The trade event was twelve days away.The International Luxury Goods and Textiles Forum ran annually and had been running for nineteen years. It was the kind of event that existed in the upper register of the industry — invitation only, heavily networked, the place where relationships between manufacturers, distributors, retailers, and investors were maintained and extended.Diaz had been watching it for three years.Two confirmed Volkov network associates attended regularly. A third had been at the last two events. The network used the forum the way it used everything — as legitimate cover, a place where financial conversations could happen in the margins of professional ones and no one asked why certain people knew each other.Grace had attended four times. She had been invited again this year. The invitation had arrived before the trial, before any of this, as a matter of professional routine.She had not yet responded.---Diaz laid it out at the penthouse with two members of her
Last Updated : 2026-04-22 Read more