Chapter 33: Joe's World Revealed

The days after the door had been unlocked—and the moment the decision was made to lock it again—were a wary, mute détente. The air within the penthouse, once charged with unstated strategy and hidden tension, now vibrated with a new, uneasy vulnerability. Joe Brian walked his world with cautious steps, as if seeing it again through the eyes of Davidson's insight. The line of photographs, the map of revenge—the markings of his own fastidiously kept obsession—had shaken him to his very core.

He was less talkative. More reflective. The ruthless edge remained, the brilliant mind always calculating, but inward as well as outward now.

That one evening, instead of the nightcap and economic update, Brian stood by the window, watching the city lights ignite.

"It's not enough, is it?" he sighed, his tone low, more or less to himself.

Davidson put down his tablet. "What isn't?"

"All of this." Brian gestured loosely across the glinting skyline. "The view. The money. The power. It's a great distra