CHAPTER 92 — A Crumbling EmpirePOV: JadenThe numbers refused to settle.Jaden stared at the screen, jaw tight, eyes dry from hours of blinking without seeing. Red arrows. Declines. Missed projections. Contracts delayed not canceled, not yet but delayed long enough to feel like a slow bleed.“Sir,” his assistant said carefully, standing by the door, “The board is asking if you’ll still attend the afternoon call.”Jaden didn’t look up. “Send them the revised forecast.”“We already did.”Silence stretched.He leaned back at last, rubbing his temples. The office once alive with urgency, with people eager to please felt hollow now. Even the walls seemed to echo differently, as if the room itself had begun to doubt him.This wasn’t just market fluctuation.This was distraction.Melissa’s face rose uninvited calm, composed, unmoved by him. That polite distance had done what rage never could. It had unseated him.He had told himself he could balance both. Work and pursuit. Power and regret.
Last Updated : 2025-12-23 Read more