The elegant conference room was thick with the tension of a high-stakes negotiation. Vittorio Amorielle sat at the long table, his dark eyes fixed on the open contract before him. On the other side of the table, Ellis Barker should have been seated, but she had left, leaving her own lawyers to advocate on her behalf.

The legal discussions continued a back-and-forth of legal jargon that eluded Vittorio's thoughts. His focus shifted from the words on the paper to the solitary engagement ...