Thirty minutes before Aria walked down the hallway, Damien was sitting in the library, staring at a laptop screen that had just gone black.
The international merger was done. The sharks in Tokyo had signed.
He sat back, exhaling a long breath. The silence of the library was heavy. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his personal phone. It was still powered down from the night before—a rare lapse in discipline that spoke to just how distracting his wife could be.
He pressed the power button. The Apple logo flared to life.
Before the phone could even finish booting, a notification pinged on his laptop. It was a call from Julian Cross.
Damien frowned. He tapped the key to accept the video call.
Julian's face filled the screen. The usually immaculate lawyer looked like he had been dragged through a hedge backward. His hair was messy, his tie was gone, and there was a frantic, wild look in his eyes that Damien had never seen before.
"Don't kill me," Julian said immediately.
