Chapter 4

I hit the pavement outside the terminal.

Behind me, the glass doors slid shut.

Leo stood just inside the entrance, bright terminal lights glowing behind him.

“Don’t dirty the place,” he called. “Bad luck follows people like you.”

Then he turned and walked away.

For a while, I couldn’t move.

The night air was cold against my torn shirt. My palms stung. My knees throbbed. My cheek ached where the phone had hit me.

I pressed the power button with numb fingers.

The screen flickered once.

Twice.

Then it came alive.

The moment the signal returned, notifications flooded in.

Missed calls.

Messages.

More missed calls.

At the top was a voice message from Dad, sent ten minutes earlier.

My hands started shaking before I even tapped it.

His voice came through the speaker, hoarse and exhausted.

“Nessa, you said you’d be here this afternoon.”

A pause.

“Your grandmother kept waiting for you. She held on as long as she could.”

My breath stopped.

“But night came, and you still weren’t here.”

Another pause.

“She’s gone.”

The phone slipped in my hand.

For a moment, the whole world went quiet.

Then Dad’s voice broke.

“Where are you? Why didn’t you answer?”

I folded over on the pavement, tears falling soundlessly this time.

“Dad,” I whispered when I finally called him back. “Did Grandma think I didn’t come?”

On the other end, my father, Richard Sterling, the man who had built an airline empire without ever once sounding unsure, seemed to struggle for breath.

“Nessa, don’t say that. This wasn’t your fault. She left too soon.”

I bit down on my lip until I tasted blood.

“No,” I said. “Someone stopped me.”

The line went still.

I looked up at the enormous Solstice Air sign glowing against the night sky.

“They took my phone,” I said. “They locked me in a janitor’s closet all day.”

Dad’s voice dropped.

“What did you just say?”

“They wouldn’t let me board. Then they had security drag me away. They filmed me. They locked me up until after the flight landed.”

For several seconds, he said nothing.

When he spoke again, his voice was no longer tired.

It was deadly calm.

“Which airport?”

I stared at the sign.

“Our airport,” I said. “Solstice Air.”

The people who had humiliated me had no idea that my family owned the airline.

I had never wanted to make a spectacle of myself. I bought my own ticket. I stood in line like everyone else. I thought that should have been enough.

It wasn’t.

If Leo had not taken my phone, I could have called for a private jet. I could have made it home.

I could have said goodbye.

Something inside me went cold.

“Dad,” I said, wiping my face. “I’m sorry I didn’t get to Grandma in time.”

Then I looked at the terminal doors.

“And I’m done staying quiet.”

His breathing changed.

“Nessa?”

“Notify the board,” I said. “I’m taking over the company ahead of schedule.”

A silence.

Then, without hesitation, he said, “Done.”

“Ground every Solstice Air route connected to this incident. I want the airport division investigated from top to bottom.”

“I’m on my way,” Dad said. “And I want to see who was stupid enough to put their hands on Richard Sterling’s daughter.”

The next morning, I returned to the airport.

Not in a torn T-shirt.

Not with blood on my palms.

I wore a black couture suit, sharp enough to cut, with dark sunglasses and heels that struck the floor like a warning.

Behind me came my father, the group’s senior legal team, and a wall of bodyguards in black.

We did not wait in line.

We did not ask permission.

The VIP terminal entrance was sealed the moment we arrived.

Leo was at the counter, laughing with several influencer-looking women, leaning back like he owned the place.

Then he saw me.

For one second, he froze.

Then he laughed.

“Well, look who came back,” he said. “The gold digger from yesterday.”

He looked me over, taking in the suit, the sunglasses, the people behind me.

“What’s this? Couldn’t scam any money, so you rented an outfit and hired some extras?”

He stepped out from behind the counter, arrogance settling back over him.

“Nice try. The suits almost look real.”

I removed my sunglasses.

Leo kept smiling.

“I don’t care who you brought,” he said. “This is my turf. Even if you dragged God in here, you’d still have to behave.”

I looked at him the way you look at something already finished.