There are only 2 ways to survive in Sitciny: Either be born on the right side of the city or make your side the right.

In a place where power and money breed loyalty, it is a game of survival and has been so since the foundation of the city. After all, only one could dominate the city that flowed with money fickler than its people. And direct competition often led to direct confrontation. The old and powerful families, like the Blackwells, Bernys and Kings, as mentioned in the story and others, were well-versed in the game as they were in business. But they were also familiar with diplomacy.

Because even if they had to go against each other, they still had a common element to deal with—the average people of Sitciny. They were what is known as old money, but Sitciny had always been a manufacturing hub that invited and embraced change. To keep power consolidated with the old families, the politics never turned ugly and the status quo was maintained.

In fact, the class difference had always been blatantly visible in Sitciny. From where they lived to their workplaces. For their estates, the smallest portion of the population—the old families occupied the most area and the area closest to access to fresh resources like food, water. They set up their businesses in the middle of the city, pushing even government buildings to the peripheries. Their roads were broader and living conditions the most sanitary.

The middle-class families occupied the middle of the city and set up their work in the peripheries of the city or worked for the old families, from generation to generation. Though their living conditions weren’t great like the old families, they were far better than people on the other side. They had access to sanitary conditions and their part of the city was well-planned.

Living next to the sewers, in tiny alleys, and cluttered homes, were the poor. Their lives were dominated and confided to their side of the city. No one dared to look over to the other side until…

Colt Hayes was a shrewd and ambitious man. His father and his father before him had been running a mechanic shop in the dirtiest parts of Sitciny. Colt was notorious for stealing, picking up fights, and dreaming too big. In fact, it was Colt who once told his 6-year-old son, Wayne, to look over the other side of the city and keep looking until he reached there. Colt’s own father, an infamous thief, hadn’t made his childhood easy, but wanting to turn things legal and live a better life, he dared to enter the city centre with a business proposition for the Blackwell family’s EDGE Group.

Taken aback and equally impressed by Colt’s direct approach, wit, and confidence, the CEO of EDGE Group, Fletcher Blackwell, agreed. Even after much resistance from his younger brother, Bryan and best friend and long-time business partner, Ace Berny. Somewhere, Fletcher believed Colt to be incapable of delivering his side of the deal and returning to the status quo. But Colt followed through and changed for the first time the Sitciny everyone knew.

Though he was still not allowed anywhere near the centre of the city, let alone the other side, Colt moved from the dirtiest part of the city to a somewhat better place while still on his side.But it was his son, Wayne Hayes, that changed the entire game. If Colt was ambitious enough to build Hayes Enterprise, Wayne was fearless enough to make it grand. No matter who he had to take out of the way.

After Maise Blackwell, Fletcher Blackwell’s older daughter, fell in love with Wayne in college, the game for the first time began turning deadly. Adamant on marrying Wayne, Maise’s demand was met with resistance from everyone on her side. Generation-old alliances like the Blackwells and Bernys were tested and broken. And without knowing or meaning to Maise helped Wayne fully take over the law enforcement and create a new part of Sitciny in the centre of the poor and average distinction of the city.

With grand mansions and skyscrapers, Wayne had finally made his side the right side of Sitciny and pushed back the old families. All the while forgetting, EDGE Group still loomed over the entire city—watching and untouched.

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