Page 30 of Controlled Drift
The moment the reports started stacking—operations collapsing, money bleeding out of channels that had been stable for decades, allies going dark or turning up dead—he had known it wasn’t a coincidence.No one dismantled an empire like that without understanding how it was built.
Only Ethan had that understanding.
His son had taken so much.
Billions in lost revenue.Years of influence undone.Carefully cultivated power structures reduced to ash.
And worse—Ethan had done it quietly.Methodically.With patience.
Gregory’s grip tightened until his knuckles went white.
He had tolerated rebellion before.He had crushed it.
This was different.
This was personal.
“I want him found,” Gregory said, voice calm despite the rage burning behind it.“I want every asset we have moving.I want eyes on every system he’s touched, every company he’s hidden behind, every person he’s ever trusted.”
A voice crackled over the line.“And if we can’t bring him back?”
Gregory’s smile was thin and joyless.
“Then kill him,” he said.“Take back the money.The tech.The power.Make an example of what happens when my son forgets who owns him.”
He turned away from the screens, already planning the escalation.Brute force hadn’t worked.
Fine.
He would apply pressure where Ethan couldn’t ignore it.
Gregory paused, eyes flicking once more to the frozen image of fire consuming the false house.
“You don’t get to burn down what I built,” he murmured.“Not without burning with it.”
Chapter Six
