“It’s a clinical obsession, Marcus. Look at him. Look at the way he’s abandoned the board for a girl who doesn’t even have a college degree. He isn’t in love; he is suffering from a psychological breakdown.”

Emelia Aldridge stood in the center of the Aldridge Corp boardroom, her reflection mirrored in the polished obsidian table. She was dressed in a suit the color of dried blood, her eyes bright with a frantic, desperate intelligence. Spread across the table were medical dossiers, psychological profiles she had paid for in secret, and a drafted press release that would change the trajectory of the company forever.

“Ma’am, the doctors you consulted never...