The boardroom emptied slowly.Too slowly.Andrea watched the shareholders file out one by one, each face carefully neutral, each handshake forced. Some avoided his eyes. Others nodded stiffly, as if acknowledging a threat rather than a colleague.Power had shifted in that room.And everyone felt it.Maria remained seated long after the last door closed. The adrenaline that had carried her in was already fading. Her shoulders sagged slightly, and her breathing grew shallow.Andrea noticed immediately.“Chloe,” he said quietly.She was already moving. “I’ve got her.”Maria waved her off weakly. “I’m not fragile glass.”Andrea crouched in front of her, lowering himself so they were eye to eye. His voice softened in a way it never did for anyone else.“You scared the hell out of me.”She smiled faintly. “Good. Then you’ll listen when I tell you not to underestimate yourself again.”He exhaled slowly. “You shouldn’t have come.”“I had to,” Maria replied. “They were about to cut the spine o

The hospital went into emergency lockdown.Red lights pulsed along the corridors. Doors sealed. Nurses moved faster than fear allowed, voices clipped and sharp over intercoms.Maria’s heart monitor screamed.Andrea was already moving before the doctor finished speaking.“ICU access—now,” he ordered.“Mr. Konstanio, you can’t—”Andrea’s security badge flashed. Chloe’s override code followed half a second later.The doors slid open.Maria lay rigid on the bed, her body betraying her, fingers twitching as if fighting something invisible. The ventilator hissed. The IV lines shook.“This isn’t a natural spike,” the doctor said grimly. “Someone altered her medication dosage remotely. Just enough to trigger organ stress without tripping alarms.”Andrea’s hands curled into fists.“He’s inside the system,” Chloe said into her headset. “Hospital network, pharma servers, insurance gateways—he didn’t breach. He walked in.”Andrea leaned close to Maria’s ear.“I’m here,” he said quietly. “You don’

Andrea didn’t sleep.He stood alone in the operations room just before dawn, Dimitri’s flash drive plugged into an isolated terminal, Chloe hovering behind him with her tablet.Lines of data scrolled endlessly.Shell companies inside shell companies. Dead men signing contracts. Judges who’d ruled themselves into silence. Prison transfers that never reached their destination.At the center of it all—Nikolai.Not just a criminal.A system.“This isn’t just corporate warfare,” Chloe murmured. “This is state-level corruption.”Andrea nodded. “Which means if we move wrong, we don’t just lose—we disappear.”The screen flashed red.INCOMING ALERT: HALCYON MEDIA ACQUISITION – 48% STAKE TRANSFERREDAndrea’s jaw tightened. “He’s moving faster.”“He knows someone’s feeding us,” Chloe said.Andrea shut the terminal down. “No. He knows something is coming. Not what.”His phone rang.A secure line.Andrea answered instantly. “Volaris.”Dimitri’s voice came through calm—but sharp. “He’s about to fra

The airport was quieter than Andrea expected, almost eerily so. The usual din of rolling suitcases, public announcements, and hurried passengers had been replaced with an almost sacred calm. Andrea held Gracie’s hand firmly, his thumb brushing along the back of her palm as they walked through the terminal.Her head leaned slightly on his shoulder, eyes half-closed, a small smile tugging at her lips. Andrea could feel the tension slowly melting out of her body. He had noticed how she hadn’t slept well in weeks, her restless movements, the constant worry in her eyes every time Nikolai’s name was mentioned.“You look… almost at peace,” Andrea said quietly, his voice low so only she could hear.Gracie tilted her head up to meet his gaze. “I think I forgot what that felt like,” she admitted, her voice a mixture of relief and vulnerability.Andrea tightened his grip. “Then let’s make sure you remember. At least for a while.”Their flight was private—entirely secluded from the outside world.

The private jet touched down under the cover of early morning haze. Andrea’s grip on Gracie’s hand was firm as they walked down the steps to the waiting car. The villa, the beach, the cliffs—they all felt like a dream now, almost too perfect to leave behind.Gracie inhaled deeply, savoring the scent of the ocean one last time. “I wish we could have stayed longer,” she murmured.Andrea glanced at her, eyes sharp. “We can’t hide forever. We need to face the world eventually. But at least we went away—had a moment of peace before it all starts again.”The driver opened the car door, and they slid inside. The engine purred, carrying them away from the airstrip and toward the city.Andrea didn’t speak much, his mind running through contingencies. Every route, every possible media leak, every Nikolai move—they had to anticipate it all. He was a billionaire, used to controlling information, but the world was now a little faster, a little crueler.By the time Andrea returned to his private of