Daniel's POV

The door closes behind her, and I stand frozen in the wreckage of everything I thought I knew.

Four companies were destroyed. A pattern of predation spanning five years. Marcus Hale—the investor I trusted, the partner I welcomed—is a corporate assassin.

And Lydia. God, Lydia.

Six months of carefully orchestrated betrayal. Every late-night strategy session, every intimate dinner, every moment I thought she understood me—all of it was reconnaissance. Intelligence gathering. ...