Chapter 7

I couldn't sit silently anymore. The room had fallen into stunned silence as Jake and Sophia stood frozen at the front, their faces drained of color as they stared at the damning evidence displayed on the screen behind them. Eleanor Vance's cold question hung in the air, unanswered. This

Chapter 8

"Maya," Jake whispered, his fingers digging into my arm, "what have you done?"

I pulled away from his grasp, feeling nothing but cold satisfaction as his hand fell limply to his side. The conference room had emptied except for us, Derek hovering protectively nearby, and Sophia, whose pe

Chapter 9

Three days after the Hartwell presentation disaster, I sat in a conference room I'd never been allowed to enter before—the executive boardroom. The mahogany table gleamed under recessed lighting, and floor-to-ceiling windows offered a panoramic view of downtown Los Angeles. I smoothed my