Chapter 73. The Payback

The lower archive of Forge Tower hummed like a hollow heart. Marble stretched in every direction—cold, pale, impersonal. At its center, beneath the vault light, Arthur Quinn stood still, coat folded over one arm like a general laying down a flag. A man both dethroned and self-invited.

Harper didn’t step forward.

She remained framed by the archway, eyes shadowed by the fractured daylight spilling through the perimeter shutters. She looked like silence embodied.

“I didn’t know if you’d come,” Arthur said.

“I almost didn’t,” Harper replied, voice quiet, edged. “Because forgiveness isn’t the same as safety.”

Arthur nodded slowly. “I didn’t come for safety. I came for truth.”

She studied him. No tie. No insignia. Even his posture lacked the performative elegance he once weaponized in public halls. This was the first time he’d appeared unarmored—yet somehow still dangerous.

“You held the system together,” he said. “Where I broke it.”

“You sh