The damning echo of Elara Vance’s own voice, preserved in the sterile clarity of a digital recorder, had transformed the hospital room from a stage for her performance into a courtroom. In the heavy silence that followed, Michael Helwart’s gaze remained fixed on Linsy. A silent, ferocious battle raged within him. His every instinct, forged in boardrooms and backroom deals, screamed to intercede, to unleash a torrent of legal threats and financial ruin upon the Vances, to physically place ...