It’s like I’m waking from a nightmare. Or maybe just a long, blank dream.

I’ve been in my own little world for years now. Even compared to the first years locked in this tower, I’m even more isolated than I was at first. Over time I’ve given more and more responsibility over to Declan, until I barely know what’s going on in my own company.

I still do big deals, like the Chinese deal or the big buyout last year, but mostly I sit back and let things happen. I don’t have my hand on the tiller anymore, making day-to-day decisions, steering the company portfolio in the direction I feel it should go.

As I read Declan’s daily reports, that becomes more and more clear. Who knows if what he’s telling me is even the full picture. I suspect it’s not, and that’s even more horrifying.

Declan has more power in this company than I do. At least, he’s making far more decisions every single day. When people want something done, they go to him.

But isn’t that what I wanted? I can remember a few years ago, when I first decided to install Declan into his current position, that I wanted him to act as the intermediary between me and everyone else. I wanted to be as isolated as possible.

Now I’m that isolated. The only person with any authority in my own company that I speak to is Declan. I doubt anyone else in senior positions even knows my phone number anymore.

I used to speak to them daily. I used to be around the office, asking questions, getting involved. People liked me, or at least I think they did.

Now though, now everything’s different.

I wanted this. I wanted my little prison and I needed Declan to make it happen.

But I never imagined it could go so far. I never thought I’d end up all alone, watching while another man runs the company that I helped steer for most of my life.

It’s strange. I never thought about any of this before Hazel. The other assistants never brought any of this out of me. They were just girls doing what I told them to do, and eventually I let them all go. Eventually I realized that none of them were good enough.

Hazel’s different. I don’t know how. She reached past my defenses at first and now she’s fully inside and I don’t know what to do.

She makes me want to live again.

The more of these reports from Declan I read, though, the more I start to realize that my years of absence have greatly diminished my power. If I’m going to regain control, I have to start making some moves and finding out how Declan has dug himself into the very core of the company.

That’s when I start to notice things. Little things. After each session with Hazel, her body awakening me further to the world, I dive deep into what’s been happening internally. I start to notice missing numbers, sums that don’t add up, little clues about things that don’t feel right.

There’s something rotten at the core of Ward Investing.

Part of me wants to leave it rotten. Part of me would love it see this whole tower fall from rot, crumble into the street below. I’d never have to deal with it again. I could be free.

But I know I’d never do it. I’m a Ward, and this is my home. I can’t ever give it up, no matter what I think about how it all started.

I wasn’t lying when I told Hazel this place was built with blood money and it’s still running on it. Blood fuels these halls. Blood pays the bills.

I can change that. I can make better decisions, more rational decisions. I can think long-term about what’s best for my people, my company, the world. I can invest responsibly.

A plan starts to emerge. A new direction.

Each new session, each stroke of Hazel’s body, makes it more and more clear.

One afternoon, I call Rogers into my office. He nods at me the way he does, his eyes guarded.

“Yes, sir?” he says to me.

“Rogers, how long have you been working with me now?”

His eyes glaze over for a moment. “Ten years, sir,” he says. “Possibly longer.”

“Fifteen,” I say.

He laughs softly. “Has it really been so long?”

“It was ten years up until… you know.”

“Ah.” He nods slightly. “When time stopped.”

I glance away from him. “Fifteen years we’ve been together. You’re the only person I trust at this company, you know that?”

He frowns slightly. “Surely, sir, you also trust—”

“No,” I cut him off. “I don’t.”

He digests that, but doesn’t say a word.

“I need something from you,” I say finally. “I need you to investigate Declan. Something is happening here, at this company, and I’ve been missing it for years. I need you to gather proof and unravel it for me.”

Rogers nods. “If there’s something, I can find it out,” he says.

“Very good. You have my full permission to access anything and to use whatever means necessary.”

“Yes, sir. I’ll get it done.”

I nod, relief flooding through me. “And Rogers?”

“Yes, sir?”

“Send Hazel in as you leave.”

“Yes, sir.”

I think I detect a little sparkle in his eyes. Yes, there’s something there as he leaves my office. I don’t say anything about it, though.

I’m sure he knows. There’s no way he hasn’t figured it out. Hazel spends hours at a time with me, locked away in here. He has to know something is happening between the two of us.

And yet as far as I can tell, nobody else is aware. That means I can trust Rogers to be discreet.

It has to be him. I can’t do this on my own. Declan will see me coming from a mile away, but Rogers…

Well, Declan is cocky. He thinks he own the place, and I’m sure he looks down on Rogers. Declan sees Rogers as just some kind of mindless servant, around to pour coffee and fetch the dry cleaning.

He has no clue what the man is capable of. For that matter, I’m not so sure myself, but we’ll find out together.

Hazel comes into the room a moment later. I cock my head at her as she curtsies in front of my desk, eyes lowered to the floor.

“You called for me, Daddy?”

I smile. “Go stand over by the window in your normal morning spot.”

She does as I command.

I turn to her, a wicked grin on my face.

“Don’t move a muscle until I tell you.”

“Yes, Daddy.”

I turn back to my computer and go through the numbers one more time, trying to ignore the girl standing near the window.

I wonder how long she’ll last. I wonder how strong she is.

But I already know, if I’m honest with myself.

She’ll stand there for as long as I tell her to.