The morning after the apex bid, the executive suite of Sterling Development felt less like an office and more like the command center of a victorious army.

Clara Vance sat behind her sprawling glass desk, a steaming cup of black coffee in her hand, her eyes locked on the massive flat-screen televi

The torrential downpour matched the mood of the city's financial district. Thunder rumbled across the skyline, rattling the windows of the skyscrapers that loomed like dark sentinels in the night.

Clara Vance sat in the back of a black cab, watching the rain streak across the glass. She had stayed

The silence inside the executive elevator of Thorne Enterprises was different today. It wasn't the silence of focused ambition or corporate prestige. It was the heavy, suffocating silence of a tomb.

Clara Vance stood perfectly still as the digital floor indicator ticked upward, her reflection catc