With Elara falling into public disgrace and private madness, the full, crushing weight of the disaster settled on Liam's shoulders. He was the head of the family now, the one supposed to be holding the crumbling pieces together. And he was failing. Spectacularly.I watched the change in him. The confident, impatient brother who had always had an answer, a plan, a command, became a haunted, hollowed-out man. The phone calls from the board became less sympathetic, more aggressive. Key business partners, "concerned about the negative publicity," started pulling out of deals. The word "liability" was whispered in meetings he no longer attended.He stopped sleeping. I'd see him pacing the halls long after midnight, a shadow in his own home, his footsteps echoing in the vast, empty space. Then, he found a solution. A temporary, destructive one. The locked liquor cabinet in our father's old study, once a display of expensive, untouched bottles, became his refuge. First, it was a glass of w
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