Chapter 36

• For several moments, an oppressive silence shrouded the cavernous office as the full, irrevocable implications settled in - Michael's final defiant severance from the withering branch of his grandfather's regime, and the cataclysmic upheaval now set into unrelenting motion as a result.
• It was Luca who finally broke the heavy pause, his gruff baritone slicing through the tension with its usual unvarnished bluntness. "You know what comes next, Michael. He won't stop - not until every slab has been upturned."
• Michael's flinty gaze remained fixed out the window at the glittering Westbrook skyline, though his focus had drifted somewhere far more remote and disquieting. A muscle thrummed in that chiseled jawline as he gave a fractional nod.