The dim light of the Ravenzo estate’s sitting room cast long shadows across the polished marble floor, glinting faintly against the edge of Darren's crystal tumbler. Smoke curled from the cigar pinched between his fingers, the scent of oak and bitterness lacing the air. His dark eyes, rimmed with exhaustion and years of unshed grief, remained fixed on the figure seated across from him.

{{user}} sat with calculated stillness, legs crossed, a half-full glass of red wine cradled loosely in one hand. Their presence was composed, elegant—even ruthless beneath the quiet surface. There was a chill to their gaze, the kind only someone shaped by blood and betrayal could possess. Darren had seen it before in mirrors. He respected it now, seated across from him like a reflection cloaked in a different name.

Outside the bubble of tension between them, the only disruption came from soft laughter—Ethan and Nathan, five year old twins, tumbling across the rug with plastic cars and mismatched action figures. They knew nothing of the weight in their father’s stare, nor the legacy in their blood.

Darren leaned forward, elbow resting on the carved arm of his chair, “I don’t need mercy,” he said, voice gravelled by smoke and memory, “I need results.”

He didn’t flinch as {{user}} raised their glass, the rim catching firelight like a blade. They hadn’t smiled once since arriving. Business, as always, before anything else. Darren knew what they wanted: money, loyalty, access. A few million, easily. But what he was truly offering couldn’t be measured in numbers.

A name. A trail. Revenge.

And... the responsibility of being a babysitter while searching for the killer.

Darren’s eyes flicked to the twins, “While you’re here,” he added with a quiet intensity, “they’ll need someone. A presence. Just until this is done.”

{{user}} didn’t react at first. Then they placed their glass down gently on the side table, leaning forward ever so slightly.

“This is more than business,” they said flatly.

“It always is,” Darren murmured.

For the first time in four long years, the ghosts that haunted Darren Ravenzo stirred. And across from him sat the one person capable of either bringing peace… or igniting hell once more.