LOGINArmando's POVI did not tell Marcus everything I actually knew. I had learned, over the past several weeks, that revealing suspicion too early only taught the person suspected exactly how to hide more carefully.What I told him in that meeting was only enough to make him uneasy, not enough to make him panic.I called Griggs the moment Marcus left my office."I want a full report on his movements starting immediately," I said. "Everywhere he goes for the next forty eight hours. If he tries to leave the country, I want to know before he reaches the airport, not after.""Understood, Mr. Ivas."I spent the rest of the day preparing quietly, gathering everything Okoro and Priscilla had already uncovered into a single, organized file, along with the incorporation documents, Fiona's photographs, and the notebook Thomas had finally handed over weeks earlier.I wanted every piece assembled properly before I moved against Marcus formally. Understanding that a board this size did not remove a de
Marcus Kane's POVI spent the following three days drafting the motion with a precision I had rarely applied to anything else in my career. Every clause chosen carefully, every argument constructed to withstand the kind of scrutiny I already knew Armando's legal team would eventually throw against it.The core argument was simple enough on its surface. Section fourteen of the marriage contract explicitly stated that any child born during the marriage, without written consent from both parties predating conception. Held no legal claim to any asset or inheritance belonging to either party. Cherry and Edward had been born five years before the marriage even existed, which meant, in the strictest possible reading, the clause did not technically apply to them at all.I had anticipated this weakness from the beginning, which was precisely why I had spent an additional two days constructing a secondary argument built on considerably shakier ground.One that stretched the definition of the ma
Desmond Voss's POVMarcus arrived precisely on time, though I noted the faint unsteadiness in his hands as he took the seat across from my desk. The particular tremor of a man who understood exactly how close he had come to disappearing entirely over the past two days."You kept me waiting," I said simply."I needed to be certain I was not followed, Mr. Voss." He straightened slightly, composing himself with visible effort."Armando has private security watching my movements now. I had to take considerably more care than usual.""I am aware of your difficulties." I studied him for a long moment, weighing exactly how much use remained in a man whose usefulness had grown considerably more complicated in recent days."Susan came to see me yesterday evening. She mentioned a meeting with you I was not informed about beforehand."Something flickered across his face…careful and controlled. Though not quite fast enough to hide entirely. "I did not think it significant enough to report separat
Zahara's POVWe did not talk about Marcus that evening. We did not talk about Voss, or Okoro's growing case file, or any of the danger that had followed us through, nearly every week since our wedding.For one evening, Armando and I agreed quietly and without much discussion, to simply be a family instead.We ate dinner together in the small dining room instead of the formal one. Cherry and Edward seated between us, both of them chattering happily about a game they had invented that afternoon involving the garden hedges and an imaginary dragon only Edward claimed to have actually seen."It had big wings," Edward said seriously, gesturing wide with both arms. "And it breathed fire, but only a little bit, because it was still a baby dragon.""Baby dragons cannot breathe fire yet," Cherry said, unimpressed. "Everyone knows that.""This one could," Edward said firmly. And Armando laughed, a full, easy sound I had not heard from him in longer than I could remember. The sound settling somet
Clara's POVMy mother came home late that night, later than I had seen her return in weeks.She did not stop to speak with me the way she usually did. She passed the sitting room with her coat still on...her phone already pressed to her ear before she had even reached the stairs.I told myself it was nothing unusual. My mother had always kept her business private. Always careful about which parts of her life she let me see and which parts she kept locked firmly away, even from her own daughter.But something in the tightness of her shoulders that night. The particular hurried urgency in her steps made me pause at the bottom of the stairs instead of retreating to my own room the way I normally would. I had learned to stay calm and out of my mother's way ever since I returned back after I had a quarrel with Thomas. But curiosity of knowing more held me tight.I followed quietly, close enough to hear fragments drifting from behind her half closed door."I did not lie to him, Arthur," she
Susan's POVWord about Marcus reached me by evening. The way most useful information eventually did if I waited long enough and asked the right people the right questions.He was gone. Not simply missing for a few hours. Gone in a way that made his own office nervous enough to start whispering about it before the day even ended.I sat with that news for a long time, turning it over carefully. Because a missing lawyer meant one of two things. Either he had been caught doing something Voss did not want caught; or Voss himself had decided Marcus had become a problem worth removing quietly.But neither of the answers made me feel safe.I had spent weeks telling myself I was simply a useful piece in someone else's plan. Valuable enough to be protected as long as I kept doing what was asked of me. Watching Marcus vanish this easily made that comfort feel considerably thinner than it had that morning.I called Arthur first. My voice landed sharper than I meant it to be."Where is Marcus?""I







