me, you had a choice.”
“Sloan…”
“You had thousands of choices before that night.”
My voice broke for the first time.
“You chose wrong every single time.”
I ended the call.
He never called again.
Vale Holdings collapsed four months later.
The covenant liabilities froze several development projects.
Then the historical fraud claims arrived.
