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𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐑𝐓𝐘-𝐓𝐇𝐑𝐄𝐄

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"How much do you know about that Violet chick?"

The question caught Roman off guard, turning away from the mouth of the alley to face Peter. As usual, the man was puffing on the lip of his vape like it was his life support.

They were both waiting in the lane beside the studio that hosted Sophie Iwobi, waiting for the company car to deliver Cora, Gerri and Olivia. Roman was nervous, the feeling of an aching stomach had plagued him all day, only worsening with the setting sun. Understandably he hadn't spoken to Cora much, she'd been stuck in several coaching sessions with Gerri and Karolina's PR team, but he did have the opportunity to bring her a coffee around midday.

She hadn't met his eye when he had, but thanked him glumly. It seemed every time he saw her, she had shrunk a little more, as if she were slowly folding in on herself. He found her increasingly impenetrable and he struggled to identify just when she had donned the shell that now formed a barrier between them. It was easy to blame her sobriety, and for the most part he had yet the feeling that he was missing something plagued him.

All he wanted was for her to be ok. God, when had he become such a sap?

"Uh ... " Roman began, narrowing his eyes in suspicion. "She went to school with Cora and Shiv, and she's kind of a, how do I put this lightly, a bitch?"

"That really all?" Peter said. With an outstretched arm, he offered his vape to Roman, who took it. It tasted like watermelon and mint, the inhale making his lungs feel frostbitten.

Roman exhaled a cloud. "What do you wanna know? Because you're angling pretty hard here."

"I just want to know what he deal is, man, is that so bad?"

"Yes. Maybe. Fuck, I don't know." He sucked at the vape pen again. "Ok ... She grew up upper middle class, dropped her dreams to marry some old rich guy who she cheats on regularly, she takes a lot of drugs and gives them to certain people who definitely shouldn't be taking them."

His indifference was impossible to mask as he spoke. Violet had never liked him and he had never liked Violet. They had never come to blows in the same way he and Arthur had, if you could call being stuffed into a laundry room closet against your will a fight, but the fact there was no love lost had always been evident. Roman had kept his distance in the past and now that she was back around, he hadn't broken the habit.

Peter seemed oblivious of Roman's tone, nodding along as he spoke. When he was done, Roman handed back the vape and Peter puffed on it pensively.

"Yeah, just wondering because me and her have been chatting a bit since Ken's party," he said finally. Roman arched an eyebrow.

"Are you looking for my blessing? Because, to be honest, I don't really care about what you get up to in your personal time." Roman replied with a shrug.

He wasn't so naïve to hope that Peter could provide a distraction, from the way Shiv had made it sound, Violet tended to get what she wanted and move on quickly. And unless he could somehow drain Cora's bank account, even with Violet out of the picture, there was no stopping Cora from getting her hands on the very thing that was killing her.

"Thanks bro." Peter replied, not registering Romans' indifference. "Appreciate it."

"No problem, any time."

The harsh beam of a car headlights illuminated the pair, and Roman turned to see a sleek black car begin to pull into the lane. The engine rumbled deep and smooth like the foreboding in his chest. In spite of this, he couldn't help the soar of anticipation at the prospect of seeing her emerge from the car.

The back door of the car swung open and Gerri stepped out first.

Her lips were pursed severely, expression taut as her gaze swept Roman and Peter. She didn't bother with a greeting, quickly gesturing with a sharp bend of her fingers. On the other side of the car, Olivia hopped out, her mousy brown hair pulled into a high ponytail just visible over the roof of the car.

As Roman approached her, Gerri quickly leaned towards him, her lips near his ear.

"We need to be discreet, keep that in mind." Her voice was clipped as she spoke. Roman felt his heart in his throat.

"I am nothing but." Roman assured her, trying to inject some playfulness into his tone despite the pit burrowing down in his stomach. Gerri stepped aside and Roman peered into the car, dipping his head beneath the door.

