Ethan's POV"The vote is scheduled for Friday at noon."Sophia dropped a stack of documents on my desk. I'd been back at Zenith for twenty minutes and already wanted to leave."That's in six days," I said."Five days now and it's already Tuesday." She sat across from me, exhausted. "Douglas moved fast while we were at the hospital. He contacted every minority shareholder personally. Made his case that you're unfit to lead.""What's his case?""That you're emotionally unstable, distracted by personal vendettas, making reckless decisions that put the company at risk." She pulled out a tablet. "He's compiled a list of everything that's gone wrong since you took over. The Cross family scandal, the Lena Martinez disaster and the press conference chaos. Stock volatility plus lost sponsors.""All of that was the Blackwells.""That doesn't matter because the optics are terrible." She scrolled through more notes. "Douglas has secured proxy votes from shareholders representing twenty-eight perc

Ethan's POV"I'm staying in the city for a month."Amanda Sterling sat across from me in my office, her cane resting against the desk. She'd shown up unannounced at eight in the morning, demanding coffee and conversation."A month?" I set down my cup. "Why?""To observe you, obviously." She sipped her coffee, made a face. "This is terrible. Don't you people have decent espresso?""I'll have someone bring you something better.""Don't bother. I've survived worse." She set down the cup. "Now, about this month. I saved your chairmanship yesterday. That doesn't mean I trust you. It means I gave you a chance.""I appreciate that.""You shouldn't. Because if you fail, if you prove Douglas Crane right, I'll sell my two percent to him personally." Her eyes were sharp. Cold. "And with my shares, he'll have enough power to remove you. Permanently."My stomach tightened. "You'd do that to family?""Family means earning your place, not coasting on blood." She stood, moving to the window. "I built

Ethan's POV"Round two. Ready?"Marcus Zhou cracked his knuckles, grinning at me like a kid about to destroy me at video games, which, essentially, he was."Ready," I lied.The simulation loaded again, different variables this time. New market conditions, but the same objective: build a company that crushes the competition.My company, his company. A virtual decade and winner takes all."Go!" Marcus shouted.His fingers flew across the keyboard. Decisions made in seconds. Hire, expand and acquire. His company exploded out of the gate.Mine stumbled. I was thinking too much, tried analysing. By the time I made my first major move, he'd already captured twenty percent of the market."You're too slow," Marcus said, not looking away from his screen. "In business, hesitation kills.""I'm being careful.""Careful is just another word for scared."He was right though, I was scared of making the wrong choice and afraid of losing, above all, I was scared of going back to Amanda and admitting I

Ethan's POV"The team is in position outside Elena's apartment."Sophia's voice came through my earpiece. I sat in a car three blocks away, watching the operation unfold on a tablet screen. Three agents, one mission, get a DNA sample without being detected."How long will this take?" I asked."Ten minutes in and out. She's at work, the apartment should be empty." Sophia was monitoring from Zenith headquarters. "They'll grab a hairbrush, maybe a toothbrush. Something with clear DNA. Easy.""Nothing about this feels easy.""That's because you're overthinking." She paused. "Agent One is picking the lock now."On screen, I watched thermal imaging show a figure entering Elena's apartment, moving through rooms, searching."Bathroom located, retrieving hairbrush."My phone buzzed, a text from Marcus Zhou: "Yo, heard you might have a secret sister. That's wild. Want me to hack the DNA lab to speed up results?"I ignored it."Sample secured," the agent's voice crackled. "Exiting now.""Wait."

Ethan's POV"My grandfather is a liar."Maxwell's voice came through my phone at two in the morning. I'd been asleep for an hour, the first sleep in days."What?" I sat up, trying to clear my head."I asked him about the Sterling kidnapping and about Elena, just about everything you said." Maxwell sounded wrecked. Broken. "He didn't deny it, he just spun it differently.""Where are you?""Driving, I don't know where, just driving." I heard traffic in the background. "He said Sterling Cross killed his own son, he made it look like an accident for insurance money, and said the children were hidden to protect them from their murderous grandfather.""That's a lie.""I know, but the way he told it, with evidence and documents and witnesses, it sounded true." Maxwell's voice cracked. "He made himself the hero, said he rescued Elena, protected her, and gave her to a good family to raise.""And you believed him?""For about five minutes until I asked why he sent me to Elena's bar two years ag