Sophia's cheek burned bright red where Mr. Mercer's palm had struck it. She lay curled on the carpet with one hand pressed to her face, and her eyes were wide with shock. For a moment the whole little corner of the hall went quiet. Then she pushed herself up on one elbow and her voice came out cracked and shaking."I warned you," Sophia whispered. Tears welled in her eyes and spilled down her cheeks. She looked from Mr. Mercer to Mr. Fuller with a desperate, pleading stare. "I sent a text. I told Mr. Thompson not to use the premium batch. All of you were standing on that stage. You knew. You knew it was poison.""What text?" Mr. Fuller snapped. His swollen, pus streaked face twisted with fury, and he jabbed a trembling finger at her. "We never received any text! You are lying, you little rat! You are trying to drag us down with you!""We never heard a word from you," Mr. Mercer growled. Blood bubbled on his lip as he stood over her, swaying. "You are a cleaning woman who ran onto the

Victoria lifted her phone and read the message glowing on its screen. Her eyes widened for a heartbeat before a bright, clear smile spread across her face.She stepped toward the microphone stand left at the edge of the booth and spoke in a voice that rang through the broken hall."The Fuller family has transferred two hundred and thirty million dollars for their box," Victoria announced. "The payment is complete."The silence lasted two seconds. Then the hall exploded. Merchants who had crept back to the edges of the room gasped. Reporters who had fled to the doorways rushed forward with their cameras up.A woman screamed. A man dropped a stack of papers. Someone near the back shouted that it was a hundred times the price of a house, for a plain wooden box, and half the room started talking at once."Two hundred and thirty million," a distributor whispered. He pressed a trembling hand to his forehead. "For an empty box. Has the world gone mad?""No," his companion breathed, staring a

Thompson Sr. grabbed the empty box from the carpet and shoved it toward Ethan's face. His arm shook so violently that the lid rattled against the base, and the veins in his neck looked ready to burst through the skin."You explain this right now," Thompson Sr. roared. His spit landed on the edge of the box. "I paid four hundred and thirty million dollars. Where are the drugs? Where is the formula? There is nothing in here but wood and air!"Mr. Fuller snatched up his own box and turned it upside down. Nothing fell out. He shook it again. Still nothing. His face went from confusion to fury in the span of a single breath."My family transferred two hundred and thirty million for this," Mr. Fuller's voice cracked like old glass. He shoved the box open in front of the nearest camera. "Look at this. Empty. Not a single pill. Not a grain of powder. This man robbed us in broad daylight."On the floor near the wall, Sophia pressed her hand over her mouth, but the laughter kept leaking through

The silence in the hall lasted exactly four seconds before Preston Wells broke it with a laugh that sounded like it came from a man who had found one last bullet in an empty gun."Cut us off from the herb supply?" Preston turned to the nine bosses with his arms spread wide. His smile was bright and sharp. "Gentlemen, think about what this man is asking you to do. He wants you to destroy relationships your families have built with international buyers for decades. And for what? So he can sit at the top and collect thirty percent of your sweat.""The Wells family pays your farmers double what the domestic market offers," Tamara added. She limped forward, and even with the swelling still visible on her jaw, her voice carried the cold authority of a woman who controlled billions. "The Watanabe Group pays the same. We buy wild American ginseng at two hundred dollars a pound when your local buyers will not go above ninety. You cut us out, and your farmers lose half their income overnight."

The applause rolled through the hall like thunder and refused to die. Herb farmers who had driven in from Wisconsin and Missouri to watch the conference from the back rows were on their feet, shouting and waving their caps.A gray haired woman from Appalachia wiped her eyes with her sleeve and clapped until her palms turned red. Reporters pushed forward to catch every word, and the chant of Ethan's name rose again from the middle of the crowd.Director Shane lifted both hands like a preacher calming a church. His silver hair gleamed under the lights, and the whole room obeyed him within seconds."Hear me, every farmer in this hall," Director Shane boomed. His chest swelled and his voice shook the glass walls. "For twenty years I have watched buyers from overseas drive up your mountain roads, smile at your families, and leave with your roots in their trucks. No more. As of tonight, an American herb stays in America, and the man who made that promise is standing right here."The crowd r