Chapter 148
Jack
I think the royal family might be evil.
Well—not technically evil. But the system they uphold? The comfortable, gilded cage of Solmere?
That might be evil.
The realization didn't hit me all at once. It crept in slowly, in the spaces between meetings and meals, in the things people didn't say.
Ivan's husband was the first crack in the illusion. A man who moves billions across borders, who operates on three continents, who treats Solmere like a pit stop rather than a home. He mentioned, offhandedly, that very few international corporations maintain permanent presence here. That the kingdom is "deliberately difficult" for outsiders.
I didn't think much of it at first.
Then I started paying attention.
Solmere manufactures its own phones. Its own cars. Its own clothes. Everything stamped with the royal crest, everything produced within the kingdom's borders.
Self-sufficiency sounds noble on paper—until you realize self-sufficiency is also control.
