The conference room at Hayes Industry headquarters was unusually silent for a Monday morning. Normally, the space buzzed with the energy of high-stakes decisions, the tapping of fingers on laptops, the shuffling of papers, and the sharp cadence of power moves cloaked in polite corporate language. But now, it was the battlefield of a war no one had been prepared for.

Emma Carter sat at the head of the table.

Jack Hayes stood near the floor-to-ceiling window, arms crossed, his posture rigid. ...