Chapter 6
Mason’s phone contained three messages that survived because he had never thought they were incriminating.
Charles:
Wait until Lucien starts the charter section.
Mason:
Rebecca has Ava ready.
Charles:
When he leaves, take the room. Five minutes. No more.
Nothing about hurting Ava appeared.
Nothing about a permanent takeover.
Then another exchange.
Mason:
What if he doesn’t leave?
Charles:
He will.
Mason:
You’re sure?
Charles:
A father always shows himself eventually.
Lucien read that sentence in silence.
Mason’s attorney tried to narrow his responsibility.
Mason claimed Charles had described the plan as symbolic.
A demonstration that the council required a deputy.
Mason agreed because he wanted to lead the discussion for several minutes and thought Lucien would be annoyed, not devastated.
“Did you know Rebecca would frighten Ava?” Elena asked.
“Yes.”
“Did you know she would be pushed?”
Mason hesitated.
“I knew Charles told Rebecca to make her cry.”
“That was not the question.”
“No.”
“Did you ask how?”
“No.”
“Why?”
Mason looked at Lucien.
“Because Charles said nobody would actually hurt her.”
Lucien felt his jaw tighten.
Everyone had created a private version of the plan that kept their conscience clean.
Rebecca thought the riser was low enough.
Mason thought Charles would control Rebecca.
Charles thought fear would last only minutes.
Each adult delegated the moral part to someone else.
Mason then admitted his role in the hallway.
He was supposed to delay Lucien.
Talk.
Argue.
Tell him the council had continued without him.
Then let him return after five minutes.
“What changed?” Elena asked.
“Ava.”
“What about her?”
“She told him.”
“Then?”
“I thought the whole thing was going to explode.”
“So you grabbed Lucien.”
“Yes.”
“Told him to forget his daughter’s words.”
“Yes.”
“And swung.”
Mason looked down.
“Yes.”
No strategy beyond that point.
Panic.
The plan had been exposed before it reached its intended ending.
Then Elena asked about the transition charter.
“Why did you care?”
Mason answered more honestly than Lucien expected.
“Because I’ve spent twenty years being told I would have responsibility someday.”
“And my charter threatened that.”
“Yes.”
“You expected a job because you were born into the right branch.”
Mason stiffened.
“I worked.”
“So have hundreds of people.”
“I gave my life to this family.”
Lucien looked at him.
“That sentence is exactly why the charter exists.”
Mason said nothing.
He was not poor.
Not abandoned.
Not being erased.
He was being told that devotion did not create an inherited right to command other people.
May you like
Charles considered that humiliation.
Mason had begun to agree.
