The whole of Stellaris moved.Orders went down from the executive floor in less than ten minutes. The legal team started reviewing active cooperation terms. The investment team made calls. Procurement adjusted internal lists. Business development froze channels. People who had worked with Lockwood one day before suddenly received polite but icy notices the next.It spread fast. By noon, rumors were already moving through the business circle.Stellaris International Trading had started targeting Lockwood Industries.No one knew why. But everyone knew what that meant.......Vivian had barely settled back into her office chair—still thinking about the Nathan incident, still telling herself it was nothing—when her assistant burst through the door."Ms. Lockwood." His face was white. "We have a problem. A serious problem."Vivian looked up. "What now?""Stellaris International Trading." He swallowed hard. "They've initiated targeted measures against us. Three of our suppliers have froz

Damian glanced down at the notification. For one unguarded instant, his eyes lit with pure, naked delight.He had lied. He had escaped. He had even gotten money out of it!He smothered it instantly, dropping his gaze, folding his hands together with the picture of humble gratitude."Thank you, Vivian. I don't deserve this. Really, I don't."She didn't answer. She was already walking out, heels clicking sharp against the floor, her mind somewhere far ahead of the room she was leaving.The truth was simple, and she'd known it since the moment her assistant repeated Aurora's message to her. The root of Lockwood's crisis wasn't Stellaris. It wasn't even Damian's stupidity.It was Ethan. As long as Ethan was still out there, unresolved, unaddressed, this problem would keep resurfacing in new and uglier forms. If she wanted the crisis gone, she needed to deal with him directly.If she could ease her relationship with Ethan, or even reconcile with him, Aurora would naturally no longer targe

Vivian's lips parted. Ethan didn't stop. "I used to be in pain because of your betrayal," he said. "Now I can see it clearly. You're not just disloyal. You're a complete mess. You can't even tell right from wrong."His voice dropped, each word harder than the last. "I'd rather stay single for the rest of my life than ever get back together with you!"Vivian's face turned white.Then red. "You—" She laughed once, sharp and furious. "You dare talk to me like that? You started attacking me now?""What right do you have to say any of this?" she shot back. "You were a live-in husband. A man living off his wife. That's what you were.""You think you're attractive? You had no charm at all. Not even a little!"The words were still hanging in the air when a knock came at the door.Three light taps. Polite. Almost musical.Ethan turned and walked to the door without a word, grateful for the interruption.He pulled it open.Chloe stood in the hallway, a bouquet of fresh flowers in one arm

Back inside, Ethan closed the door and exhaled.The tension drained out of his shoulders like water. He walked back to the couch, dropped onto it, and tipped his head back against the cushion. His eyes closed.Quiet. Finally. He'd barely settled for ten minutes when three knocks came at the door again.His eyes snapped open. His jaw tightened.What now?He stood slowly, muscles coiling with instinctive wariness. If Vivian had come back—He pulled the door open.It wasn't Vivian. Eleanor Whitmore stood in the hallway.Ethan blinked. His former mother-in-law looked the same as he remembered—warm eyes, soft face, the kind of woman who always seemed slightly out of place in the Lockwood household's sharp edges."Ethan." She breathed his name like a relief.His guard dropped instantly."Eleanor?" Genuine surprise broke through his composure. "What are you doing here?"She stepped forward, her gaze scanning his face, lingering on the bruise along his cheekbone, the small cut near his jaw.