rio Industries feeling like she was bal

yes, she saw Dante's face on the rooftop. The

part of

skin. Every glance from a coworker felt like suspicion. Every whispered conversati

a mistake t

ds shook slightly as she opened a spreadsheet. But her mind wasn't on numbers. It

. Of a family war simmering jus

tanding in th

e. She got up, grabbed her badge, and slipped

rger files-cross-referencing data for the quart

L (PRIVATE) from the shelf. Dust coated her hands. The

from past negotiations, email transcripts

-somethi

d folded neatly. D

J. V

M. E

rregularity - Discr

heart d

rom someone wit

ri

rned the page over. There, a

t Elr

mo

ght somewhere between disbelief an

ause before the merger had gone through

ne had l

known about Jared's fraud? Had s

nd alone, suffocating under debt. No severance, no pension.

he hadn't jus

e'd been b

enc

buzzed in

e Va

d. Then answ

office," he

Maya stepped out, Dante was waiting. The glass walls around h

ak until she

into the

cold. "I was look

d on hers. "An

didn't you tell me m

-subtly, but enough. "

lls

I knew the name. I didn't connect h

ed the discrepancy. She knew

lieve

stopp

ished for it." He ran a hand through his hair.

She was fired fo

if she was-then the board k

inally giving in. Her bre

ever tell me?"

ecting you," Dante said. "Sometime

him. "You've

n't de

nte sent her home early-

s town, one her mother used to visit. The owner, an

eyes," she said,

Did she ever t

ing like, 'I made too much noise for the wrong p

er Clara walked away. Her coffee went c

ed quietly-but no

woul

watching the city buzz beneath her. The street

came at

fr

her

nd found a courier hol

Elridge,

address. N

d it afte

ancial records. Inter

Standing with t

em-was Et

r

ust crashed in

Ethan had always said he dealt with "st

it mad

adn't fallen out of love. He'd walked a

s using her

he man at the center of

han in

ped Jared

a really was-before

hands. Her knees hit t

's firing. Her heartbreak. Her job at

s a c

d just tugged

t, Maya te

found something. Ab

ater, her

low. "Tell m

e realized somet

ust about rev

was

s already