and pulled up in front of an unassuming prewar buildi
space was hers. Polished concrete floors, exposed brick walls, minimalist furniture in charc
was a welcome shock. She crossed to the industrial kitchen and pulled a bo
ating inside the gilded cage of the Lloyd estate, breathing the
te countertop. Darius. She sw
ou think I'd believe a ridiculous
oss the screen. Her message
te based on Lloyd Group's last qua
stepped away from the p
ity of it made his blood boil. He hurled his phone onto
silk robes. The gardenia scent clung to her like a second skin. She draped herself over
t. "She's demanding over one and a half
How could she be so greedy? Darius, she crawled out of some forgott
ice he harbored was validated. Every doubt, erased. Daphne
. "Think about it, Darius. A woman with no background, no connections, suddenly claiming she owns a signi
ve done something dirty. A woman lik
Believing Isabelle was a criminal was so much easier-so much easie
We won't let her get away with it. We can look into where the money for he
. "We could offer her ten million. That's more than enough for her to live like a qu
. You're always right." He kissed her, finding solace in
ow fragile that
und her as her thoughts drifted back three years. To the crisis. Lloyd Group teet
l companies-and injected the lifeline the company so desperately needed. She had t
back from the edge of bankruptcy. That algorithm alone was worth more than the entirety of Lloyd Group.
rice. A secret deal struck with a desperate Magnu
over one and a half billion dollars without trying to tear her apart f
them
regimes on small
aptop on her desk. Encrypted. Untraceable. Documents, legal precedents, and
over a contact li
uld be a smoking crater by morning
sed the
t
as per
rn in slow motion. She want
andscape of power and ambition. The gam
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