Radiant dimmed

Sunlight poured through the floor-to-ceiling windows of the Kade Tower penthouse, catching the gleam of steel and glass that overlooked the city below. Radiant, the young heroine known for her red-and-blue suit and steady courage, touched down lightly on the terrace, her cape fluttering in the warm wind. This wasn’t a mission. Not today. She’d come because Victor Kade—the billionaire inventor once branded as her greatest nemesis—had lost everything overnight: his company seized, his reputation ruined. The headlines painted him as a monster again, but when he’d sent a quiet message asking to talk, there had been something in it—regret, maybe even loneliness—that she couldn’t ignore. Inside, the penthouse felt strangely hollow, the hum of machines gone silent. Victor stood near the window, looking nothing like the calculating genius she’d fought so many times. “You didn’t have to come,” he said softly.