Sharon heard it from Zion's mouth.
Victor Langley was dead.
The café noise blurred into something distant, the scrape of chairs, the hiss of the coffee machine, the low murmur of conversations that suddenly felt inappropriate. That was the first time she went outside the apartment and she didn't feel welcome by the public.
Zion didn't soften it. He didn't dramatize it either. He just said it once, flat and heavy, like a fact already sinking its claws into the city.
Sharon stared at him for a second too long.
Then she looked down at her hands.
"So it finally happened," she said quietly.
Zion watched her closely. "You okay?"
She nodded once, but it was slow. Not convincing. Victor Langley had been many things, cold, distant, untouchable but he had also been the axis around which Aec's world spun. Sharon didn't need to ask what this meant. She already knew.
Power shifts never came gently.
"I heard Camila's already moving," Zion added. "Assets. Companies. Quiet takeovers."
