The bosses' smug expressions collapsed one by one, like dominoes falling in slow motion. Patterson's mouth fell open. Thompson Sr.'s cigar stopped halfway to his lips. Preston's triumphant grin melted off his face like candle wax.The five hundred million dollar investment was not Richard Harlow's scheme to spite Ethan. It was Victoria's investment into Ethan's company. Morgan Pharmaceuticals did not belong to Sophia anymore. It belonged to Ethan Cole. Every share. Every asset. Every contract.Which meant Richard Harlow's alleged power play was a fantasy. Victoria was still loyal to Ethan.The Harlow family was still behind him. And the nine bosses had just invited a broken, defeated woman into their hall thinking she was their ally, only to watch her kneel at Ethan's feet and confirm that the man they were trying to destroy owned everything.Thompson Sr. set his cigar down on the edge of the table and stared at Sophia with the expression of a man who has just realized he walked into

Ethan turned to Victoria. She was standing beside him with her arms at her sides and her chin lifted, and the look in her eyes when she met Ethan's gaze was so open and unguarded that it made Mrs. Hayes smile behind her hand.Then Ethan did something that nobody in the room expected.He leaned forward and kissed Victoria on the cheek.It was brief. It was gentle. It landed just below her cheekbone, and Victoria's eyes widened for a fraction of a second before a soft blush spread across her face like dawn breaking over a lake."I will handle the Wells family," Ethan said quietly, close enough that only Victoria could hear.He turned back to Preston, whose face had gone through so many colors in the past minute that it looked like a traffic light having a seizure."You will cancel the engagement yourself, Preston," Ethan's voice carried the calm certainty of a man stating a fact, not making a threat. "Not because I asked. Not because Victoria asked. Because when your father hears what h

Victoria and Mrs. Hayes stood side by side in the grand hall of the Thompson mansion, watching Sophia scramble to her feet and sprint toward the door with the desperate, broken stride of a woman whose last gamble had failed.Victoria turned to Sophia's retreating back and her voice cut across the hall like a whip."Sophia Morgan," Victoria's tone was cold and precise and carried the full authority of the Harlow family name. "You knelt in front of Ethan and begged him to apologize to the woman who spent four years treating him like a stray dog. Then you ripped up your own divorce papers and demanded half his fortune. And when none of that worked, you tried to claw my face off."Sophia stopped at the door. Her shoulders were heaving and her fingers were gripping the door frame so hard her nails left marks in the wood."You have no shame," Victoria's voice did not waver. "Not a single drop. Your mother is in a hospital bed because her own greed and cruelty put her there, and instead of s

Thompson Sr. stood at the head of his ruined table and surveyed the damage. Wine stains on the floor. A mahogany table split down the middle. Shredded trouser fabric in a pile near the wall. Nine pharmaceutical bosses sitting in stunned silence. And Preston Wells pacing back and forth with a dead phone pressed to his ear, trying to reach a man who would never answer again."Someone find out what happened to Ian Watanabe," Thompson Sr.'s voice carried the iron authority of a man who was used to being obeyed without question. "Contact every hotel, every known safe house, every associate he brought with him to Chicago. I want answers by morning."He turned to Preston."And I want that background check on Ethan Cole on my desk within forty eight hours," Thompson Sr. jabbed his finger at the table. "If this boy is connected to anyone or anything we do not know about, I want to see it. Every school record, every military file, every bank transaction going back ten years. I want to know who

Sophia felt her throat close. She looked at her mother's bandaged head, at the tubes running in and out of her body, at the monitors blinking with numbers that meant the difference between life and death, and she tried to find words that would not destroy the woman lying in front of her."He did not come," Sophia whispered.Diane stared at her. The heart monitor beeped faster."Why not?" Diane's cracked lips trembled. "I told you to beg. I told you to get on your knees. Did you do it? Did you do what I told you?"Sophia's hands tightened around her mother's cold fingers."I did," Sophia's voice broke. "I knelt in front of him. In front of the Thompson bosses. In front of Victoria. In front of everyone. I ripped up the divorce papers and begged him to come back. I offered him anything. Everything.""And?" Diane's eyes were wide and desperate."He said no," Sophia's tears fell onto the hospital blanket. "He called me mud, Mom. He said I was mud. Then he walked out with Victoria."Diane'