The smell was what hit him first, a cloud of alcohol fumes barely masked by a healthy dose of perfume. Cora was in the middle seat, her head lolling backwards, eyes closed. Her arms were splayed by her sides, pressing against the empty seats to keep herself in place. As she sensed his presence, she slowly turned her head to face him. Beneath a curtain of eyelashes, her dark eyes lazily met his.

"Guess I don't have to ask how you are," he muttered.

"Mmph." Was her only response, groaning beneath her breath.

It was the worst he had ever seen her. He kicked himself for not volunteering himself for the meetings, but Gerri had been so intent on keeping Cora focused that for once, he'd decided against making himself a nuisance. Cora's eyes closed again, but she blindly fumbled for him and he reached inside the car to steady her.

He snaked an arm around her waist, doing his best to help her shimmy across the back seat. Cora melted against his chest, her breathing heavy. She mumbled her thanks under her breath, the whiskey hot on her tongue.

"Don't mention it." He said through gritted teeth. Forget getting through a half hour segment, how was she even going to make it in front of a camera?

He managed to get her on her feet, her movement awkward as a baby gazelle's as she stumbled towards the back entrance of the studio. Roman kept her anchored to his side, swallowing his dread for the sake of the others. Gerri looked as though she were about to have a stroke as they slowly made their way up the staircase.

"I called ahead to clear the green room, it should only be our team in there. I have some of those little charcoal capsules in my purse, we just need to make sure she gets plenty of water an-"

"Let me stop you right there, Ger. How about she just doesn't go on?"

"That's not what your father wants." Gerri replied, her voice low. Roman sucked his cheeks in as he watched Cora unsteadily grip the metal handrail. Each step upwards was an obvious effort. Peter stood behind her, looking ready to catch her when she inevitably slipped.

"He just needs to take one look at her. She's going to make about as much sense as Ozzy Osbourne, but hey, maybe we can hand her a bat to gnaw on. It'd take that to distract from how wasted she is."

Cora mumbled something completely incoherent under her breath in response. Roman shot Gerri a pointed look.

She sighed noisily in response. "He has seen her. Olivia sent a video."

"Nice. Did she post it on Tiktok while she was at it?"

"No!" Olivia chirped from behind them. She was clutching Cora's bag in her hand, her eyes wide. Roman wondered if he were imagining the shadow of guilt on her face. Cora mumbled something again, pulling his attention away.

"What was that?"

"Mm. Jus' need to puke." She muttered.

"See?" Gerri said, as if this were a silver lining. "She just needs to have a little vomit."

Between Roman's steadying and Peter essentially keeping her upright, they somehow made it to the green room. Inside Logan, Shiv, Tom and Karolina were all crowded around each other in deep discussion. The moment they laid eyes on Cora's state, the mood shifted considerably.

"Jesus Christ," Shiv said, unable to hide her concern. She strode forward and gingerly took Cora from Peter. "Why didn't anyone tell me how bad it was."

"Didn't know we called for an Amy Winehouse impersonator." Tom muttered under his breath.

"She's fine, she just needs to have some water." Gerri said quickly, registering the look on Logan's face. Roman could see that his father was already impatient at the state of affairs. He felt a stab of guilt, he really should have been ghosting her the whole day, especially since he'd picked up on her elongated trips to the bathroom.

"Yeah, some water with a side of IV and a stomach pump to boot." Shiv snapped.

"Mm standin' righ' ... Righ' here."

Tom, who was holding a copy of the script that Karolina and Gerri had constructed for the debate, help up the photocopy to scan the first line. "You know I'm not too sure how proficiently she's going to get through 'Kendall Roy is an egotist living in the shadow of greater giants'."

"Just get her into a restroom, would you?" Logan's voice was sharp as he shot a pointed look at Shiv. She sighed heavily, gesturing for Olivia to help her. Roman watched as the trio headed towards the bathroom, biting his lip the moment the door swung closed.

"Ok, elephant in the room. There's no way she's going on, right?"

There was a barely perceptible shift in his father's eyes as he spoke, but Roman had long ago been trained to the minutiae of the man. Logan ignored the pleading look in Roman's eyes, turning away from his son, instead turning to the screen in the corner of the room.

