Natalie believed she was finally recovering after the humiliation at Harrison Group when Selena suddenly stopped answering several of her calls. The days following the financial office incident had been quiet, almost eerily so, and Natalie had allowed herself to hope the worst had passed."Selena, it's me again," Natalie said into her phone for the third time that week, standing alone in her apartment, watching the evening light fade through the window. "Please call me back. I need to talk to you."The call went straight to voicemail, just like the others before it, the same clipped automated greeting she'd heard a dozen times now.The connections Selena had introduced her to also began withdrawing, leaving Natalie confused about why everything had changed so quickly."I'm sorry, Ms. Harrison," one executive's assistant said over the phone, her tone politely dismissive. "Mr. Reeves isn't available for further meetings at this time. I'll pass along your message."Natalie stared at her

Joshua decided to confront his mother about the name, but before he could do so, she suffered a sudden medical scare. He had been standing outside her sitting room, the folder still in his hand, working up to the conversation, when the sound of something shattering against the floor cut through the quiet house."Sir!" a guard's voice crackled through the radio, sharp with alarm. "Your mother's collapsed. We need medical assistance immediately."Joshua dropped everything, sprinting toward the villa's private wing, his heart pounding harder than it had in weeks, the folder abandoned on a side table as he took the stairs two at a time.He found her on the floor beside her chair, pale and unresponsive, a member of the household staff already kneeling beside her, calling frantically for help."Mom," Joshua said, dropping to his knees, his hands hovering helplessly over her still form. "Mom, can you hear me?"The hospital director immediately arrived and stabilized her, but he discovered th

Joshua's mother finally admitted that there was something she had deliberately kept from him."Joshua," Eleanor said quietly, her hands folded in her lap as he sat down beside her bed, "there's something I need to tell you. Something I should have told you years ago.""I'm listening," Joshua said, his voice gentle despite the tension of the past few days still lingering in his shoulders.She revealed that years ago, before Joshua understood anything about his father's business dealings, she had been entrusted with an important document."Before you understood anything about your father's business," Eleanor said slowly, "he entrusted me with a document. Something important. Something he told me to protect no matter what happened to him.""What kind of document?" Joshua asked."I don't fully understand it myself," she admitted. "But I know it mattered enough that men came looking for it after he died."She had hidden it because she believed revealing it would put Joshua in danger."I hi

When the man continued provoking him, Joshua ordered his guards to hold him down and stepped on his hand, making it clear that insulting his mother had crossed a line."You think you can hit me and get away with it?" Frost spat, blood trickling from his split lip, still defiant. "You have no idea who you're dealing with, boy."Joshua nodded once to his guards, who forced Frost down onto the marble floor, pinning his hand flat against the tile. Joshua stepped forward and pressed his heel firmly against the man's outstretched fingers.Frost howled, the sound echoing through the club as several members hurried to look away, clearly uncomfortable with the scene unfolding before them."You can insult me all you like," Joshua said, his voice low and merciless, "but you don't get to speak about my mother again. Not ever. Are we clear?""Yes— yes, God, get off me!" Frost gasped.Joshua eased the pressure slightly, though he didn't step back entirely.The man finally broke and revealed that he

After several tense minutes of Joshua's guards making their presence unmistakably clear, the man's bravado cracked."Fine," he said, his voice trembling. "We were hired to recover every document connected to your mother. Every file, every record, anything tied to her name.""By who?" Joshua demanded.However, he claimed they were not the only people searching."I don't know the name," the man said quickly. "We work through intermediaries. But I can tell you this. We're not the only ones looking. Another group's been searching for the same information for years, long before we ever got involved."Another group had been looking for the same information for years.Joshua's jaw tightened. "Years.""That's what I was told," the man said.Before Joshua could get the identity of their employer, the man's phone suddenly received a message.A buzzing sound cut through the tense silence, the man's confiscated phone lighting up on the table beside them.Joshua took it and read it himself.He pic