Kesley's POV

The vote wasn't even close. Six in favour. Two abstentions. Zach was stripped of his voting rights the moment the fraud documentation hit the table, sat in silence and watched it happen.

Richard Folkestone called it formally, his voice carrying the particular weight of a man who had been waiting for the right moment and had finally found it. The others signed where Elizabeth Carter indicated, one by one, efficient and without ceremony.

Frederick Barnes went first, then Carl Houghton, then Williams Crane. Rachel Stewart signed with the particular decisiveness of a woman who had probably wanted to do it for longer than this morning.

Edmond Stephens was...