From the monitor, they had a clear image of the studio as the crew finished their final touches for the segment. Though Roman was glad he didn't have to experience the inevitable disaster in person, it didn't soothe him any more to know that he'd be stuck witnessing it among the others. This wasn't even accounting for whoever Kendall decided to bring along to the filming.

"Pity we couldn't have done this on ATN. Kendall would have never accepted it." Logan muttered, squinting at the monitor. "Stuck with cheap millennial infographics and a hackneyed host."

It occurred to Roman only then that with the spectacle of Kendall and Cora's antics, his father had managed to successfully keep his name clear of all coverage of the scandal.

"Well, at least she's not puking in the ATN bathrooms, that's for certain." Tom muttered. "The janitors are useless, it'd take them a fortnight to clean up the place."

"Hey Ger, just wondering, can interim CEOs fire people?" Roman asked no one in particular. Gerri glanced up from her phone, shaking her head.

"Kendall's team is 5 minutes away."

"Oh joy," Tom muttered. "Wonder which'll do us in first, the lighter fluid Paris Hilton chugged or the gas from Kendall's overinflated ego?"

"Whichever you feel inclined to huff first, Tom. Do us all a favour and take one for the team." Roman could feel his skin itching. Before Tom could reply, the bathroom door flew open, the sound of Cora's retching streaming out into the green room.

Olivia looked about ready to faint. "Gerri, uh, Shiv said the charcoal. We need the charcoal and some water. Lots of water!"

Gerri sighed. "Peter, would you grab a couple bottles from the snack table and follow me." When Roman moved to help him, she shook her head sharply. "Not you. She can't get distracted."

He couldn't help thinking, with a stab of resentment, that if he had followed Cora into more bathrooms that they wouldn't be in this predicament. He forced himself stationary, a dark glaze to his eyes as he watched Peter and Gerri disappear from view. Only then did his father cross the room and place a firm hand upon his shoulder.

Roman tensed, lifting his gaze to Logan's. The man's touch was jarring in how fatherly it was, and there was a flicker of warmth in Logan's otherwise stern face. Roman watched in stunned silence as his father reached into his pocket and pulled something other, handing it to his son, the exchange done in quiet reverence.

"A word of advice." Logan said gruffly, the edges of his voice buffed momentarily smooth. "Don't fuck this up again."

"Yeah, no, wouldn't think of it." Roman muttered, shoving a hand into his pocket.

There was a loud clap from the doorway and both men turned to the source of the noise. Kendall had arrived, lips pulled into an arrogant grin. He wore a hefty bomber jacket above a suit that had clearly not been pressed, a shadow stubble on his sallow skin. As he entered the room, Jess and Greg followed in his tow, Arthur and a vaguely familiar young woman bringing in the rear. Roman recognised her as having been in Rava's apartment the night they had arrived back in New York, figuring she had to have been some kind of assistant to Arthur.

"Smells like a fucking brewery in here." Kendall barked. No amount of bravado could disguise the loose chord in his voice. "Starting the pity party early, I like it. Aren't we missing a few people though?"

As Arthur's assistant made a quick move to the bathroom door, Roman broke away from his father to stop her in her tracks.

"Best not to go in there right now." He said, eliciting a harsh scowl from her.

"Oh, oh I get it." Kendall's voice oozed with smug satisfaction. "Should've known."

"I need to pee." The girl hissed, trying to push past him.

"No can do."

"Well, let's just say it wouldn't be the first time Roman denied someone a piss." Greg said. No one quite knew what to say in response, though Tom did shoot the man a curious look.

Arthur cleared his throat. He appeared strangely reserved, hands in his pockets with his eyes fixated on the floor at Logan's feet. Roman fully expected him to use the excuse to get a dig in, surprised when he gestured for the girl to return to his side.

"Mack." He said, lacking the usual smug bite to his tone. She rolled her eyes and rejoined him, not caring to hide her disdain.

"A little cruel to force her on stage if she's in a state." Kendall remarked, ignoring the altercation.

