Chapter 10
Spencer expected violence.
I gave him irrelevance.
No Moretti access.
No meetings.
No captains.
No estate.
No business conducted through my name.
He laughed when I told him.
“You think shutting a door changes what people believe?”
“No.”
I looked at him.
“It changes what you can exploit.”
He hated that.
Then he said:
“Meredith will come back.”
Maybe.
Not to me as fiancée.
But people repair strange things.
I did not decide her entire future.
Only mine.
Spencer leaned forward.
“You really think she acted because of me?”
“No.”
That surprised him.
“She acted because she chose to.”
His smile faded.
“You influenced her.”
“Yes.”
“You lied.”
“Yes.”
“You manipulated her fears.”
“Yes.”
I paused.
“And she still put the cup in Iris’s hands.”
Responsibility stays where action lives.
He had expected either complete blame or complete absolution.
He received neither.
Good.
Then I asked one final question.
“What was supposed to happen after the wedding?”
He smiled again.
“Eventually? You’d realize leadership is easier when other people handle the family.”
Translation:
I become symbol.
He becomes machinery.
Meredith becomes bridge.
A future Kline-Moretti child becomes leverage.
Iris becomes peripheral.
No murder needed.
Just erosion.
I stood.
“You misunderstood me.”
“What?”
“I don’t want leadership to be easier.”
He frowned.
“I want it to be mine while I’m responsible for it.”
That was the flaw in his entire plan.
He thought everyone secretly wanted less burden.
Sometimes true.
But giving up burden means giving up authority to whoever takes it.
I preferred tired honesty.
Spencer left.
No dramatic threat.
No final punch.
May you like
He had already lost the only thing he wanted.
Proximity.
