MasukI See YouBella's POVI had learned a long time ago that the most productive thing you could do with fear was to make it work for you and not pretend it wasn't there. Fear had a way of finding the cracks in pretending and seeping through anyway. What worked was acknowledging it quietly and redirecting its energy into something useful. Focus and precision, the next move. That was what I had been doing all evening.The information Victor had handed over this morning had not left me. It had settled beneath my ribs and stayed there, cold and specific. Margaret had built a physical failsafe into the plan before I ever came home. She had used the phrase make it impossible for her to continue three times in a single typed document. I had been holding that knowledge like a stone in my pocket all day, feeling its weight but refusing to let it slow me down.I was going through the financial records Elena had compiled on Margaret's asset movements when my office door opened at half past nine.E
Loose EndsDamian's POVThere is a particular kind of guilt that does not announce itself.It does not arrive with a loud noise or a dramatic moment. It settles quietly, the way dust settles on a surface when a room has been closed for too long. You stop noticing it is there until something makes you look directly at it, and then you cannot look away.That was what sitting across from Bella in her conference room had done to me this morning. Watching her read Victor's document with those steady hands, watching her absorb the news that her stepmother had been planning something physical against her before she even came home, watching her say I know in that quiet firm voice of hers when I told her we would not let it happen. That was what brought the guilt back up clean and sharp, the way it had been in the beginning before I learned to carry it more carefully.Because the truth was that every threat Bella was facing right now had a point of origin. And that point of origin was a foyer
Across the TableBella's POVVictor Kane looked different without an audience. I had always seen him in rooms where he was performing. The gala, the investor lunch, the private restaurant where he had offered me an alliance and I had smiled and taken notes while he believed he was winning. In every one of those settings he had moved with the particular ease of a man who had spent decades being the most powerful person present.He did not look like that this morning. He sat across my conference table at 8:00 a.m. with Carter beside him and Damian two chairs to my left and Elena at my right hand. He was still dressed impeccably, still carrying himself with the posture of a man who had never learned how to shrink. But his eyes were different. There was something in them that I had not seen there before."He was afraid, very good." I said quietly to myself. Fear was information, and a man who was afraid would tell me things a comfortable man never would."You have twenty minutes," I said.
The Devil CallsDamian's POVElena's message came through at 2:17 in the morning.I read it twice, it was a planted paralegal inside Patricia's office. Daniel crews, 26 years. On Margaret's payroll for four months before we even started building the case. She had anticipated us so completely that she had placed someone inside our legal team before we had decided to engage one. The patience of the woman was the most frightening thing about her.I called Carter immediately. He confirmed everything Elena had found and added more. Daniel crews had been careful but not careful enough. The phone records were clean and the payment trail was traceable all the way back to Margaret's offshore structure. We had everything needed to go to Patricia in the morning with the full picture."Don't tell Patricia tonight," I said. "We do this in person. First thing. I want to see her face when she hears it and I want to be watching her reaction before I decide what to say next.""Understood," Carter said
Money TalksElena's POVI have always believed that if you follow the money far enough and carefully enough, it will eventually tell you everything you need to know about a person.Margaret Adeniran was no exception.I started the financial trace the moment I left Patricia's office. Carter had his team working the Cole Enterprises side and I had mine pulling everything connected to the Adeniran estate accounts. Neither of us was sleeping tonight. Patricia had said twelve hours and we all understood that was generous.By midnight I had the first thread. Three Adeniran estate accounts had registered outgoing transfers in the last 72 hours. Not large amounts individually and small enough to fall below automatic flagging thresholds. But when you mapped the pattern and added them together, the total was significant. And every single transfer had landed in the same offshore holding structure we had already connected to Margaret through the earlier shell company records.I sat back and looke
The SigningDamian's POVShe was already at Patricia's office when I arrived and somehow that still surprised me.I don't know why it should have. Bella had never been late to anything that mattered in all the years I had known her. She treated punctuality as a form of respect and she gave it consistently to anything she considered worth her time. She was sitting at Patricia's conference table with the physical copy of the amended will in front of her and her hands folded calmly on the surface.But something about her was different this morning. I could not have explained it to anyone who didn't know her the way I knew her. Her posture was the same. Her suit was immaculate, deep charcoal, the kind she wore when she intended to be taken seriously. But underneath all of that was something I hadn't seen before. She was quiet, not the controlled quietness she used as a weapon. Something lighter. Like a woman who had set something very heavy down and was only now feeling the difference.Wh
The First BlowDamian's POV“Damian, have you taken a look at the investors list to see the latest shareholder report?” Carter’s voice vibrated with so much urgency, and I know it wasn't the ordinary one. I could see all the disbelief in his face as he leaned over my desk.I froze, as I await whate
Sparks of WarDamian's POV “Damian, you seriously need to take a look at this,” Carter’s voice came out more like being hurried, though low, but also urgent as he grabbed my arm. “Isabella… she’s the one speaking.”I froze mid step as I couldn't believe it, the champagne glass getting heavy, and s
The ReturnBella's POV“Are you completely sure about this, Isabella?” Elena’s voice came out very calm, but I could tell she was worried, or rather nervous. “Once you go ahead and step into that room, be rest assured there’s no turning back. They’ll all see you. They’ll be aware that you’ve return
The ExileBella's POV“London, huh? Are you for real? After everything that happened… you think this would turn out to be one of those fairy tale stories you read, the kind of fairy tale escape?” my voice came out very sharp, and full of frustration.Elena, my loyal CFO, the only one that didn't jo







