[POV: Zara]

"If you smudge the ink on these merger agreements one more time, you’ll find yourself back in the hospitality pool faster than you can say 'insolvency,' do you understand?"

Zara kept her head bowed, her eyes fixed on the sensible, low-heeled shoes she had donned for this masquerade. She gripped the leather portfolio against her ribs, her knuckles white. Elena Vance didn't look back as she paced the length of the grand hallway, her heels clicking against the marble like a countdown. The air in the villa was different now—it smelled of expensive floor wax and old, cold ambition, stripped of the warmth Sofia had once breathed into...