"I don’t need proof to know what—"
"Sit down," his father said again, and this ti the words carried weight that stopped the first son mid-sentence.
He sat, but his body stayed rigid and his hands stayed clenched in his lap.
His father looked at him for a mont before speaking more slowly. "We don’t have proof, and we don’t have Derek. What we have is a public event where TRB officials, guild leaders, investors, and press will all be watching the Ganner family. The ball is not the place to lose control. It is the place to make Jas lose control."
The first son’s jaw tightened further, but he stayed quiet.
Adrian spoke from the corner of the room where he had been standing with his back against the wall the entire ti while reading through the final guest list on a tablet.
"Which TRB officials confird attendance?" he asked without looking up.
His father nad three.
Adrian nodded once while scrolling. "And the press section—will they have clear line of sight to the family seating area?"
"Yes. They always do."
"Good." Adrian set the tablet down before asking his next question. "Where is Jas placed on the seating chart?"
"Family guest section. Beside his mother."
Adrian thought about that while his eyes moved over the room as if he was already standing in it, mapping distances and angles that nobody else in the conversation was thinking about yet. "Which international buyers are sitting close enough to witness any direct exchange between Jas and the family?"
His father told him.
Adrian nodded again without any visible excitent. He did not look angry like his brother. He did not look eager for revenge. He looked like soone who had just received useful information and was now filing it away for later.
Their father looked between both sons before speaking. "The first son is visible at this event. Jas will expect attention from him and will prepare for it. That is fine. What Jas will not prepare for is the room itself."
He looked at Adrian. "Nothing happens before the right mont. Nothing."
Adrian said nothing, which was agreent enough.
Jas received the envelope two days later at ho.
It arrived with the morning post among bills and takeaway nus, but the envelope looked different from everything else because it was a heavy cream color with the Ganner Corp crest embossed in the top left corner and his na written across the front in careful formal lettering.
His mother was in the kitchen when Jas brought it in and set it on the table. She saw the crest before Jas had even touched the flap and her expression changed while she put down her mug.
Jas opened it and read through the invitation without sitting down.
The Ganner Corp Annual rchant and Arms Ball. Formal dress. Venue in the city center. Guest list including guild representatives, TRB officials, investors, international contractors, and company family.
His na was listed under honored family guests.
His mother’s na was beneath his.
Jas set the card down on the table.
His mother picked it up and read it again with her eyes moving slowly across the text. She set it back down without saying anything imdiately.
The invitation was polished enough that soone outside the family would read it as genuine reconciliation. Jas and his mother were being welcod back to a family table at a public event attended by TRB officials and guild leaders. It looked like goodwill.
Jas understood imdiately what it actually was.
"You don’t have to co," he told his mother.
She looked up from the invitation. "I know."
A short silence passed between them before she spoke again. "My na is on it too. If you’re going, I’m going."
She did not say it with drama or a speech about what the Ganner na ant. She said it because it was a family event, her na had been included alongside her son’s, and she was not the kind of woman who sent her son into rooms like that alone.
Jas read the invitation one more ti before setting it face-down on the table.
Jas accepted the invitation that evening through the formal response thod the letter had specified.
He understood the event was not safe, but refusing it gave Ganner Corp a clean story to tell the room about reconciliation attempted and rejected. Attending gave Jas a chance to see who was in the room, which TRB officials had confird, which guild leaders would be present, and what exactly the Ganners were building toward by choosing this particular stage.
He did not plan to attack first or respond to every insult the night threw at him. He planned to watch the room.
His mother confird she would attend and spent the evening looking through her wardrobe without saying much about it.
Jas left the accepted invitation on the kitchen table for a while after sending the confirmation through. The ball was public enough that it was not a simple ambush, but personal enough that it was bait, and Jas was walking into it because refusing was not a real option and he needed to understand what ca next.
Back at Ganner Corp, the final guest list was approved and printed.
TRB officials confird. Guild leaders confird. Foreign buyers and international contractors confird. Ganner executives confird. Family guests confird.
Jas Ganner was listed under the family section on the third line.
His mother’s na appeared beneath his.
The uncle approved the final arrangent and sent the seating chart to his event coordinator.
The first son stood in the room while the final list was being reviewed and stared at Jas’s na. He was not reading anything else on the list because Jas’s na was the only thing that mattered to him. The ball was the beginning of sothing, and he had been waiting for a beginning.
Adrian stood nearby with the list in his hands and read it fully while his eyes moved line by line across every na, every confird guild, every TRB official, every international buyer. He was not looking at Jas’s na only. He was looking at the whole room, the geotry of the guest list, and the possibilities it contained if Jas reacted the wrong way at the wrong mont.
The Ganners did not need Jas to accept them.
They only needed him to walk into a room where everyone could watch what happened next.
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