Rain hit the windows in rhythmic taps as Brian stood alone in the penthouse office, staring out at the city that once mocked him. His phone buzzed on the table, drawing his attention. It was a message. Just a name: Emma. No words, just a video.
His blood turned cold.
With trembling hands, Brian played the clip. Emma sat in a dimly lit room, tied to a chair, eyes wide with fear. A shadow moved behind her, then stepped into view. It was Ethan. Smiling.
"You wanted a war, Brian," Ethan said, voice calm but venomous. "Now you'll have to decide… your past, or your future. Choose."
The clip ended.
Brian's hand slowly curled into a fist. He turned, staring at the old family photo that sat on his desk. He was just a boy in that picture, standing between a father who always seemed too busy and a mother who rarely smiled. That was before the rot set in. Before betrayal changed everything.
He dialed quickly.
"Noah," Brian said when the call connected. "I need you. Get the team. Find Emma. I don't care what it costs."
"Yes, sir."
Brian hung up and turned toward the wall safe. He opened it, retrieving an old manila envelope marked CONFIDENTIAL. Inside were the documents he'd uncovered two years ago. Legal papers. Transfer deeds. Sale agreements. Every signature filled with betrayal.
His own mother had sold the remains of the Harrow empire.
Flashback - Two Years Earlier
The library had been silent except for the sound of rain tapping the old window panes. Brian, hunched over boxes of legal files and dusty folders, found the file that would change his life.
"Sale of Harrow Innovations IP rights and properties," he read aloud, confusion morphing into horror. "To Kingston Conglomerate... authorized by Margaret Harrow."
His mother.
She had sold everything to Lisa's father for pennies on the dollar. Not out of financial need. Out of spite. Out of bitterness toward Brian's father. The man she claimed abandoned them for work, who died trying to keep the company afloat.
Worse, she'd gifted Lisa the Harrow estate as a wedding present. That humiliation—that theft—had gone unnoticed. Until now.
Brian closed the folder and made a vow.
He would take everything back.
Present Day
Brian stood before the Harrow estate. Or what used to be his family home. Now a Kingston property, complete with new gold-lettered signage. He could feel the weight of the betrayal in his chest.
He had returned not to reminisce, but to reclaim.
Inside, an old man waited in a wheelchair. Victor Kingston. Lisa's father. Still proud, still venomous.
"So you've come to beg?" Victor sneered.
Brian chuckled. "No. I've come to offer you a choice."
He laid the original sales documents on the table, along with evidence of coercion, undervalued transfer, and false appraisals.
"Either you admit publicly that you manipulated a grieving widow to steal my legacy, or I'll sue you into a nursing home cell."
Victor snorted. "Do you think anyone will believe the broken son of a failed CEO?"
Brian leaned in.
"No. But they'll believe the billionaire who now owns a controlling stake in your offshore holding companies. Took me six months to trace them. Another three to buy the debt."
Victor's face paled.
"Checkmate, old man."
Brian walked out of the estate, rain soaking his coat, but he smiled. For the first time, the past didn't weigh him down. It fueled him.
Elsewhere
Lisa screamed as her phone slipped from her hand. Her father had just called her in a rage.
"Brian has documents, Lisa! Real ones! He's moving against the trust. The board is shaking."
"How?! How is he doing this?! He was NOTHING!"
Victor's voice chilled her. "He's not nothing. He's a Harrow. You should've buried him when you had the chance."
Jason slammed a drawer, his hands trembling. "This wasn't the plan."
Lisa turned on him, venom in her voice. "The plan? The plan was to drain him and humiliate him. Now he's buying everything we own like a silent ghost."
Jason stepped closer. "We need to disappear."
"What about Emma?"
Jason blinked.
"You didn't..."
Lisa looked away. "Ethan took her. Said it would shake Brian."
Jason's face drained of color. "You insane bitch... Ethan doesn't just shake people. He breaks them."
Back at the penthouse
Brian poured himself a drink, eyes never leaving the screen. He replayed the clip again. Not out of pain, but to memorize every detail of the background. The shadows. The sounds. The light.
He froze it at Ethan's face. A man he once saved from drowning in gambling debts. A man he thought was loyal.
Brian pressed a button. The room darkened as holographic images appeared around him. Noah and his team's live feed of tracking Emma's location blinked into existence.
"We found something," Noah said over the comms. "Abandoned shipping warehouse. Brooklyn docks. Heat signatures. Multiple guards."
Brian's voice was ice.
"Gear up. We move now."
At the warehouse, guards lay unconscious on the ground. Brian stepped through, eyes scanning for Emma. He turned a corner and saw her.
She was bound but alive. Her eyes locked onto his.
Then a sound behind him.
Click.
A gun.
Brian turned slowly. Ethan stood there, gun trained on him, smirking.
"Welcome to the real game, Brian."
Fade to black.