Marcus was scanning further down the list, his pleasant expression completely gone now. “Manufacturing capacity. Supply chain infrastructure. Logistics networks.” His hands trembled slightly as he turned pages. “They control… they could shut down production of essential goods across four continents if they wanted to.”Elizabeth’s face had gone pale. “Real estate holdings. They own the land under…” She stopped, her throat working. “They own the ground beneath seventeen of our family’s flagship developments. We’ve been paying them lease fees without even realizing it.”Victor was already cross-referencing on his tablet, his fingers moving frantically. “Media companies. Content distribution platforms. Advertising networks. Social media infrastructure.” He looked up, genuine fear in his eyes for the first time in years. “They could control the narrative on anything. Make any story disappear or amplify it to a global scale.”“Banking,” Richard said quietly, drawing their attention back to

Derek leaned forward, his expression shifting from exaggerated enthusiasm to something more serious. More genuine, if Sophia could believe it.“Look, Sophia,” he began, his voice dropping to a more normal volume. “I know I’ve been… I haven’t been the best cousin to you. Especially over the past few years.”Sophia blinked, surprised by the admission. This wasn’t what she’d been expecting.“I’ve been selfish,” Derek continued, his hands clasped on the table. “I’ve only called when I needed something. Money, connections, favors. And when your company went under, when you actually needed support, I…” He stopped, seeming to struggle with the words. “I wasn’t there. I disappeared like everyone else.”Sophia didn’t know what to say. Derek had never acknowledged any of this before. Had never admitted to being anything less than a supportive family member.“And the way I treated you at that gala,” Derek went on, his voice thick with what sounded like genuine regret. “Mocking you. Laughing at y

Adrian sat in his home office, staring at his phone like it might suddenly provide answers.Three days.Three days since Sophia had kissed him and then fled from his car . Three days of silence that felt heavier with each passing hour.He’d given her space at first because he assumed that she needed time to calm down after what happened and his presence might be embarrassing for herBut now the silence was becoming unbearable, somewhere along the line he had gotten used to her presence and he didn’t know what to do with this silence.Adrian picked up his phone and pulled up Sophia’s contact. His thumb hovered over the call button for a long moment.Then he pressed it.The phone rang once. Twice. Then…“The number you have dialed cannot be reached at this time. Please try again later.”Adrian frowned and tried again.Same result.He checked his signal. Full bars. He tried calling Marcus just to make sure his phone was working. It went through immediately.So Sophia’s phone was either o

Sophia pressed her back flat against the wall.She couldn’t see anything, and she also couldn't hear anything. She couldn’t feel anything except the cold plaster behind her shoulder blades and the rapid, shallow rhythm of her own breathing.Stop it, she told herself firmly. Stop panicking right now.She forced herself to take one slow breath. Then another.She was on the third floor of a business center in the middle of the city. Not a basement. Not a forest. A building with stairs, exits, fire escapes. Buildings had rules. Buildings had ways out. All she had to do was find one.Okay. Think.The restroom door was directly behind her. She’d just come through it, which meant the hallway ran left and right from where she was standing. When she’d arrived, she’d turned left coming out of the elevator. The elevator bank was to her right.The stairs would be near the elevator bank.Simple. She just had to walk to her right, keeping her back against the wall, moving slowly and carefully unti

The first thing that came back was the light.It was pale and harsh, pressing against her eyelids before she was ready for it. Sophia’s mind surfaced slowly, dragging itself up through layers of thick, heavy nothing, like pulling herself out of deep water.Her eyes opened.The ceiling was unfamiliar. White, low, a single bulb behind a frosted cover. She blinked at it, trying to remember where she was, and trying to make the fog in her head cooperate.Then her eyes came into focus.Alexander was sitting directly across from her.He was leaning back in a chair with his legs stretched out, his jacket gone, his shirt rumpled and open at the collar. He looked terrible. His eyes were red-rimmed, his hair disheveled, the careful grooming he usually maintained completely abandoned. He was staring at her with the hollow, slightly unfocused look of a man who hadn’t slept and had stopped caring about it.Sophia’s body registered the situation before her mind fully caught up. She tried to sit upr