Loser's Rules

Adam Reyes and Victor Kane built an investment firm together. Then Victor siphoned the clients' money, doctored the records, and pinned the fraud on Adam. Adam went to prison. His father died of the shame, his wife divorced him believing the airtight evidence, and Victor renamed the firm, got rich, and became a celebrated philosopher of ruthless self-interest. His creed is simple and it is his brand: the strong take, everyone acts for themselves, and sentiment is just a leash others use to pull you. His favorite taunt to Adam was that trusting him was not a crime, it was Adam's mistake.

Adam comes out with nothing but one thing Victor forgot, and a plan that has to be perfect, because he is a convicted felon and any misstep looks like a bitter man forging his own innocence. What follows is a tense cat-and-mouse where Adam gains an inch and Victor takes a mile back, where the villain is genuinely brilliant and wins real rounds, and where every one of Adam's moves goes through the single blind spot in Victor's philosophy.

This is a revenge drama that is both literal and philosophical. The villain is destroyed in full, and he is destroyed by his own rule, disproven at the last. Can Adam beat Victor without becoming him? And what is the one move a man who prices everything can never see coming?