Chapter 36 - CH 36 - A Cry for Help

The polished granite and steel of the Vale Corporation headquarters, once a symbol of impenetrable power, had begun to feel like a funhouse mirror to Adrian. Every gleaming surface reflected a distorted version of himself a gaunt, hollow-cheeked stranger in a ten-thousand-dollar suit, his eyes shadowed by a fatigue that no amount of sleep could cure. The descent was no longer a quiet, private affair; it was a public spectacle playing out in the hushed, carpeted corridors of the thirty-fifth floor. Whispers trailed in his wake, not of the promising heir, but of the unstable son, the one who had faltered on the investor call, the one whose hand sometimes held a faint, tell-tale tremor during morning briefings.