and pulled up in front of an unassuming prewar buildi

space was hers. Polished concrete floors, exposed brick walls, minimalist furniture in charc

was a welcome shock. She crossed to the industrial kitchen and pulled a bo

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

te countertop. Darius. She sw

ou think I'd believe a ridiculous

oss the screen. Her message

te based on Lloyd Group's last qua

stepped away from the p

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

silk 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

. "Think about it, Darius. A woman with no background, no connections, suddenly claiming she owns a signi

ve done something dirty. A woman lik

Believing Isabelle was a criminal was so much easier-so much easie

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

und her as her thoughts drifted back three years. To the crisis. Lloyd Group teet

l companies-and injected the lifeline the company so desperately needed. She had t

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

rice. A secret deal struck with a desperate Magnu

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

them

regimes on small

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

over a contact li

uld be a smoking crater by morning

sed the

t

as per

rn in slow motion. She want

andscape of power and ambition. The gam