“Come back here, you bastard!” Tyler shouted, his face red like fire. He banged the table so hard the cups shook. “Where are you going to? Don’t you want to see the Jewel you lost? Don’t you want to watch me break it and pull out the raw gold inside?” The whole hall turned quiet. All eyes moved to Damon. Damon stopped. Slowly, he turned around. His face was calm, too calm. His black bag of money dangled from his hand. Then, without saying a word, he walked back and sat down again, right in front of Tyler. The crowd gasped. Tyler smirked, his teeth showing. “Good. Stay. I want you to watch me win. You’ll see you’re a fool.” He snapped his fingers at the seller. “Bring me a hammer. I’ll break this thing myself.” The seller looked nervous, but obeyed. Soon a big iron hammer was laid on the table. Tyler rubbed his hands, almost shaking with greedy joy. “Now watch, beggar-boy,” Tyler said, raising the hammer high. “When I smash this, you will see the gold inside, and I’ll be

he next day, the board meeting was already in motion when Celeste walked in. Vivian had sat at the head of the table, composed as ever, with her glasses on. Celeste took her usual seat to Vivian’s right, with her tablet in hand, her eyes keep reaching to her phone every seconds. The meeting was to start in the next two minutes and Damon still hadn’t shown up. She’d called him before dawn, twice and no answer. The last time she heard from him was during the midnight meeting. Did he fall asleep? Was he ignoring her? “Let’s proceed,” Vivian said with her smooth voice ,“Updates on Haverson?” There was a shuffle of papers. Mr. Latham, one of the older board members, cleared his throat. “Before that, we should address the restructuring figures. The quarter-end projections show a shortfall in division C.” Vivian nodded once. “Celeste?” Celeste straightened, tone crisp. “The numbers from division C were delayed due to procurement irregularities. We’ve flagged the discrepancies and expec

They barely stepped past the glass doors when Celeste’s hand caught Damon’s sleeve and stopped him. The hallway outside the boardroom was still buzzing with executives laughing about hiking boots and lake-view villas, but instantly, Celeste dragged Him in the narrow corner behind the frosted wall, the air felt different. Quieter. Focused. Damon turned slightly. “You planning to drag me into another midnight meeting?” Celeste didn’t bother with his sarcasm this time. Her eyes narrowed curiosity. “How did you do it, Damon?" Damon didn’t respond, he just looked at her like she should already know. Celeste stepped closer, with an unreadable expression “Don’t play coy. You got Martin Haverson to drop a twenty percent price hike and cleared a blocked retreat fund in one night. Whitmore’s financial division has been strangled by that freeze for a year. Compliance hasn’t approved a recreational expenditure since the audit. Yet you...” her voice lowered, “...you got them to sign off in