“You’re late Cole.” Mr Axton said as he turned around to face Cole. Cole’s tone stayed even. “You scheduled the meeting impromptu. This is the best I could do.”

Axton gave a thin smile and slid a tablet across the table. Headlines flashed on screen:

“Everstone Scandal Averted: Cole Everstone Marries Hunter Heiress.”

Axton tapped the screen twice. “Your little stunt got a lot of attention.”

Cole didn’t blink. “It stabilized our deal with you. Without it, you wanted to pull out and leave us hanging, this was the best we could do. You know my family can’t afford to lose millions right now.”

Axton leaned back. “You tied our name to the Hunters in a nasty scandal, of course we had to pull out. You know we don’t like surprises.”

“Exactly,” Cole met his stare as she sat across from him. “Which is why we did this. It was the cleanest move on the table. You wanted the Everstone leak contained, and well…” he shrugged, “it is.”

Axton said nothing for a while, studying Cole like a test subject. Then he pointed to a photo on the tablet, Evelyn, smiling beside Cole at a gala.

“You’re good, Cole. Really good. That’s why we keep you around. But this—” he tapped a picture of Evelyn, “—is a liability.”

“She’s not what the media says. She’s smart and careful.”

“She’s emotional. And emotions ruin men like you.”

Cole’s jaw tightened. “She doesn’t know anything about the Helios. And she won’t.”

Axton smirked and then scoffed. “You said the same thing about your last assignment.”

The words triggered Cole, but he didn’t respond. The silence between them stretched.

Axton set the tablet aside. “You’ll meet with Tom tomorrow. Deliver this to him.” He slid an envelope across the table.

Cole frowned. “What’s inside?”

Axton’s mouth curved slightly. “What’s in it is none of your business.”

Cole stared at him for a beat, realizing he’d just been handed a warning disguised as a riddle. Whatever game Axton was running, it wasn’t one Cole could see from here.

Cole stood up slowly. “Anything else?”

Axton opened a folder and slid an envelope forward.

“New directive from the board,” he said. “You’ll continue your marriage, keep the press believing it’s real.”

Cole nodded once. “That was already the plan.”

“Good,” Axton said. “While you’re at it, you need to send us weekly access to the Hunter accounts.”

Cole’s fingers stilled on the table. “You’re asking me to spy on my wife?”

“I’m asking you to protect Helios’ interests. We’re the reason your family is still standing, or do we need to remind you?”

Cole cleared his throat and looked away slightly from Axton’s face. “But she doesn’t even have access to those accounts.”

Axton’s tone sharpened. “Then make her get it and then make her trust you so she’ll open every door herself.”

Cole’s voice dropped. “You’re turning this into a setup.”

Axton smirked faintly. “No. We’re turning it into insurance, you and I know that’s the only way to keep people in check.”

Axton stood up, buttoning his jacket. “Remember something, Cole Everstone, you belong to the Helios. You don’t get to fall in love with your contracts.”

Cole said nothing. He collected the envelope, turned, and walked out.

###

“I can’t believe Adam would actually do this…” Mrs. Everstone muttered, her voice trembling.

“Mom…” Cole started, his tone cautious. “You know Adam doesn’t make decisions like this without—”

“Without stabbing me in the back first?” she cut in sharply, spinning toward him. “Do you have any idea what this means? He’s taken Clinton. Clinton! The boy I raised as my own. The boy I fed, clothed, and sent to the best schools, and now they both turned against me?”

Her hands trembled as she spoke. The glass of wine she was holding sloshed dangerously close to the edge.

Cole frowned. “Mom, calm down. Maybe there’s more to this—”

“Don’t you dare defend him,” she snapped, her eyes flashing as she pointed a finger at him.

“I’m not defending him,” Cole said quietly. “I’m saying maybe it’s not what it looks like.”

“Oh, it’s exactly what it looks like,” she hissed. “He’s starting a new company. My own son is taking what I built and turning it against me.”

She drained the entire wine at once and turned, pouring herself another glass of wine with trembling hands. The bottle clinked against the rim as she filled the glass until it was too full.

She took a sip, then set it down with a hard clack. “Do you know what your brother’s company is called?”

Cole hesitated. “He didn’t tell me.”

She let out a bitter, humorless laugh. “Of course he didn’t. He named it ‘NovaCore.’ The same name I once planned for my expansion arm before he convinced me to drop it.”

Cole blinked, startled. “You’re kidding. He wouldn’t…”

“Oh, I wish I was,” she said, her voice breaking slightly. “He took my ideas, my people, my vision. And now he’s taking my reputation.”

She turned toward Cole again, her eyes glistening with tears. “Do you remember what it was like after your father left us?”

He nodded slowly. “Yeah, I do.”

“Do you remember how I had nothing? How I had to start from scratch, Cole?” she continued, stepping closer with each word. “How I built this empire brick by brick while that man went off and started a new life?”

“Yes, Mom,” he murmured.

“Then you’ll understand why I can’t sit down and let Adam destroy me like this,” she said fiercely. “I won’t let him take everything I’ve fought for.”

Cole exhaled, rubbing the back of his neck. “So what are you going to do?”

Her face hardened and her eyes went cold. The tremor in her voice vanished. “I need you to call the press.”

“What?”

“I said call the press,” she repeated calmly, the edge of command creeping back into her tone. “If he wants to play dirty, then so will I.”

“Mom, come on,” Cole said, disbelief coloring his words. “You’re not actually going to—”

“Don’t argue with me, Cole!” she snapped. “I’ve given that boy everything. Everything! And this is how he repays me?”

Her breathing grew shallow. She took another gulp of wine, then set the glass down gently, almost too gently. “He needs to be reminded who made him. Who gave him a name. Who gave him a future.”

Cole’s voice dropped to a whisper. “You’re going to destroy him.”

Her gaze didn’t waver. “It’s better I destroy him than watch him destroy me.”

He stared at her, unable to speak. His mother, powerful, cunning, brilliant, looked more dangerous now than ever before.

“Mom, think about what you’re saying,” he tried again. “You’re going to say all that… all that stuff about Adam to the press? Your own son?”

She shrugged, as if the question bored her. “What do you expect from me, Cole? Compassion? Forgiveness?”

Her lips twisted into a bitter smile. “This isn’t some Sunday service. This is war and he started it the moment he walked out with Clinton.”

Cole’s chest tightened.

“You always taught us family comes first,” he reminded her quietly.

“And he stopped being family the second he betrayed me.” She replied coldly.

Cole swallowed hard. The way she said it sent a chill down his spine.

“Fine,” she said abruptly, straightening. “If you won’t call the press, I’ll do it myself.”

She strode toward her desk, grabbed her phone and dialed a familiar number.