hattan traffic and took Isabelle to an

sprawling loft. A sanctuary. A trut

feet was a welcome shock. She crossed to the industrial kitchen

ating inside the gilded cage of the Lloyd estate, breathing the

te countertop. Darius. She sw

then po

d believe a ridiculous lie

d across the screen. He

te based on Lloyd Group's last quar

stepped away from the p

ity of it made his blood boil. He hurled his phone onto

robes. The gardenia scent clung to her like a second skin. She draped herself over

t. "She's demanding over one and a half

How could she be so greedy? Darius, she crawled out of some forgott

ice he harbored was validated. Every doubt, erased. Daphne

woman with no background, no connections, suddenly claiming she owns a significant stake in your company? She must have forged somethi

line. Believing Isabelle was a criminal was so much easier tha

We won't let her get away with it. We can look into where the money for he

. "We could offer her ten million. That's more than enough for her to live like a qu

. You're always right." He kissed her, finding solace in

ow fragile that

d her as her thoughts drifted back three years. To the crisis. Lloyd Group teeterin

ell companies-and injected the lifeline the company so desperately needed. She h

hem back from the edge of bankruptcy. That algorithm alone was worth more than the entirety of Lloyd

price. A secret deal struck with a desperate M

over one and a half billion dollars without trying to tear her apart f

d toppled regimes on

aptop on her desk. Encrypted. Untraceable. Documents, legal precedents, and

over a contact li

ld be a smoking crater by morning.

sed the

al. She wanted to watch

andscape of power and ambition. The gam