LOGIN"I don't know." "You said it to him. Not here." The pause that followed remained too long to be casual. "What are you afraid of?" I didn't rush it. "That I'm seeing it right. And it still falls apart anyway." She shook her head slightly. "That's not uncertainty. That's you refusing to close y
Alicia's POV Elena didn't turn when I came in. She was at the counter, spoon hovering over a bowl she hadn't touched in a while. The kettle had gone cold long enough to feel intentional. My bag hit the floor by the door. She didn't look at it. "You came back wrong." "I came back two days ago."
She turned a page. No emphasis. "They agreed." No one in the room needed more than that. "Rotterdam," George said. "Two families," Alicia said. "Both meetings ran long. Same underlying concern, different language. We answered it both times. Follow-up is scheduled." "Documentation," Catherine sa
Edward's POV The term sheet had been in my inbox since the previous night. Four pages. Clean. Volkov's committee had approved the access deal exactly as the projection had asked for. Southeast Asia. The Gulf. East Africa. The network layer intact. The timeline fixed. Nothing negotiated down. I se
Alicia's POV His arm was across my waist when I woke. The room was grey with early light, the city outside still quiet, the type of quiet that belongs to the hour before a place fully commits to its day. I lay still for a moment. The weight of his arm. The warmth of the room. The dress lying acros
Her hands moved from my shoulders to my face, her palms cupping my jaw, her thumbs stroking my cheeks. It was a gesture of such unexpected tenderness it nearly undid me. Her eyes, dark and dazed, locked onto mine. In them, I saw not the woman I had wronged, but the woman I was with, in this moment,
Edward's POV The hallway was a tunnel of expensive silence. I stopped ten feet from Philip’s door, my lungs refusing to take in a full breath. I reached for my tie, my fingers clumsy and trembling. I tightened the knot until I could feel the pulse thumping against my windpipe. I checked my cuf
I watched Edward's hand rest against the edge of the table. His knuckles pressed down. His presentation folder sat open in front of him. The one with the Singapore projections. He'd come in prepared. Confident. Ready to walk this board through a plan he'd built piece by piece. And now he was standi
Edward's POV The silence was unbearable. Edmund's pen hovered. David Park stared at the table. Priya's arms crossed. Vincent looked at his hands. Everyone waited. Alicia's hand stayed flat on the table. Fingers spread. Unmoving. I watched her face. Nothing. No tells. No hints. Just that same
The silence extended. Longer. No one defended her. No one spoke. Mitchell leaned back in his chair, someone who'd heard enough. Catherine's attention had already moved elsewhere. Edmund wouldn't even look in Margaret's direction. It was over. Whatever Margaret had tried to claim, whatever po







