Because I was looking at a man who had inherited every material thing his father had, and had never once, in his whole life, understood the single thing his father valued.

He genuinely could not comprehend it, even now, even cornered.

He thought loyalty was a thing you could buy back with triple wages.

He thought respect was a title you could hand out.

He had no idea, none at all, that the very thing he was now so desperate to purchase from me was the exact thing that could never, ever be for sale — and that his father had built this entire trust precisely to prove it.

Chapter 17 — Your Father Made His Choice