The design studio was a graveyard of shredded silk and slashed chiffon, but as Alexander Sterling stood amidst the wreckage, he looked entirely unfazed. He didn't see a disaster. He only saw a battlefield, and the Kingmaker never lost a war.

He shrugged off his bespoke suit jacket, draping it over

The Croft Luxury boardroom was a cavern of polished mahogany, floor-to-ceiling glass, and suffocating tension. The long table was lined with the company’s most prominent investors, board members, and fashion critics.

At the head of the table sat Damian Croft. He wore a perfectly tailored suit, but

The boardroom was entirely empty, yet the air felt too thick to breathe. Clara stared at the legal injunction trembling in her hands, the harsh fluorescent lights glaring off the crisp white paper. The words blurred together, a tangled web of legalese and financial terminology, but the core message