The kiss had done its job. Amara woke up to the sound of news anchors discussing her dress, Kaelen's possessiveness, and Seraphina Thorne's ruined evening. The scandal wasn't just on the society pages; it was leading business reports. Kaelen Sterling had made a powerful, public statement about his marriage, and the stock of Valerius Group had seen a small but immediate uptick. Amara's redesigned dress was being called an instant classic, a sign that the old-money brand was finally embracing modernity.
She was still reeling from the actual kiss, though. It hadn't been an act, it had been hard, hot, and utterly demanding, leaving her breathless and confused. Kaelen had been cold and distant the second they left the hall, leaving her alone in the penthouse suite without another word. She hated that her body still remembered the feeling of his suit jacket clutched in her hand.
Kaelen found her in the breakfast nook, sipping tea and scrolling through the endless stream of viral images. He was already on a conference call, looking as if the previous night's dramatic display had been nothing more than a minor meeting.
He ended the call and tossed a file onto the marble table. "Congratulations, Mrs. Sterling. Your little fashion statement helped stabilize the Valerius acquisition. You exceeded your mandate. Now, we move on."
"It wasn't a fashion statement," Amara countered immediately, pushing the pictures away. "It was a critique and the only reason it worked is because the original dress was boring and badly made, which you know is true. Are you going to acknowledge the kiss, or are we pretending that didn't happen?"
Kaelen gave her a single, icy stare. "That was a corporate maneuver designed to shut down public speculation and affirm my commitment to a stable marital life required for the trust. It worked. Do not confuse professionalism with anything else, Amara. You are here to play a role so dont complicate the performance with unnecessary emotion."
His dismissal stung far more than the initial insult about her gold-digging. He had felt that kiss, too; she knew he had. She forced herself to breathe, reminding herself of the fifty million reasons she was there.
"Understood," she said, her voice tight. "Then let's focus on the business. I need the details of the Valerius acquisition. If I am to act like a supporting wife, I need to know what I'm supporting."
Kaelen paused, considering her. His professional guard seemed to waver slightly, replaced by suspicion. "Why the sudden interest?"
"Because," Amara explained, standing up. "Your rival, Seraphina, tried to embarrass me publicly. If I am your wife, I will not be embarrassed again. I intend to use whatever social currency I gained last night to protect your investment. Give me the information."
It was a bold move, appealing to his corporate logic. He studied her for a moment, then nodded curtly. "Thompson will give you a sanitized summary of the deal, memorize it. You will be attending a vital board strategy meeting this afternoon. You will not speak, just observe and you will look engaged."
The strategy meeting was intense. Amara sat quietly at the end of the long mahogany table in a room overlooking the entire financial district. She watched Kaelen dissect complex merger proposals with terrifying speed. The board members were old, powerful, and deeply skeptical of the Valerius acquisition. They kept throwing pointed questions about its long-term profitability.
As Thompson summarized the financials, Amara's heart pounded. She knew the documents that Thompson presented were solid, but she also knew the secret truth. As The Thread Dissenter, she had dug deep into Valerius and knew they had a catastrophic failure coming in their logistics software. Her post detailing the flaw was still saved as a draft on her laptop, ready to be published if she decided to sink them entirely.
The logistics flaw meant Valerius was relying on old, proprietary, and ultimately unstable supply chain software. Thompson was reporting the software was "fully functional and updated," but Amara knew, from her anonymous contacts, that the entire system was set to crash during their biggest manufacturing month. This wasn't just a risk; it was a guaranteed disaster that would drop the stock price to zero in three weeks. Kaelen, operating on old data, was about to walk blind into a corporate minefield.
Amara gripped her hands under the table. She could not speak, if she spoke, she risked revealing her expertise, and Kaelen would connect the dots but if she stayed silent, Kaelen's entire acquisition and her fifty-million-dollar contract would collapse in a month.
During a brief pause, Kaelen asked the room, "Any remaining concerns that are not tied to personal feelings about the bride?"
The room chuckled, but the issue remained. Amara realized she had one chance. She had to use Kaelen's language corporate efficiency to deliver a silent warning.
As the meeting dispersed, and Kaelen was shaking hands, Amara lingered by the table. She quickly took a notepad and wrote one sentence, mimicking Kaelen's tight, bullet-point style: "Logistics audit needed. Verify proprietary supply chain software stability immediately. Critical risk overlooked."
She folded the note once and placed it discreetly on Kaelen's leather briefcase, then hurried out before he could notice. It was anonymous, professional, and delivered the exact core of her Dissenter knowledge without compromising her identity. She had done her part now, it was up to Kaelen's efficiency to catch the signal.
Later that afternoon, Kaelen introduced her to his inner circle, the men who controlled the city's power structures. There were four of them, dressed with the same precision as Kaelen but possessing a warmer, more dangerous kind of confidence.
The first he introduced was Ethan Rivers, The Tech Titan. Ethan ran a colossal data and AI firm, a man who built his fortune on finding and exploiting digital loopholes. He had keen, observant eyes and a demeanor that was both relaxed and unnerving.
"Ethan, this is Amara Vance, my wife," Kaelen said formally.
Ethan offered Amara a hand, his smile not reaching his eyes. "The social pages are still smoking, Amara. An impressive entrance, Kaelen usually prefers his assets to be less volatile."
It was a direct insult, delivered with a smile. Amara returned his gaze calmly. "And Kaelen usually prefers his acquisitions to be fully audited, Ethan. Perhaps we're both full of surprises lately."
Ethan's smile vanished. He realized she had understood the insult and thrown it back with corporate accuracy. He gave a low chuckle, but his scrutiny of her intensified.
The other two men, Marcus King, The Legal Shark, and Daniel Rhodes, The Real Estate Mogul, were polite but noncommittal, clearly sizing her up as a temporary distraction but Ethan Rivers was different. He studied her with a predatory intelligence, as if trying to calculate her exact market value.
As the small gathering ended, Ethan walked past her and paused, leaning close. "I run deep systems analysis, Amara. I find vulnerabilities in people and code. I'll be keeping an eye on you. Kaelen can't afford a liability right now."
He tapped a finger gently on the arm of her suit jacket, right where Kaelen had pinned her in the kiss. "And by the way, I happen to run the servers that host a certain notorious fashion blog. I know every anonymous ID that logs in."
Amara's blood ran cold. Ethan Rivers, Kaelen's friend, the Tech Titan, was telling her, without a single doubt, that he could track The Thread Dissenter. She looked at him, her heart hammering against her ribs, realizing that her carefully guarded secret wasn't just known to Kaelen's general security team; it was one click away from being exposed by his most dangerous ally. The walls of her cage were shrinking fast.