Chapter 3: Into the Lion's Den

Elliot sat in the massive boardroom, the long table stretching endlessly in front of him. The high glass windows overlooked the skyline of the city his father had helped shape, a world built on the shoulders of steel, oil, and money. The polished marble floors and sleek design screamed wealth and power. It should have felt familiar to Elliot, comforting even—he had grown up surrounded by such extravagance. But today, it felt like a cage.

His body still ached from the surgeries, the skin-tight and smooth, pulled taut over muscles that hadn't fully recovered. His reflection no longer held the scars of his kidnapping, but the memory of his ordeal still lingered beneath the surface. He shifted uncomfortably in his tailored suit, feeling suffocated by the weight of his father's expectations.

Jonathan Moriarty strode into the room with the commanding presence that had always left Elliot feeling small. The man was an empire incarnate—sharp, powerful, calculating. His mere presence dominated the space. He didn't need to raise his voice to convey authority; it was laced into every word, every glance.

"You've been coddled long enough," Jonathan began, his eyes sweeping over Elliot. "It's time you learn how to run this company. You won't be my son forever—one day, you'll have to be more than just the heir. You'll need to be the king."

Elliot tensed, his hands clasping the edges of his chair. His father had spoken to him like this before—always in metaphors of power, of conquest. But this time, it was different. Before his kidnapping, Elliot had been pampered, insulated from the responsibilities of the family business. He had been allowed to live in his bubble of excess. But now, Jonathan had decided it was time for Elliot to become a Moriarty in every sense of the word.

"I've arranged for you to undergo rigorous training," Jonathan continued. "You'll learn every facet of the business—from negotiations to asset management, from market strategies to mergers and acquisitions. You'll work with my advisors, sit in on high-level meetings, and make decisions. Real decisions. You'll either rise to the occasion or fall."

His father's gaze lingered on him, the implication clear: failure wasn't an option.

Elliot's heart raced. He didn't feel ready. He hadn't yet healed from his ordeal—physically or mentally—and now he was being thrust into the heart of his father's empire. But deep down, he understood. This was what Jonathan did. He broke people, then rebuilt them in his image.

The following morning, Elliot began his first day of what his father called "heir training." It was nothing like the formal education he'd received at prestigious schools or the business theory classes he had skipped back in college. No, this was real—this was brutal.

He was handed over to Arthur Gray, his father's most trusted advisor, a man known for his ruthless efficiency and lack of tolerance for mistakes. Gray was a sharp, cold-eyed man in his mid-fifties, a veteran in the world of corporate warfare. He didn't waste time with pleasantries.

"Your father wants you to know how this company runs," Gray said as they walked through the corridors of Moriarty Industries. "That means understanding every piece of it. You don't get to sit in the ivory tower and watch the money roll in. If you want to run this empire, you have to know the dirt beneath your feet."

Gray led Elliot into the bowels of the building—into departments he had never known existed. They started with the numbers. Finance. Investments. Quarterly reports. Profit margins. All of it felt overwhelming at first. Elliot hadn't paid attention to the business side of things before. He had been content in his luxury, believing that the wealth would always be there, ready to catch him.

But Gray didn't slow down for him.

Elliot sat in on meetings where analysts broke down market trends, spoke in coded language about bonds and capital. His head spun with numbers, strategies, and projections. His previous life of decadence seemed laughably distant now. Every day, Gray drilled him on decisions—"What would you invest in? Why is this merger worth pursuing? What would happen if these stocks crashed?"—forcing Elliot to think, to engage, to understand.

It wasn't enough to know the numbers, though. The business was as much about people as it was about profits. Elliot quickly learned the art of negotiation, sitting in on intense discussions between CEOs, lawyers, and contractors. Gray was a master at reading people, at knowing when to press and when to retreat.

One afternoon, after a particularly grueling negotiation with a stubborn oil company CEO, Gray turned to Elliot. "You see what just happened in there? That's power. It's not about how much money we have—it's about control. People want to be controlled, even if they don't realize it."

Elliot listened carefully, absorbing every lesson, every subtle cue. In his weakened state, he had never felt more exposed—like a boy tossed into the middle of a battlefield. But with every day that passed, something shifted within him. He began to understand the game his father had been playing all along.

Power wasn't about brute force or dominance. It was about manipulation. Control. Knowing when to show strength and when to show vulnerability. And for the first time, Elliot felt something stir inside him that hadn't been there before—a cold, calculated part of himself that wanted to master this world.

The more Elliot learned, the more his perspective shifted. The business world wasn't just numbers and profits; it was a ruthless game of survival. And he had been living on the edge of that world his whole life, oblivious to the power plays happening behind closed doors. He had seen his father as a tyrant before, but now he understood—Jonathan Moriarty wasn't just a businessman. He was a strategist. A king in his own right.

Elliot's training became his new reality. Days turned into weeks, and the constant grind became both a burden and a strange source of purpose. He was expected to make decisions, take responsibility for them, and deal with the consequences. He learned how to handle ruthless competition, cutthroat deals, and corporate betrayals.

But as he grew sharper, more cunning, he realized something—this wasn't just about business. It was about survival. Just like his time in captivity, this world demanded strength, not just of body but of mind. Every decision was a test, every move scrutinized.

He started seeing the company as his father saw it—not just as a means of wealth, but as a legacy, an empire to control. And deep down, Elliot realized that if he didn't master this, he would always be trapped—by his father, by his own weaknesses.

Heir training wasn't just teaching him how to run a business. It was teaching him how to be a Moriarty.

Elliot's transformation, both physical and mental, was underway. His body had healed, but now it was his mind being reforged in the crucible of the corporate world. Yet, there was a growing tension inside him—between who he used to be and who he was becoming.

And Elliot wasn't sure yet if he liked what he was turning into.