He did not own the company.

He was simply the man who decided whether the banks kept the oxygen flowing.

It was, Adele thought when she understood it, an almost surgical kind of power — quieter and more absolute than ownership.

Leopold had spent his career believing that the man who held the title held the company.

Bram had spent his understanding that the man who held the debt held the man who held the title.

Chapter 14 — Not to Destroy — to Save