THE BILLION DOLLAR DECEPTION

Sera's POVI was fed up with the attention we were drawing outside so I opened the door and led him in.He stood in my living room like he had every right to be there, his eyes making one slow pass around our space, the water stain on the ceiling, the secondhand couch and throw pillows all in different designs, the cushion I had stitched back together twice, the stack of bills on the counter. His expression did not change. He had that same look of disdain plastered on his face."Sit down, Seraphina.""You're in my house," I said. "You don't get to tell me what to do. In my house."He looked at me for a moment. Then he moved to the couch and sat down himself, adjusting his jacket like the expensive piece of clothing might catch a disease. I stayed by the door."How do you know my name?""I know a great deal about you." He reached into his jacket and produced a folded document, then he set it on the coffee table without opening it. "I know you are twenty seven. I know you work three f

Adrian's POVThe projector had been running for forty minutes now, I was getting real bored of this damn meeting. "Third quarter projections show a fourteen percent growth margin in the Asian market," Henderson said from the far end of the table. "If we move aggressively on the Seoul acquisition before December—""We're not moving on Seoul."Henderson stopped clicking. Around the table, six other people stopped whatever they were pretending to do and became very still. They knew I meant business whenever I spoke in that tone.“Page forty-seven of your own report," I said. "The subsidiary agreement with their logistics partner. There's a conflict clause buried in there that activates the moment we absorb the parent company. We'd be walking into a seventy million dollar legal dispute we had absolutely nothing to do with."Henderson stared at me. "I didn't—""I read your report twice, Henderson. I found it the first time."He closed his mouth and nodded once, bowing his head in shame.N