hat lab sold

Flat. Controlled. Like she was holding the real temperature of her f

days after my first meeting with him. Victor had invited Clara in himself afte

nding the one thing everyone else walked past. Victor recognized it within the first hour and by the end of the second day he had quietly offered her a p

e. "One of them made a call to a private number four days after your results were processed. That number traces

is confirmed somethin

t. "So Richard has know

response to knowing you were coming," Clara said. "The asset movemen

t Vivienne

She met with Richard Cole privately two days after her return. Our source i

n's face whenever it came up. I had spent three years resenting someone I had never directly confronted. Now

ymore," Clara said, reading my exp

she want fr

uring that. What she's offering him in return we don't know yet. But a woman like Vivien

clean and ordered from up here. Everything in its place. From street level i

her's work. The companies he built. The vision he had for Shao Industries that Richard had spent years dismantling quietly from the outside

e

Victor to write it down because I didn't trust myself to hold i

I understood instinctively that the moment I started thinking about the money as real

ld afford

w. "Richard has had two months to prepare. Every day we spen

ictor said. "The legal establishment of your identity has to be clean. One

erything around it. His reputation. His alliances. His public standing."

es

hes closing it." I looked at Victor. "You said you have

e. It was the look he got when I said something that reminded him of his bro

was neutralized. He put me in a marriage with his own son to keep me contained. He has never on

w?" Vic

ws that I exist. That gap is the only advanta

s chair and looked at me the way he had looked at me the first mor

n in any fight was the one your opponent didn'

chard Cole keeps looking

n the table. I lo

tely. I had memorized it three years ago without meaning to because

enne

ge was fo

ed to