"A man of principle now, are you?" Logan countered. This shook the wind from Kendall's sales. He attempted to recover by puffing out his chest.

"Just playing my part." He replied.

"You're a feminist icon." Roman mused, leaning against the doorframe just in case Mack attempted to slip past. "A regular suffragette."

Thankfully before the conversation could grow anymore heated, the women re-emerged from the bathroom. Though a thin sheen marked Cora's skin, highlighting the purple shadows beneath her eyes, she appeared at least sentient now. Still uneasy on her feet, she passed by Kendall, her gaze lingering on him for an uncomfortable length of time.

"How are we doing?" Gerri asked in a hopeful voice. Cora gave her an enthusiastic thumbs up and it was clear that at least a few people can to suppress a groan, Roman among them.

There was nothing else that could be done, a producer poking in their head to summon the pair to begin blocking shots. As the remaining group moved to huddle around the monitor.

"Get ready for the shit show."

No one could deny the comment and it hung in the air around them as Cora and Kendall assumed their positions on stage.

The segment began with an introductory spiel from Sophie Iwobi as she recounted the details of the scandal for the cameras. Roman picked at the edges of his nails as she spoke in a poor attempt to distract his brain from running through all the ways the segment could go wrong. All she had to do was repeat back the script, he told himself, but his reassurance fell miserably flat.

As predicted, the trouble started the moment she opened her mouth.

"Kendall Roy." Cora began with a surprising amount of competence. Unfortunately her follow up wasn't nearly as impressive. "Is an ego ... ist ... living in the shadow of gr- Greater giants."

"Nice start." Kendall said, all but turning to face the camera. "Keep going."

The condescension seemed entirely lost on her. "Wi ... Without the reckoning force of his fa ... Father, Logan Roy, he ... Uh, he would not be stan ... ding in front of y-you as he is ... to ... day."

"Very good. Yeah, just keep sounding out the words, you'll get there eventually."

Apparently he'd been a little bit too on the nose. Cora's face suddenly twisted with the annoyance of someone being bothered by a fly. Roman half-expected her to start swatting at him, and perhaps that would have been favourable to the sudden change of tack.

Instead she leaned back in her chair, her arms falling lazily by her sides. It was as though she had only just realised who she was seated before. Her features contorted from confusion and ran the gamut between irritation and anger in quick succession.

With jarring haste, she all but threw herself forward in her chair, gripping the edge of the table to steady herself from falling.

"Do you [BLEEP] mind? I'm talking."

"Oh my God." Roman could hear the smirk Tom was attempting to hide bleeding through his voice. Beside him, Shiv had two fingers gripping at her temples, as though she was moments from ripping her forehead clean from her skull.

"Should I tweet 'train wreck alert' or, uh, do you think it's bad optics?" Greg said, turning to Mack.

"I mean, she was right, she was talking." Olivia volunteered.

"At least they bleeped it." Karolina muttered under her breath.

"Yeah, but they can't bleep the entire thing." Gerri replied with a huffed sigh. "Or maybe they can, we should see if we can get someone to censor the program."

"Nah, nah, let her cook. I feel like this is gonna be good." Peter said, cracking open the bag of chips he had retrieved from the snack table. Roman wished he'd pulled out the vape, he needed something to distract from the agonizing tightness in his gut.

He turned back to the screen, his hands clammy.

Sophie Iwobi had decided to step in, though the delight in her eyes was clear. This was excellent television, in spite his discomfort Roman couldn't deny that. Cora was a slurring mess who had taken a sharp turn towards the erratic, while Kendall's smug aura begged to be burst.

"I don't even ... Even know why you're bein' so rude right now." Cora continued, waggling a finger Kendall as she completely ignored Sophie's attempts to direct the conversation. "We all know your little meeting with the dodge didn't go as planned ... Yeah."

"The what, sorry?" Sophie asked.

Kendall cut across her, his jaw tensed. "And what other sparkling observations about the current scandal have my father's team fed you?"

"Oh, you think my observations are sparkling?" Cora said, winking. "Thanks."

