I scanned the records slowly, the memory of the cold bus steps and the deep ache in my abdomen grounding me completely. When I looked back up at my father, there wasn’t a single trace of hesitation left in my eyes.

“Execute it, Dad.”

My father watched me closely. “Once the legal machinery starts rolling, there’s no option to halt the sequence.”

“I don’t want it halted,” I replied, dead calm. “I want one specific condition. When his entire empire collapses to the bedrock, I want to personally inform him that it wasn’t a matter of bad luck.

It was the exact price of a fifty-dollar bus ride.”

That very afternoon, inside the sleek glass offices of Vance Nexus in the Financial District, Dominic received his first systemic shock. A major venture fund abruptly pulled its Series B capitalization.