All Chapters of THE SOVEREIGN SHIELD : Chapter 31 - Chapter 32

Elena's POVThe Vane Tower did not wake up on the morning of the merger signing; it braced itself.By 9:00 AM, the lobby was a fortress of black suits and earpieces. The Sterlings had brought their own security—men with dead eyes and bulge-heavy jackets—to supplement the Vane guards. It was a silent occupation. They weren't here to protect the building; they were here to ensure the "Sovereign Shield" was locked into place without a single drop of dissent.I stood in the center of the Chairperson’s office, staring at my reflection in the floor-to-ceiling glass. I was wearing a dress of charcoal wool, high-collared and restrictive, with the Rossi emerald—the fake one I had swapped for the real stone weeks ago—hanging like a heavy green lie against my throat.My hands were ice.In less than three hours, the pens would hit the vellum. Vincent Sterling would sign. I would sign. And the Vane-Rossi empire would become a subsidiary of the Sterling Trust. But that wasn't the nightmare keeping t