"I think you're a parrot who's having a lot of trouble singing right now. Someone's had a few too many crackers." Kendall replied.

"Do parrots really sing? Does that track?" Tom asked as he reached over Peter's shoulder and stole a chip from the packet.

"Did she just ... wink at him?" Shiv said, reaching forward to yank Tom's arm back to his side. He shot her a look from his peripherals.

"I can't watch this." Olivia squeaked, clamping a hand over her eyes and turning away from the monitor. "If it gets any worse I think I'm actually going to faint."

You and me both, Roman thought darkly.

Meanwhile on stage, under the heat of the studio lights, Cora was smiling to herself. In her opinion, this was going swimmingly. Unfortunately her trip to the bathroom had only cured her nausea and not the liquid courage that intoxication tended to gift her. Sophie Iwobi looked incredibly pleased with everything she had said so far, and apart from being a little annoying, her drunken state had filtered any smugness from Kendall, who in her mind was simply oscillating between compliments and flirtation.

The only thing she really wished for in that moment was maybe something to take the edge off of the headache beginning to press against her temple.

"Do you guys have any chardonnay?" She asked suddenly, interrupting whatever boring and unrelated spiel Kendall had launched into. Sophie was a little lost for words. Slowly she shook her head.

"Unfortunately not!" She said finally, grinning. "I'm sure after this you can indulge in all of the chardonnay in the world."

"Thanks, I will." Cora said, nodding. Yeah this was definitely going great.

"How about we move on to a more stimulating topic. All the legal jargon seems to have gotten away from Ms Vernon." Sophie turned to Kendall. "Obviously this whole scandal has been a big debate because of the gender politics involved, which you've embraced on social media and within the press.

"Well, ah, Sophie, Ms Iwobi, feminism is a topic I'm incredibly passionate about. Being in the world of business from a young age I've, well, I've spent a lot of time around highly driven and powerful women, you know, real go-getters. I've also seen the serious effects of what the grind of sexism at every level can do to the mind and spirit of these women. Especially on the topic of the systematic abuse of women at all levels, I-"

Cora started laughing. It had taken all the fibres of her willpower, which admittedly were few and far between at this very moment, to hold back hysterics as he'd begun his diatribe. Sophie's eyebrows flew upwards, turning towards her.

"Do you have some input, Cordelia?"

"Do I ever!"

"Before we really get into this," Kendall said quickly. "It's important to note, and I was doing some soul-searching about this the previous evening, especially after the slew of particularly vicious coverage this past week, about Ms Vernon's part to play in all of this."

Cora couldn't help wondering at what point the previous evening he'd done this soul-searching, given she'd be first hand witness to how ... preoccupied he had been.

"And you know, it would be a little too easy to simply call it enabling, I mean certainly it is on some level, weaponing her gender against the claimants against my father. But truly when I was considering this and diving deeper into, well, into the female experience, I realised that it wasn't just enabling. I think Cordelia has a very serious case of internalised sexism that my father has exploited in all of this, and I hope after this debate that maybe she'll have some further clarity. I hope she knows that even after everything, as Jesus himself once said, 'I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more'."

Cora really only heard the words 'enabling' and 'internalised sexism' as he spoke, but even if she had been able to pay better attention, she likely would've arrived at the same conclusion. She narrowed her eyes, scoffing loudly as she shook her head.

"What kind of bullshit is that?" She said, screwing up her nose. "Enabling? Are you joking?"

"Do you have a rebuttal to that statement?" Sophie asked.

Cora tilted her head to the side, slumping backwards in her seat like a sullen teenager. The longer she sat with his words, the more they had begun to gnaw at her. Was he essentially calling her a sexist? The thought didn't sit well inside of her, in fact it was making her skin crawl.

"Uh, I think my rebuttal is, that's rich." She said, somewhat anticlimactically. "Since his PR manager is an abusive piece of shit."

The shift in the room hit her like a train. Kendall's face fell, his brows descending low above his dark eyes. Sophie cleared her throat, summoning Cora's attention.

"Care to elaborate?"

