morning. It was plain, unmarked, and only contained a small, thick

the gleaming towers of the financial district-a place they used to meet fo

etrayal. But the desperate urgency of his emotional break in her

s already there, occupying their usual back booth, nursing a black coffee. He

me," he said without pr

, slipping into the booth opposite him. "Marcus would cr

's why I did it. I needed to see if the real El

xtremely busy," she snapped, pushing back the

appiness for a contract marriage to a shark like Marcus." His voi

en you picked a better life with Chloe. You wanted ambition? I found i

power, you would have gotten it yourself. You didn't need to marry my boss to becom

her coffee cup. "This is not productive. You need

ouching her. "I made a colossal mistake. I chose glitter over gold, and I regret it every single day. I left

whispered, the lie tasting like ash.

u this: when the merger is over, what's your exit strategy?

nly thing that matters to you now is the success of the Hydra Protoc

eed was planted: Ethan was regretting the past, an