All Chapters of Romance Of Betrayal : Chapter 31 - Chapter 33

SophiaDaniel Kim arrived at noon exactly.I watched him from the upper landing as he came through the front door — tall, composed, wearing a suit with the ease of someone who had never needed clothes to feel confident. He had the kind of face that would age into authority. Sharp cheekbones, intelligent dark eyes, a stillness to his expression that I recognized now as something practiced rather than natural.He had been practicing stillness in Ethan's proximity for ten years.I came down the stairs as Marcus escorted him to the sitting room. Daniel looked up when he heard my steps. He stopped moving for exactly half a second when he saw me.Good.I smiled at him. "Mr. Kim.""Ms. Reed," he said. Smooth recovery. Quick recalibration. He glanced from me to Marcus and back. Processing.Ethan was already in the sitting room when we entered. He was standing by the window — not behind the desk, not seated in a position of deliberate authority. Just standing there, looking out at the grounds,

Ethan POVThe next forty eight hours were the most planned of my professional life.Ethan Blackwood had, over the course of his career, managed hostile takeovers, navigated financial crises, handled the collapse of partnerships and the acquiring of deals that had seemed certain until the moment they weren't. He was familiar to complex operations with high stakes and narrow margins.This was different.This was personal.Which made me more careful, not less. Personal stakes sharpen the mind if you let them. The danger is letting the sharpening become anger and the anger become recklessness. I had felt that danger in the sitting room after Daniel left the pull of the wound, the desire to move fast and hard and without calculation. I had stood in Sophia's arms and let the feeling move through me and then set it aside, the way you set down something heavy you cannot carry without stopping first.Then I went back to work.Priya finished her documentation that evening. Forty two million do