Mag-log inIt started over something ridiculous, the way these things always seemed to, a minor detail that shouldn't have mattered at all against everything else already piled on top of us these past few weeks."You moved my laptop," Liam said, standing in the middle of the living room, scanning the counter and the coffee table like the missing device might materialize if he looked hard enough, his tie already loosened from a day that clearly hadn't gone well."I put it in the drawer," I said, not looking up from the dishes I was washing, tension already tightening my shoulders even before the conversation had properly begun. "You left it on the counter, and I needed the space for dinner.""I needed it for a call in ten minutes, Nina.""Then it's in the drawer, exactly where I told you it would be if you'd been listening earlier when I mentioned it before you left this morning.""I wasn't listening because I was on the phone with outside counsel at the time, trying to keep us out of a federal i
I hung up on Tom Reyes without another word, my hand still trembling as I set the phone down on the counter for the second time that morning, the screen dark and silent now but somehow still feeling dangerous."We heard you have information about the settlement. Care to confirm?" That was what he'd said. Not the company. Not the board. Me, specifically, as though I were a source rather than a bystander caught in the wreckage of someone else's mess entirely.Liam finished his call with Patricia and turned to find me staring at the phone like it might ring again on its own, my expression clearly telling him something had shifted."Nina, what happened?""He asked me to confirm information about the settlement," I said slowly, still working through it in my own mind as I said it out loud, trying to make sense of the details even as I spoke them. "Specific information. About the original buyout terms not matching the public filing.""That's a fairly technical detail for a reporter to guess
The morning started ordinarily enough, coffee and quiet, Liam more present than he'd been in weeks since our conversation in his office, something visibly repaired between us even if the larger crisis was still far from resolved. He'd made breakfast for the first time in almost a month, nothing elaborate, just eggs and toast, but the gesture itself felt significant after everything.Then Patricia called before either of us had finished our first cup."Turn on the news," she said, no greeting, straight to the point in a way that told me immediately something new had landed on top of everything else already sitting on our plates.Liam grabbed the remote, and within seconds a business anchor's voice filled the kitchen, calm and professional in that particular way that made bad news sound almost routine, almost forgettable."...a lawsuit filed late yesterday by former business partner Charles Renfrew, alleging breach of a prior partnership agreement dating back nearly six years. Renfrew's
The first missed dinner was easy to forgive. Liam texted an apology, something short and clipped about outside counsel needing another hour, and I told him not to worry about it, that I understood, that Meridian and the board and Sophie Marsh mattered more right now than a reservation at a restaurant we could visit any other night of the week.The second missed dinner came without a text at all. I sat at my own kitchen table with two plates and a candle I'd lit for no particular reason, watching the wax pool and harden while I waited for a message that never came. He walked in near midnight, apologized briefly, barely meeting my eyes, and fell asleep almost immediately, still in his shirt from that morning, his tie draped over the arm of the couch like something he'd forgotten he was wearing.By the end of the first week, it had stopped feeling like an exception and started feeling like a pattern, one I recognized from somewhere deep and old, though I told myself repeatedly it wasn't
Liam left before dawn, dressed formally instead of the usual quick suit he threw on for office days, and I recognized the difference immediately for what it was, a man preparing for a fight rather than a normal Tuesday morning."You could sit in on this one," I said, watching him fix his cufflinks in front of the mirror, his movements more deliberate than usual."Not this time," he said. "Emergency board sessions are closed. Even to me, technically, until they call me in to answer questions directly. I'll be waiting outside the room like everyone else, which is its own particular kind of unpleasant.""That sounds miserable.""It is," he admitted, finally meeting my eyes in the mirror. "I've spent years running that room. Today I get to sit in a hallway and wait for permission to speak in my own defense.""I'll be here," I said. "Whenever you're done.""I know," he said, something in his voice softening briefly before the mask of the morning settled back over him. "That actually helps
Patricia was already in Liam's office by the time we arrived, three laptops open across the conference table, her usual composure fighting to hold together over something clearly worse than a few unflattering headlines splashed across the business section."Close the door," she said, not looking up from the screen in front of her.Liam did, and I took the seat beside him, bracing myself for whatever came next, my coffee from that morning suddenly feeling like it belonged to a different, easier version of this same day."It's not just the articles," Patricia said, finally looking up at both of us. "That was bad enough on its own, genuinely bad, but I've got worse waiting for you now.""How much worse," Liam asked, his voice already careful in the way that meant he was preparing himself for something specific."The Meridian negotiation," Patricia said. "The one you've been working for months now, the acquisition terms that were supposed to stay locked down until the signing next week, n
Deep down inside of me, I knew the quietness in this office wasn’t going to remain when Daniel arrived. I sat across from my lawyer, my hands resting on the arm of the chair like I needed something solid to keep me up. The clock on the wall ticked steadily, each second dragging, and I found myself
I didn’t go back into the party.I couldn’t.The music still pulsed faintly through the walls as I pushed open the stairwell door, the heavy metal slamming shut behind me with a dull echo that felt louder than it should have. The sudden quiet wrapped around me, thick and suffocating, broken only by
“Come in,” his voice came from inside, steady, like he had expected me.Of course, he had.I pushed the door open and stepped in without hesitation, closing it behind me with a soft click. He was at his desk, sleeves rolled just enough to show his wrists, his posture relaxed but focused, like he
“You need to see this,” she said, her voice breaking into laughter as she turned the screen toward me.I leaned forward slightly, squinting at the phone. “What now?”“Girl, they are dragging him,” she said, shaking her head, her tone somewhere between impressed and amused. “Look at this headline.







