Ethan’s POV

The ballroom was still tense from Marcus’s outburst. Even now, the last echoes of his demand for five million dollars still hung in the air, as if no one quite believed he had dared to say it.

I watched Marcus’s face as people murmured all around him, his eyes darting from guest to guest, searching for someone who might understand, someone who might support him. But he found nothing.

The only thing reflected in the faces around him was shock and quiet disgust.

For a long ...