The man in the dark coat finally spoke, his voice calm but cutting.
“Do you know who that boy is?”
Victor forced a nervous laugh.
“I don’t care who he is. He’s just—”
“Wrong answer.”
One of the agents stepped forward and opened the back door of the SUV.
Inside was another man—older files, security folders, encrypted screens already glowing.
He looked at Victor and whispered:
“You really should’ve checked the road name before you used it.”
Victor frowned.
“What does that mean?”
The agent finally answered.
“This isn’t a public road.”
A pause.
“It’s private property of the Cole family trust.”
Victor’s face changed.
Slowly. Carefully.
Like reality was starting to collapse.
“No…” he whispered.
The man in the coat finally turned fully toward him.
“You swerved into a protected corridor,” he said. “You endangered the heir.”
Victor laughed again—but it was broken now.
“Heir? That kid?”
The agent’s eyes hardened.
“Yes.”
A long silence.
Even the wind seemed to stop.
Victor’s voice dropped.
“Cole… as in—”
Before he could finish, a second SUV door opened behind Mason.
And Mason’s father stepped out.
Not angry.
Not rushed.
Just deeply disappointed.
He looked at Victor like he was something already erased.
Victor’s knees almost gave out.
“I didn’t know,” he stammered. “I swear I didn’t know!”
Mason’s father finally spoke, calm and devastating:
“That’s the problem.”
He turned slightly toward Mason.
“Get in the car.”
But Mason didn’t move yet.
He was still staring at Victor.
For the first time, Victor wasn’t mocking anyone.
He was afraid.
And then Mason said something quietly that no one expected:
“Is he going to be punished… or erased?”
The agents went completely still.
Even Mason’s father paused.
And in that silence, Victor realized—
the decision was no longer about the accident.
It was about what kind of man Mason was going to become.
And the answer hadn’t been decided yet.
