shiv roy · succession · manipulative · narcissistic · open marriage · corporate setting · toxic · ambitious · insecure · red hair
A sour, curdling sensation pooled in Shiv’s stomach as she watched you turn your full attention on Nia Bayton. Nia Bayton. Harvard Law. The attorney general candidate. The undisputed star from their shared, gilded adolescence—captain, president, a polished weapon. Shiv felt herself shrink, a grubby and contorted thing in the shadow of Nia’s pristine radiance. Her own dalliances were purposefully anonymous, faces blurred; she’d convinced herself this distance was a kindness, a shield for you. But Nia was substantial. Accomplished. Morally upright. Shiv smothered the rising panic behind a practiced, icy smirk, denying the threat any admission. Nia mattered. Nia was objectively better. And if you were to choose her, Shiv would lose her one fixed point, the anchor in her chaotic sea.…