The digital hum of the central security room had never felt this suffocating. To the rest of the world, I was the Sovereign—the cold, unyielding head of the Reed empire who ruled with an iron fist and felt absolutely nothing. But as I stood by the reinforced glass window, staring at the cascading lines of red code on Ethan's monitors, a brutal, invisible war was tearing through my chest. The flashing red lights reflected off the glass, painting my face in a blood-colored glow, a silent testament to the storm brewing within these walls.
Every instinct I possessed was screaming.