"Oh yeah, Kendall hired the man who abused me since I was a t-"

"Do you have any evidence for this assertion?" Kendall said sharply. The hairs on the back of her neck were suddenly standing on end.

"No ... Do I need proof other than what I'm saying?" Cora snorted. "Why would I say something that isn't true?"

"You have a consistent history of public denial of your substance abuse," Kendall replied slowly. "Yet you're sitting before us today, very obviously intoxicated. Why should we take your word for it?"

Cora's chest tightened. The realisation of what she had even said was only now dawning in her, cleaving through the haze of her drunkenness.

It was the first time she had ever put a name to how Arthur had treated her. Even in the face of blaring evidence, she had sooner crumbled than admitted to all that he had done to her. The fact that the admission had simply slipped out of her the way it had might have held more weight if not for what stirred in Kendall's expression.

He knew.

Somewhere along the way he had found out what Arthur had done to her. Now he was before her, not only denying implicitly that he knew, but humiliating her by implying she couldn't be possibly telling the truth.

She sat forward in her chair, leaning across the desk towards him. "Are you being serious right now?"

"I don't know, Cordelia, are you?"

She stood up, knocking her chair over in the process. It clattered to the ground behind her but she ignored it. From her peripheral, she saw one of the cameramen struggle to quickly keep her in frame as she reached down to the mic clipped to the inside of her collar. Before she yanked the cord of it free, she paused.

Remembering just why she had decided to drink herself into a stupor. She held the microphone close to her lips, mumbling into it.

"By the way, I'm stepping away from the position of interim CEO," Cora slurred. "To focus on my recent engagement to Roman Roy, thanks."

She didn't stick around to wait for a reply, discarding the microphone onto the floor with a toss and hurriedly rushing off the set.

When she entered the green room, she was instantly cornered by Arthur.

She wasn't sure how it happened, his movements a blur. One moment she had been standing in the doorway and the next he had pinned her by the shoulders to the wall nearby, the back of her head colliding with the hard surface of the wall. Maybe if she had been sober, she would have felt the collision, but it soon became background noise to the heat of Arthur's breath bearing down upon her.

"What the fuck have you done?"

Before she could answer, he had been ripped away from her. Cora gasped, the rhythm of heartbeat tickling the inside of her throat like the flurry of a butterfly's wings. Roman's hand was on the scruff of Arthur's collar, a wildness sparked in his eyes as he looked the other man up and down. Everyone else appeared frozen in shock.

"How about fucking off?" Roman said sharply. "Because I really think you should fuck off."

"I'll do what I want." Arthur spat. His gaze was still squarely directed to Cora, jabbing a finger at her accusingly. "I'm not done with you."

"No, I mean you're definitely done. In fact, you're more than done. Go find a map and pick a different city, a different country even. I'm not really liking your chances in New York anymore."

"God, do you ever just shut the fuck up?" Arthur snapped, turning to Roman. "You need another go in the laundry closet?"

"Is that your signature move?" Roman tried to brush off the comment with a snort, but his voice faltered.

"Wai- Laundry closet?" She felt her blood run cold. "Arthur? What did you mean by that?"

"Stay out of this." He growled.

Cora was no longer looking at him, instead she had turned to Roman. He couldn't hide the truth from her, not when it reflected back something she knew intimately. She'd always found a way to write off Arthur's actions: it was nothing, he hadn't meant it, it didn't matter because she had deserved it. She had once thought she had a lifetime of excuses for Arthur, but that had ended tonight.

Without a second thought, she strode forward and slapped Arthur.

His response was instinctual, shoving her away from him. Just how hard he had meant to was a mystery, since regardless of the force he had exerted, the outcome likely would have been the same. Cora's intoxication had made her precarious as it was, and with the added difficulty of heels, she stood no chance in remaining upright.

She stumbled backwards, trying and failing to find her balance. The bottom of her shoe caught on the carpet as her ankle turned inwards, a soft popping sound hitting her ears before she collapsed to the ground.

