Wrapping her hands around his broad shoulders, Persis pulled herself onto her tiptoes.A light, fleeting peck pressed against his lips, a gentle welcome home that vanished as quickly as it had begun.Her heels touched the stone floor again as she started to pull away, intending to lead him inside for dinner. Tedmond wasn’t ready to let go.His hand shot out, fingers tangling in the hair at the nape of her neck, while the other arm locked around her waist, pulling her flush against him.Before a gasp could escape, he leaned down and kissed her with sudden, fierce intensity, a hard, possessive kiss that carried the taste of lingering adrenaline and deep, silent relief.It wasn’t the polite kiss of a businessman; it was the kiss of a man finally closing a dark chapter of his life, holding onto the only thing that made the light worth it.When he finally broke the kiss, Persis was breathless, eyes wide as she looked up at him.Tedmond said nothing. His gaze burned steadily, thumb tracing

Beatrice’s expression looked like she had been waiting for this day all her life, and she couldn’t stop smirking.“Evelyn! Adeline! There you are,” Beatrice cooed, her silk dress rustling as she tilted her head, inspecting them like museum curiosities. “We were just talking about you. It’s so brave of you to show up tonight. Truly, I don’t think I’d have the courage to leave the house if my brothers were… well, you know. In such a confined situation.”“We’re fine, Beatrice,” Evelyn replied, her voice dripping with artificial sweetness. “The law will sort out these misunderstandings soon enough. The Griffin name isn’t so easily shaken.”“Oh, of course,” another woman chirped, a younger girl in a ruffled pink gown. She reached out to touch the lace on Adeline’s sleeve, her concern entirely feigned. “And such a lovely dress, Adeline. Is it the one you wore to the opera last season? It’s so refreshing to see someone recycling their wardrobe. In these… difficult economic times, sustaina

The silence that followed their entrance was brittle, broken only by the frantic, low-frequency buzz of a hundred hushed conversations.“Who is that?” a woman near the buffet whispered, craning her neck for a better view. “Is that really the woman everyone’s been talking about? She looks like she stepped out of a palace.”The whispers swelled into a dull roar as guests leaned toward one another, eyes glued to the couple.“Who are they?” a young heiress murmured, clutching her pearl necklace. “I’ve never seen that man on the local circuit, but he carries himself like he owns the city.”“And the woman…” her companion added, squinting at the masked figure. “That gown is custom. Look at the way the light hits the silk, it’s not off-the-rack. Is he a foreign investor?”The confusion among the guests only deepened the agony for the Griffins.They were the only ones who knew exactly who he was and exactly how much he had changed.Vivian Griffin stood rigid, her knuckles white around her cane

Harold stood frozen, his hand still suspended in the air, pointing at Tedmond. His heart hammered against his ribs like a trapped bird.He couldn’t believe he had shouted the truth in public, and even more, he couldn’t believe Tedmond had looked him in the eye and denied it.‘Isn’t this what he always wanted?’ Harold thought, his mind spiraling through a warped version of the past.He remembered how Tedmond used to look at them, longing for a seat at the table, craving even a scrap of acknowledgment from the real Griffins. In Harold’s mind, he was finally opening the door. He was offering Tedmond the ultimate gift, the chance to officially be one of them, to carry the weight of the name alongside the elite.But as he studied Tedmond’s cold, immaculate exterior, a darker truth flickered at the back of Harold’s mind. He wasn’t offering this out of love.He was offering it because the Griffin name was a sinking ship, and Tedmond looked like the last lifeboat in the harbor.‘If he just

Across the room, Harold was practically glowing. He had regained his footing, his voice booming as he graciously accepted the interest of the elite.“Yes, yes, the Xinca partnership is… exclusive,” Harold told a cluster of eager investors. “But for the right local partners, we might find a way to carve out a secondary tier of involvement. We Griffins have always valued our roots, after all.”Adeline stood nearby, her eyes darting toward Tedmond. She saw her nephew’s silence and misinterpreted it as defeat. Straightening her spine, she tapped her cane against the floor with renewed authority.“You see, Harold,” Adeline whispered as she stepped beside him, “I told you the boy was nothing. He has the clothes, but he doesn’t have the stomach for the game. He’s watching us win, and he can’t do a thing about it.”Harold grinned, feeling the phantom weight of Xinca’s power shielding him.He didn’t know that the very man who held the keys to Xinca was standing ten feet away, calmly waiting