Cooperation Is NOT Immunity
LOCATION: Croft Estate Living Room
TIME: Immediately after Chapter 68
PURPOSE: Emotional processing disguised as comedy.
LEGAL STATUS: Rebecca Sloan would prefer everyone stop talking.
⸻
AUTHOR: Okay. We need to discuss Aaron's accountability arc.
AARON: No.
AUTHOR: Aaron—
AARON: I spent seven hours explaining twenty years of questionable decisions to federal prosecutors.
ROMAN: "Questionable decisions" is doing Olympic-level work in that sentence.
AARON: I hate you.
ROMAN: See? He's healing.
ELENA: Roman.
ROMAN: What?
ELENA: Maybe don't antagonize the man whose attorney specifically warned him about additional criminal exposure.
Roman considers this.
ROMAN: Excellent point.
Aaron looks surprised.
ROMAN: I'll antagonize him noncriminally.
AARON: Somehow that's worse.
⸻
Rebecca Sloan enters carrying a legal pad.
Aaron immediately sits straighter.
THEO: Oh, he's scared of her.
AARON: I'm not scared of Rebecca.
Rebecca looks at him.
