They didn't hear from Trent again that week, and the silence sat uneasy in Ivy's chest despite everything else demanding her attention, a small, persistent worry she kept circling back to even as the investigation into Holt's shell company network moved forward with real momentum.

"The documentation checks out," Reagan said, spreading printouts across Sterling's office table with the particular grim satisfaction Ivy had learned meant genuine progress. "Eleven separate acquisitions, all traced back to Holt Industrial through increasingly obvious shell layers, once you know what you're looking for. This isn't just aggressive business practice, Sterling. This is a textbook antitrust case."

"Can we take it to the SEC," Sterling...