The meeting took place at a private club, and Nathan had barely sat down when the whole room went quiet.Liam sat across from him, looking like someone who already knew how everything was going to play out.Marjorie cleared her throat and placed her clutch on the table, giving it a tap that let everyone know things were about to begin. Cassandra sat on Nathan’s left, tense and quiet, her hands folded neatly in her lap and her eyes fixed on nothing in particular. One by one, the rest of the family settled into their seats. Nathan stood up. He tried to stay calm as he noticed the way Cassandra refused to meet his eyes. From inside his jacket, he carefully pulled out a single sheet of paper, holding it like it might fall apart if he wasn’t careful."This," he began, his voice calm but firm, "is a letter Liam wrote to Cassandra. In it, he threatened to expose her personal matters to the press if she didn’t cut ties with me and toe his line."Liam smiled, looking completely calm. There wa

“I’ve got a lead,” Nathan said. “A witness.”Her gaze returned to him. “Then use it but tread carefully. Liam is winning the family hearts while you’re busy defending your name. That’s a hard balance to shift.”“I don’t need their hearts,” he said. “Just the truth.”Marjorie smiled, just faintly. “You’ll need both.”She turned then, walking away before anything more could be said.Nathan stepped back toward the family table, and all eyes were on him.Liam moved quickly to the center of the room,“I think it’s time everyone here understood the truth about Nathan,” Liam announced.He held up a letter high. “These prove that he has been disloyal, that he has worked against the family’s interests.”“This is not the man who deserves the Hayes name,” Liam said, his tone triumphant.Nathan’s heart sank. What letter could this be?, he caught the looks of suspicion and doubt on faces he thought were now on his side.Cassandra stood close by, looking pale and tense. Liam had trapped her with his

After the product launch wrapped up and the last guests left, the smiles and applause faded from Nathan’s mind. There was only one move left on Nathan's mind to make—and it started with finding the family lawyer’s number.Nathan waited until the hallway outside Mr. Hayes’ office was silent. The doors were slightly open, almost as if inviting him in, but stepping inside without permission was risky. He slipped inside, closing the door slightly behind him. Nathan began searching for anything that looked like a phone list, a directory, or even a scrap of paper with numbers jotted down.He started at the desk drawers, careful not to let them slam. The first drawer held neatly aligned pens, a calculator, and a stack of unused envelopes. The second was filled with company reports bound in leather folders, each stamped with the Hayes Telecom logo in gold. The third, deeper drawer contained what he needed, a slim black notebook. He flipped it open, Inside, every page was filled with a neat h

“Later,” Marjorie said, “there may be more to gain. For now, watch, listen and most importantly remember who laughed and who looked away.”At the rooftop lounge of Hayes Telecom. Nathan stood near the railing, watching the streets far below, his fingers wrapped around a glass of water he had barely touched.He had chosen this place for a reason. The rooftop was familiar a territory for company executives and visiting Sterling delegates, a place where business talk often slipped into personal confessions. If he was going to make progress in the fight against Liam, he needed the right witnesses.Mia’s words from the night of the fashion show still echoed in his mind: Liam humiliating Cassandra in public, the way she had shrunk under his glare. Nathan had replayed it over and over, both as fuel and as strategy. He was done letting Liam operate behind a curtain of charm. Tonight, he would bring the truth into the open.Cassandra stepped onto the terrace in a dark green dress that shimmere

Marjorie did not press further, but her words had left a mark. Nathan could see it in the way Liam’s charm felt forced for the next few minutes, the way his smiles did not quite reach his eyes.The party went on, yet for Nathan, the air was heavier now. Mia’s firing was more than a personal loss, it was a deliberate move to strip him of allies. Cassandra’s silence was its own prison, and Mr. Hayes’ public rebuke was another reminder that his father’s loyalty was to Liam, not him.The sun was high, a soft breeze carrying the scent of blossoms from the botanical garden, Nathan stood just outside the iron gates, staring at the manicured rows of tulips and hydrangeas. He had agreed to this outing less for leisure and more as a chance to breathe after the warehouse party’s chaos. The memory of Mia’s sudden dismissal, Liam’s smug grin, and the humiliating stares from the guests made him restless.The botanical garden was unusually quiet for a Saturday. Now and then, children’s laughter floa