JULIAN

The next morning, I called David before even going to the office. "Come to my apartment," I instructed. "We need to talk before the day starts."

By nine AM, David was sitting in my living room with his laptop and a thick folder of documents. Claire had left early for the facility, so we had privacy.

"I spent all night digging," David said, opening the folder. "Adrian's finances are worse than I thought."

"How bad?" I asked.

"Bad," David replied. "His European investment fund is hemorrhaging money. He made several major bets on tech startups that failed spectacularly. We're talking hundreds of millions in losses."

I leaned forward, listening...