
The 11 Vows of
A psychological novel
A novel of power, betrayal, restraint, and the wars we build around our wounds.
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Inside the novel
He helped build the kingdom.
Then he was asked to disappear.
A seasoned strategist joins a young founder to build something larger than either could create alone. But as the company grows, the systems designed to strengthen it begin to threaten the person who needs to remain at its center.
When the partnership fractures, the damage reaches far beyond two people. Employees learn to watch the emotional weather. Family members become protectors. Loyalty begins to look like silence.
Outside the kingdom, the man who has been removed knows its strengths, its secrets, and its fragile places. He discovers how much power he could use. And how deliberately he must choose what to do with it.
The Queen Has No Friends explores the seductive line between justice and revenge, and the cost of becoming someone you no longer recognize in order to win.
“The throne does not create power. It reveals what a person is willing to sacrifice in order to remain seated.”
From The Queen Has No Friends
A cautionary tale for a business in transition
The systems meant to strengthen this company threaten the founder’s sense of control. Employees become cautious. A fractured partnership becomes a test of how power will be used. The novel makes room to examine these pressures before they shape your own decisions.
As your business introduces AI and automation, ask: Who may feel less needed? Where is authority confused with personal worth? Can people speak honestly about what is changing? What will keep human connection at the center of the new way of working?
The Cost of Standing Still carries these questions into a larger business transition: automation does the heavy lifting, while people find new purpose in connecting, creating, and collaborating.
Explore the audience journeyRead an excerpt
PROLOGUEThe opening of
The Queen Has No Friends
I did not call her.
That sounds less significant than it was.
There were nights when her number sat three touches away from my thumb and every part of me wanted the relief of confrontation. I wanted to ask how a person could invite someone into a future, build beside him, call him partner, use his experience, rely on his judgment, accept his work, and then begin behaving as though the history between them were an administrative misunderstanding that could be corrected by an attorney.
I wanted answers.
More than that, I wanted recognition.
There is a primitive desperation in being misrepresented by someone who once knew you intimately. It is not enough to know your own truth. You want the person rewriting it to stop.
I did not call.
Excerpt © 2026 Trey Malicoat, M.S. All rights reserved.
The novel
Discover The Queen Has No Friends. Bring its questions about fear, control, and the courage to adapt into your next leadership conversation.
Restoration Press · Denver, Colorado
First edition · Paperback ISBN 979-8-9941559-2-9







Explore connection, responsibility, purpose, and the relationships that shape our lives. Keynotes are available for each book in the series.

The 11 Vows of

The 11 Vows of

The 11 Vows of

The 11 Vows of

The 11 Vows of

The 11 Vows of

Companion workbook