Mag-log inThat same morning, while the Sterling meeting was going on, the entire Zenith Group had their own emergency meeting at Marchmont House.The meeting took place on the forty-eighth floor, inside a boardroom no outsider had entered in more than twenty years.Zenith Capital Group did not believe in independent directors.It did not believe strangers deserved access to family decisions.Every single person inside this space was a Zenith. Not one outside director.Not one independent appointment. Not one professional executive brought in from another company because of his reputation or his qualifications. Every seat at that table belonged to a man or woman who carried the family name, and it had been that way for four generations.It did not stop at the boardroom either. The chief financial officer was a Zenith. The head of legal was a Zenith. The woman who ran the entire logistics division was Dorian's aunt. The two secretaries seated against the far wall taking notes were both Zeniths, a
Arthur said it plainly. And almost no one in this room could believe that he would have the nerve to call Maxwell's plan stupid.The entire boardroom became completely silent.Victoria's head turned slowly toward Arthur, and every person at that table recognized that look, because most of them had been on the receiving end of it at least once in their careers.Julian leaned back in his chair but did not interfere.Maxwell looked directly at Arthur. Although he was not happy to hear someone call his carefully thought out plan stupid, Maxwell decided to be humble here. A great leader listened to other people's advice, and he intended to do that here."Which part?" He asked."All of it," Arthur replied.He pushed the folder away from himself."With respect, I was the first person in this room to ask when you intended to take that chair. However, I will not begin praising every idea you have merely because you are sitting there now.""Arthur." Victoria's voice did not rise at all. "Mind h
Maxwell was calm."Well, he can't prove that it was me," Maxwell said.He believed it completely. There had been no face on that footage, and no real name on that visitor log, nothing that could hold up anywhere that mattered. As far as any court in this country was concerned, the man in the grey uniform did not exist.Dorian had recognized him anyway.Maxwell already understood why. He'd had the whole ride over to work it out for himself. The coronation footage had been running on every channel in the city for twelve straight hours by the time that photograph landed on Dorian's desk. Every angle of Maxwell crossing that stage was on it: the same build, the same height, the same unhurried way he moved through a room, whether he was accepting a company or breaking into one. Dorian had not needed a face. He had simply watched that walk on live television for half a day, then matched it against a hallway from months before."Legally, you're correct," Eleanor said. "He cannot prove it. No
It was possible because the Zenith family had not merely broken the law.They had reached inside the federal justice system and rewritten reality itself.Julian turned his phone around and slid it across the table."Look at the date."Maxwell picked it up.Displayed on the screen was a copy of a sealed federal release order. Most of the page had been covered in black lines, but the name at the top remained visible.DORIAN ZENITH.Maxwell's eyes moved lower.Then they stopped on the date.His expression changed. He didn't like what he was seeing. According to this, Dorian barely spent time in custody. "This was signed on my wedding day." He said."Three hours before you married Driana," Julian confirmed coldly.Maxwell stared at the screen.While four hundred guests had watched him and Driana exchange vows, Dorian Zenith had been walking out of federal custody through a private service gate!The whole country had believed the man was still locked away.For nearly six months, Maxwell h
Back at the Ashford hotel. The rest of the family did not stay much longer after their breakfast. The mood felt like it has been ruined after Victoria brought up Theo's standing in the family. Clara and Daniel were the first to leave. Daniel carried Theo against his shoulder, and he and Clara did not say anything to Victoria. Hell, Clara didn't even glance at her once on her way out the door. After what Victoria had just said to a five-year-old boy sitting three feet away from her, Clara was upset with her. Driana left next after she received a phone call. Isobelle followed Victoria out a few minutes later, already deep in conversation about moving a fitting up to that afternoon, and Julian barely lifted his eyes from his coffee as the two of them walked past him.That left only Maxwell and Julian at the long table, along with two cups of coffee that had gone completely cold. A waiter hovered somewhere near the doorway waiting for a signal from them.Julian leaned back in his chair
When Dorian got arrested months ago, it came as a shock to him. First of all, he had been very careful and left no evidence, the only evidence that existed was the receipt, but even that was locked away in his office.Yet somehow, the case against him had been built on that same one single piece of evidence. The bank transaction receipt from a private institution in Zurich, four hundred and twenty thousand dollars, dated two days after a key federal witness died in his cell.Dorian had known that document existed, because he had placed it inside the leather folder on his desk himself. Paper was far safer than anything with a digital screen. That was the entire reason he used it.What he had never understood was how a clear photograph of that receipt ended up inside a federal file.Nobody had broken into that office! His own security team had confirmed it three times! No tripped alarms, no broken locks, nothing missing, not so much as a drawer left open. The leather folder had been sit






