Chapter 91The car park had mostly emptied by the time Sarah found him.Simon Stone was leaning against the side of his car with the particular stillness of a man whose body had stopped moving but whose mind hadn't. His arms were crossed loosely, his gaze somewhere out past the concrete pillars and the scattered vehicles, fixed on nothing specific. He didn't look troubled, exactly. He looked like a man running calculations that the rest of the world wasn't privy to.Sarah had seen that look before. She'd decided, somewhere along the way, that it made him more attractive rather than less.She crossed the garage toward him, heels clicking a soft rhythm against the floor, and arranged her expression into something warm and open — the version of herself she'd learned to lead with when she wanted something. She'd had time to recover from the corridor. To recalibrate. The embarrassment of the moment with Ethan had already been folded away into a corner of her mind she didn't intend to visit

Chapter 93The restaurant was the kind of place that managed to be both intimate and visible at once — dim enough for private conversation, well-trafficked enough that being seen here meant something. Sarah had chosen it deliberately, which was the only way Sarah Wilson chose anything.Her car pulled into the lot a few minutes past the time she'd given Drake. Not late enough to be rude. Late enough to be intentional.She checked her reflection in the visor mirror — not from vanity, or not only from vanity, but the way an athlete checks their form before a performance. Everything in place. Expression composed into something that read as neutral and slightly tired, the look of a woman carrying something she hadn't yet decided to put down.She got out of the car and walked in.Drake was already at the table. Of course he was — Drake Hastings was always early, always positioned, always the one who arrived first and let other people come to him. He stood when he saw her, the automatic cour

Chapter 95Drake Hastings had always operated on the assumption that the size of his name was enough to fill whatever room he walked into.He was currently discovering the limits of that assumption in real time."Let me be very clear about something." He pulled himself up to full height, the way people do when they want their posture to do the arguing for them. "The only reason you're standing in this building as a partner — the only reason Victoria Chen looked at you twice — is because of me. My name. My connections. My decision to bring you into this world." He gestured between himself and Sarah with the confident sweep of someone laying out facts rather than opinions. "I made you. And what I make, I can unmake. So I'd think very carefully before you say another word to me.""Drake." Sarah's voice came out flat and clean, with none of the careful management she used to wrap around his name. "You are not B Corporation's partner. I am. Stop walking around this building acting like you

Chapter 97The internet had a short memory for most things, but it had an excellent memory for scandal.Within a week, two stories had taken hold across Boston's social and business circles and refused to let go. The first was public and loud — Drake Hastings and Sarah Wilson, old money and new ambition, photographed together at enough events over enough months to have become a fixture, were finished. The restaurant footage had made its rounds with the enthusiasm that only firsthand witness footage carried, and the takes had multiplied accordingly. Sympathy, mostly, for Sarah. Quiet satisfaction, in some quarters, for Drake.The second story moved differently — underground, inner-circle, passed between the right people in the right rooms in the careful, weighted way that genuinely consequential information traveled in Boston's elite network. Matthew Devine was no longer the chairman's right hand. The new chairman had confirmed it himself, through channels that left no room for misinte

Chapter 99Mr. Stone paced relentlessly across his office, the polished wooden floor echoing faintly beneath his hurried steps.His grip tightened around his phone.Again.And again.He dialed Simon’s number.No answer.His jaw clenched.“What the hell is going on…” he muttered under his breath.This wasn’t like Simon. Not picking up? Not reporting back? It didn’t sit right.Something was off.Very off.---Across the city—Simon Stone stood in the shadows of a quiet street, his men stationed behind him in silence.The target location loomed ahead.But they hadn’t moved.Not yet.Simon hadn’t given the order.And he wasn’t going to.Not until he had clarity.Not until he spoke to Ethan Cole.“Stand down,” Simon said calmly, his voice carrying quiet authority. “No one moves until I say otherwise.”“Yes, sir,” his men responded in unison.One of his trusted subordinates stepped closer.“Sir… what are you planning?”Simon clicked his tongue lightly, his gaze distant as he weighed his opt