Chapter 202: The Last Freetime Before Shit Gets Real! [FIXED!]

By the time Liam got home, the bags of books were sitting on his coffee table and his legs had officially started to complain.

He sank onto the couch and let out a long breath.

Things were going according to plan. Better than planned. Rachel had a real shot at keeping her building and had survived her first session with Mike.

Sophia and Mateo were safe behind a wall of very large security men. Vanessa was on board, and the firm finally had its first real hire. Even the detour to Paper Lantern had turned up something unexpected.

For once, everything was clicking into place.

He thought about texting Darren to come over. Mateo would love it. Darren was big, loud, and could take a punch from a professional, which made him basically a superhero in the eyes of a sixteen-year-old.

But Liam knew better.

Darren had been training like a man possessed lately. Every free hour went to the sparring center, and after what Marco Kessler had seen in him, he had every reason to keep pushing. There was no point pulling him away from that just for a hangout. Liam and Mateo could manage on their own. They’d game, eat junk food, and talk about manga Liam hadn’t read.

And after today, Liam wasn’t going to have many nights like this.

The firm was about to swallow his life whole. Office space, licensing, contracts, clients, staff. He’d be living on coffee and paperwork within the week. If he was going to take one easy evening, it had to be this one.

His mind drifted, almost on its own, to Mrs. Harriet.

He hadn’t heard from her since their last conversation.

He didn’t read too much into it. She was a busy woman, busier than anyone he knew, and silence from her didn’t necessarily mean anything. He’d always known that being involved with her meant long stretches of not seeing her at all.

He just couldn’t quite stop himself from checking his phone.

It buzzed in his hand as if on cue.

Sophia calling.

He answered. "Hey."

["Hi."] Her voice was tired but warm.

["So. My brother just told me you invited him over."]

"I did."

["You actually did? He’s not lying to me?"]

Liam raised an eyebrow. "Why would he lie about that?"

["Because he’s sixteen,"] Sophia said flatly.

["And sixteen-year-olds lie about where they’re going so they can go somewhere else. Or see someone else."]

Liam chuckled. "Mateo’s not that kind of kid."

There was a pause on the other end. Then she sighed, long and heavy.

["I know,"] she said quietly.

["I know he’s not. I’m just being paranoid. He’s growing up so fast, and I feel like I’m finding out about his life a week after everything happens."]

"That’s kind of what being sixteen is."

["Don’t remind me."] She hesitated.

["Liam... has he said anything to you? About school?"]

Liam paused. "What do you mean?"

Silence.

"Sophia?"

["Never mind,"] she said quickly.

["Forget I asked. It’s nothing."]

Liam didn’t push. He could hear it in her voice. She’d opened a door and immediately thought better of it, like she didn’t want to drag him into her brother’s business.

"Okay," he said gently. "Well, he’s welcome here anytime. You know that."

["I know. Thank you."] Some of the tension left her voice.

["Reggie’s going to drive him over. He’ll wait outside until Mateo’s ready to come home."]

"Perfect."

["Don’t keep him up too late."]

"No promises."

She laughed softly, said goodbye, and hung up. It was the lightest she’d sounded in days.

Liam lowered the phone and stared at the blank screen.

"Has he said anything about school?"

That one question told him something important. Sophia knew something was wrong at school. She didn’t know exactly what, but she’d noticed enough to be worried. Which meant there was a real chance she already suspected that Mateo was being bullied.

She just didn’t have the full picture yet.

And Liam wasn’t going to be the one to hand it to her. Not until Mateo was ready.

His phone buzzed again. A WhatsApp notification lit up the screen.

Mateo added you to "Mateo’s Taxi Tracker ??"

Liam snorted. Of course the kid had named it that.

A second later, Sophia appeared in the member list too. Then a message popped up.

[Mateo: made a gc so u both stop asking me where i am]

[Sophia: Mateo.]

[Mateo: with love ??]

[Liam: the name is a choice]

[Mateo: its perfect and u know it]

Then a little map appeared in the chat, a blue dot pulsing beside a winding grey line through the city.

[Mateo is sharing his live location.]

[Mateo: on my way ??]

Sophia reacted with a thumbs-up. Liam watched the blue dot inch toward his street and smiled.

=

Liam pulled the PS5 out from under the TV stand and set it up while he waited.

