Not in rage.
In readiness.
And Cassandra had just told the truth.
1. Before the Fall
Marcus hadn’t always been the man people called ruthless.
When he was younger, his ambition had been less like a weapon and more like a hunger. He grew up in a small Pennsylvania town where the mills shut down one by one, where men learned to swallow pride and call it strength, where his mother clipped coupons with the focus of a surgeon.
He learned early that money wasn’t just comfort. It was oxygen.
So he built.
He built like a man trying to outrun a fire. One investment became two. One company became a cluster. By forty, he was a billionaire with a portfolio spanning real estate, medical tech, shipping, and a private equity firm that could make or break a career with a single phone call.
He was feared because he was decisive.
He was lonely because success is a loud room where nobody hears you ask for anything real.
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