Here's what happened.
After I finally cut Lila loose from the Dex family's gilded chokehold—agency contract shredded, freedom papers signed in someone else's blood—I had a meeting to attend. But let's rewind, because I know you're all sitting there blinking like "wait, the Dex people just... let her go?"
Yeah.
Anticlimactic as a heart attack in a hospice, right?
Usually something of this scope — powerful family heir, dirty laundry, contractual warfare — goes really bad. Like news-cycle-for-weeks bad. Like lawyers-stabbing-each-other-in-parking-lots bad. Or at least one awkward viral deposition where someone cries about "family legacy" while their stock tanks.
Instead? Crickets. Polite nods. A signature so fast it left ink skid marks.
The secret sauce? Leverage. The kind that turns apex predators into suddenly enlightened cooperators who discover the true meaning of "mutual benefit" when their own entrails are on the table.