Two controllers, both charged. A fresh bag of chips and a two-liter of soda on the coffee table beside the books. He scrolled through the game library and queued up a few options, knowing Mateo would ignore every one of them and pick whatever he’d been obsessed with that week. Once the books were handed over, this was going to be a long, loud, competitive night.

He was looking forward to it more than he’d admit.

But the blue dot was still twenty minutes out, so Liam pulled his laptop onto his knees and opened a folder he hadn’t touched in days.

The Arthur files.

He’d made copies before handing the flash drive to Mrs. Harriet. Handing over the only copy of evidence that powerful would have been the move of an idiot, and Liam had worked too hard to get here to start slipping now.

He scrolled through the documents.

Internal emails. Strategy memos. Client negotiations Arthur had run quietly, without the partners ever knowing the details. Problems that should have ended careers, buried before anyone noticed they existed.

The more Liam read, the more impressed he became.

Arthur was good.

Every move was calculated. Every risk was hedged three different ways. Some of these strategies were brilliant, the kind of thinking Liam would have studied in law school if anyone had been willing to put it in a textbook.

If Arthur hadn’t been born a Harlan, he’d have made a name for himself somewhere else by now. Instead, he’d spent his entire career standing in Richard’s shadow, the younger brother who did the real work while the older one took the credit and title.

Liam leaned back against the couch and sighed.

If only.

If he could bring Arthur over to his side, even halfway, the firm would have someone who understood exactly how Harlan & Associates worked from the inside. Every weakness. Every pressure point.

But that was a fantasy, and he knew it.

Mrs. Harriet and Arthur despised each other. The moment Liam extended a hand to Arthur, he’d be making an enemy of her. And she wasn’t someone he could afford to lose.

Worse, he’d already handed her the weapon. Everything on this laptop was sitting on her desk too. With one decision, she could bury Arthur so deep that no amount of talent would ever dig him back out.

Liam had put that power in her hands himself.

He stared at the screen, cursor blinking over a memo with Arthur’s signature at the bottom.

Was there a way to salvage this?

To keep Mrs. Harriet close, keep Arthur from being destroyed, and somehow come out of it with both of them owing him something?

He let himself consider it for a moment.

Then his phone buzzed beside him.

The blue dot had turned onto his street.

Liam closed the laptop.

That was a problem for another night.

-

Across the city, on the top floor of Harlan & Associates, Arthur Harlan stood at his office window with a glass of scotch and watched the lights in the east wing.

Mrs. Harriet’s office was still lit.

She’d been working late all week. Closed doors. Short meetings. Phone calls she took in the stairwell instead of at her desk. Small changes, the kind most people would never notice.

Arthur noticed absolutely everything.

She thought she was being careful. She was. But she wasn’t the only one.

He took a slow sip and let his mind drift to the variable he’d introduced himself.

Sara.

Sending her to Liam had been a calculated risk. Sara was impulsive, greedy, and completely unpredictable. A woman who could abandon a man the instant his bank account emptied would abandon anyone the moment a better offer appeared. He’d weighed that risk carefully before letting her anywhere near his business.

And he’d planned around it.

Sara believed she’d outsmarted him. She thought slipping those files out of his office had been her own clever idea.

Arthur almost smiled at that.

He’d left them there for her to find.

He’d studied her long enough to recognize the pattern. Sara always reached for whatever looked most valuable, then ran it straight to whoever could pay her the most. She’d done it with Liam and she would do it again.

And she had. Exactly as predicted.

People liked to say Arthur lived in his brother’s shadow, and they weren’t wrong. Richard had always been sharper, colder, and better at being a Harlan. But being second to Richard didn’t make Arthur a fool. It made him patient.

Because the files Sara had handed over weren’t what they appeared to be.

They looked damning at a glance. Real names, real dates, real deals. But the details that mattered had been altered, the timelines shifted just enough. Anyone who built a case on them would be building on sand.

And Arthur had every defense ready. The original records. The clean audit trails. The witnesses who would swear to the truth. If someone took those files to the board, or to court, the case wouldn’t just collapse. It would destroy the credibility of whoever brought it because it would look like those files were intentionally fabricated.

Mrs. Harriet came to his mind, there were only two people this could affect that way.

It would be her, or it would be Liam.

Either way, Arthur would be waiting.