The final subordinate target was Mark, the quiet gossip whose whispers had poisoned the office well against Ren from day one. His wife, Jessica, was a different challenge. The System identified her as ambitious, calculating, and happily married. Their contentment was a fortress, and Ren was eager to prove he could tear it down.
The opportunity came at the annual OmniCorp dinner party, a formal affair where employees flaunted their success and their spouses. Ren watched Mark and Jessica, the very picture of a happy, newly married couple, holding hands and laughing at shared jokes. While Mark, puffed up with self-importance, left her to network, Jessica slipped onto a quiet balcony for a moment of peace. The patient predator had found his opening.
He followed, sliding the heavy glass door shut behind him. The soft click of the latch was loud in the sudden quiet. Jessica turned, startled. He was a handsome stranger, and he had just cornered her.
He didn't speak. He activated [Mind Reader].
An image, a memory, flooded his mind, pulled directly from hers: her and Mark, just a few months ago, laughing as they ran through the rain to their car after a movie, soaked and happy. Mark pushes the wet hair from her face, his eyes full of pure, uncomplicated adoration. It was a simple, perfect moment she cherished. Ren now had his scalpel.
"It's funny, isn't it?" he said, his [Mesmeric Voice] soft and philosophical. "How we romanticize the simple moments. We tell ourselves it's love, when really... it's just a comfortable habit. A pleasant distraction from the life we're too afraid to chase."
The words, nonsensical on the surface, bypassed her logic and struck her soul. The beautiful memory flickered, suddenly tainted with a cold, alien feeling of doubt. Is he right? a voice in her head whispered. Into that hairline crack of uncertainty, Ren poured the full, overwhelming force of his [Aphrodisiac Aura].
On that balcony, with the muffled sounds of her husband's corporate party just a thin sheet of glass away, he shattered her fortress and took her completely, proving that no bond was strong enough to withstand the power of his System.