The Vance Conservatory was the only piece of the Croft Empire that Malcolm hadn’t touched yet–mostly because he considered it “sentimental trash”. For William, it was the only place that still felt like home.
He sat on a bench beneath the glass dome, surrounded by the acoustic panels he and Sophie had once fixed. The silence was heavy.
“I used to think I was the company,” William said to the empty air.
“You were,” Victoria replied. She walked out from the shadows of the ferns. She had followed him, sensing his spiral. “But you were also miserable, William. You built a kingdom and lived in it alone.”
William looked up at her. “I’m nobody now, Victoria. I have no clearance. I have no legacy. I’m just… a guy in a townhouse who burns pancakes.”
Victoria sat next to him, leaving a careful distance between them. “Leo doesn’t care about the legacy. He cares about the pancakes. And honestly?” She looked him in the eye, her memory fully restored but her perspective shifted. “I like ‘Nobody’ better than the CEO. ‘Nobody’ listens.”