Kyle shook his head. "No. I'm done letting Adrian waste any more of my time on this. False lead or not, I'm not chasing ghosts while the real problems keep piling up."Nathan leaned back in the chair. "No worries then. I'll stretch another hour or two on it before I drop the whole thing. Maybe something still turns up."Kyle gave a short nod. He was already turning toward the front door when Nathan's voice stopped him."Hey. Quick question before you go. What happens if Dora gets convicted for harassing Catherine?"Kyle paused with his hand on the knob. He let out a slow breath and turned halfway back."I really hope it doesn't happen," he said. "But if it does, more regulations get dropped on Transcorp. Heavy ones. It'd gut the company. Slow every future progress to a crawl. Investors start asking questions they don't really want answered, and the board starts looking for someone to blame. It definitely wouldn't be just a pretty slap on the wrist."Nathan slowly shook his head, eyes

The voice on the other end ignored Kyle's question again."If you want to protect Transcorp," the muffled voice said, "you intercept the transaction that is to take place tomorrow on the seventeenth seat of the Meridian."Kyle's grip on the phone tightened until the plastic creaked. "What? What the hell does that even mean?"A soft, amused breath came through the line. "You've always been a smart man, Mr. Morgan. You can figure that out."Kyle opened his mouth to speak again, but the line went dead before the first word left his tongue.The sudden silence in the hallway felt louder than the call itself. He lowered the phone and stared at the blank screen."Seventeenth seat of the Meridian," he repeated under his breath.He knew the place. Everyone who moved money in South Florida knew the Meridian. It sat in the financial district of the city– private members' club, no cameras in the main rooms, and no names spoken louder than a murmur.The city's most expensive moguls went there to

Kyle found it hard to look away from Eleanor as she asked that question. The late light from the window painted half her face in soft gold, the other half held in shadow, and her eyes stayed fixed on him with a stillness that made the room feel smaller. “Is something wrong?” he asked.“Answer the damn question,” she said at once. He turned toward the window. Beyond the glass the Florida evening had settled into that heavy blue hour when the air still carried the day’s heat and the first cicadas started their thin, steady noise in the live oaks. He kept his gaze out there, away from her. “Family doesn’t sell out their own,” he said. “But that’s what Sophia did—” “Over five years ago?” Eleanor’s voice cut clean through the rest. “For five years you’ve carried that bitterness in your heart, Kyle.” He opened his mouth, but she kept going. “When I heard about the plane that took your father, I was sure that was the end of my life. I couldn’t see past the pain. Couldn’t feel anyth

He opened the top drawer to see socks, neatly folded handkerchiefs, and a worn leather wallet that held nothing but a few faded business cards and a photograph of his father under. No membership card.He moved methodically. From the bottom drawer to the nightstand, under the mattress, and behind the framed photographs on the dresser. He even checked the insides of the polished shoes, the folded ties, the small wooden box where cufflinks and a pair of cufflinks still waited as if their owner might walk back through the door any day. Nothing.The more he searched, the lighter the stone in his gut became. Nathan had been wrong. Had to be. His father had been a sharp businessman, co-founder of Transcorp, respected in every circle that mattered in Florida. But the Meridian Club’s seventeenth seat?No. That was not the man whose shirts still hung in this closet. And not the man Eleanor still loved enough to leave everything exactly as it had been the day the plane went down.Kyle closed

“Do you have access to the seventeenth seat?” the muffled voice asked.Kyle stared at the phone on the console like it might answer for him. He glanced at Nathan who kept his eyes forward, jaw set.“Yes,” he replied. “I do.”“Then walk in. You’ll see someone you recognize almost immediately. He’d be seated across from a man who represents a rival firm of Transcorp. The moment he sets eyes on you, the transaction will be halted.”Kyle’s fingers tightened around the edge of the seat. “And if a fight breaks out?”A short, dry laugh came through the speaker, filtered and thin.“A fight cannot break out in the Meridian Club. Someone gets killed before any rascality even starts. That’s the rule. Old as the limestone walls. And if anything goes south, don’t worry about your name hitting the media. Nothing ever leaves the seventeenth seat except a signed deal. Not rumors. Not bodies. Not names. Only ink on paper.”Kyle nodded once, even though the man on the other end could not see it. “Thank