Chapter 106 Vengeance, Not Choice

• "You want to know how I landed here?" His voice scraped like broken glass, a raw blend of whiskey-soaked memories and bone-deep exhaustion. "This wasn't some goddamn choice. This was pure, raw survival."
• Maria remained silent, her posture rigid yet attentive. The church's guttering candle threw shadows across her face, transforming her from a hardened cop to something more—a listener, a potential ally.
• Mason's narrative began to unfurl, each word carefully selected, like a street veteran hustler revealing his most guarded secrets. "Before Olivia. Before this whole damn empire, I was just another South Side kid trying to dodge the knockout punch life kept throwing. St. Catherine's Orphanage? That wasn't just some building. That was a war zone where survival was the only currency that meant anything."