Cora's ears began to ring as she blinked in bewilderment. Her mind went blank for a fleeting moment, the edges of her vision blurred. Someone had rushed to her side, trying to help her upwards but she pushed them away, propping herself up with her forearms as she tried to stabilise herself.

When she looked up away, Kendall had reappeared in the doorway to the studio. His eyes moved from her slumped state on the floor to the altercation playing out between Arthur and Roman. In the haze, Cora didn't register the guilt painted across his face.

"Yeah, right, what're you gonna do? Jump on me? Can you even reach my neck from down there?" Arthur said, rolling his eyes. It was evident that some of his self-righteousness had fallen to the floor along with Cora. He was standing almost chest to chest with Roman, his jaw squared. "It was an accident. She's drunk. Shit happens. Cry about it, Napoleon."

"I'm 6'5 when I stand on all of my money."

"Yeah? And where the fuck would you be without it?" Arthur shot back, chuckling under his breath. His hands were on his hips as he leaned down closer to Roman, lowering himself to eye level with the other man.

"You're nothing but a soft skulled trust fund baby with an over inflated ego. And the kicker is that all of the money in the world is never going to stop her from letting me back between those legs because she knows what's good for her."

Roman's eyes shone as he grinned at the other man, nodding his head slowly.

"You really should've just stuck to my height." He said.

Without warning, he slammed his closed fist into Arthur's jaw. Olivia shrieked, the sound bouncing off of the walls of the room. Before Arthur could retaliate, Kendall had wedged himself between the two men. He reached forward and harshly shoved Arthur in the rest, knocking him back a few paces.

"Don't you dare lay a hand on him." Kendall growled. Arthur scowled, massaging his jaw. He spat blood at the floor in front of Kendall's feet.

"If you're a real man, you would take this outside." He said, looking past Kendall to address Roman. Roman shrugged.

"Good thing I don't care about being your definition of a 'real man'."

Logan cleared his throat from the corner of the room. He was still stationed beside the monitor, and had been watching the altercation play out with a mask of impassivity. The acknowledgment of his presence seemed to suck all noise from the room.

"I think it's time for you to move along," he said simply.

Arthur's fists clenched, the whites of his knuckles bright white. Cora feared for a moment that he would turn his rage towards Logan. Instead he let out a gruff exhale and made for the exit.

"Mack." He barked. "C'mon."

"I'd rather eat my own foot, thanks." She muttered. "Sounds like you're probably not my boss anymore."

Arthur didn't respond. He had paused several feet away from Cora, looking from her to Olivia. Cora knew in his next words even before he had spoken them.

"Oh and by the way, she killed your dad. Have fun with that information." He cast one final, sweeping gaze over the room as if committing the scene to memory. His gaze lingered on Cora, assessing her like one inspects a squashed mosquito for evidence of their own blood. With disgust, he scoffed. "Hope you all burn in hell."

Two things happened the moment he had departed. The first was that Cora realised the person who had come to her aide was Shiv, crouched by her side as her light brows threatened to disappear into her brow line. The hand that had been softly encircling her back had recoiled somewhat, hovering close enough that Cora could feel the edges of warmth radiating from her palm.

The other was that her mind finally caught up with her body. The pain appeared as a hot weighty thud, like someone had just dropped a very large lump of coal on her ankle. But it was secondary only to Arthur's final blow. With the sharp thread of so many pairs of eyes on her, Cora still managed to find Olivia's delicate horror.

Cora couldn't stop what happened next as the tears sprung from her eyes. She began to cry, awful wracking sobs that bounced around her ribcage that built upon themselves, growing violent with each invocation. Cora hadn't cried this was since her mother had died, and like a scream rendered silent for over a decade, she found herself at the mercy of her distress.

"I'm sorry!" The words fell from her lips, pathetic and childlike. "I'm sorry! I'm so sorry! I'm sorry!"

And so she apologised to Olivia for her father, to Shiv for her dishonesty, to Kendall for pretending she wasn't using him to destroy herself. To her mother for denying her grief, to Frank for refusing to know him.

To herself. To Roman.

For everything and nothing, all at once.