Today is my first day at Roselle Holdings.
I never imagined this moment would come. Not like this. Not with me standing here, calm and composed, buttoning a shirt that belongs to a version of myself I never thought I'd become.
I always believed I'd resist until the end—fight, argue, push back until there was nothing left to fight against.
But something shifted during my last conversation with my father.
A crack appeared in the wall I'd spent years building between us. And ever since then, a question has lodged itself in my chest and refused to leave.
How did he change so much?
And beneath that, quieter and far more dangerous—
How did I?
My phone buzzes on the bedside table, the vibration skittering across the polished wood. I walk over, pick it up, and unlock the screen.
Dad's message waits for me.
Son... don't be late on your first day. I'm waiting.
I type back, my thumb moving across the screen.
Leaving soon.
Another message appears almost immediately.
