I stood alone in the empty conference room.
My heart beat fast.
He was the first one to say it out loud.
The first to put suspicion into words.
He was also in charge of Finance.
He had access to everything.
If Jovi had a spy, someone feeding her information…
Chen made sense.
But what unsettled me more was my own reaction.
A month ago, I would have felt threatened, hurt, defensive.
Now I felt something else: focus.
He was a variable.
Variables could be managed.
That cold clarity—was that strength, or was I losing something I’d never get back?
The rest of the day passed in a blur of work.
I focused on the files.
At four forty-five, Lydia appeared at my door.
“The car is ready for you, Ms. Sullivan.”
”I just need to finish—”
”Mr.
Blackwood was clear.
Five o’clock.” Her tone allowed no argument.
I saved my work and shut down my computer.
When I walked to the elevator bank, Vance was there, waiting.
We stood in silence.
The doors opened.
We got in.
Just the two of us.
The elevator started down.
“Chen tested you,” Vance said, staring at the numbers above the door.
“I know.”
”He is nervous.
Your role threatens his domain.
He is also the most likely leak to Jovienne.
He resents my authority and would enjoy causing marital… friction.”
He said “marital friction” like it was a calculation error.
Fix it and move on.
“What do I do about it?”
”You do your job.
Better than he does his.
He can whisper all he wants.
If the numbers work, he has no power.”
The elevator reached the lobby.
The doors opened.
“The car is outside. Go home. Rest. That’s an order.”
I walked to the waiting car.
As I got in, I looked back.
Vance was already walking toward the private garage elevator, his back straight, alone.
He never looked over.
The car didn’t take me home.
Not right away.
“Mr. Blackwood asked that we make a stop first,” the driver said.
We pulled up in front of a plain brick building.
A medical clinic.
A woman in scrubs came out and got in the front seat.
She turned and smiled.
Kind.
“Ms. Sullivan? I’m Claire, from Dr. Evans’s office. We just need to do a quick check-up, make sure everything is healing as it should. It won’t take long.”
Vance had set this up.
He hadn’t asked.
He had just done it.
Managing my health like a business risk.
At the clinic, the check-up was fast and professional.
Everything was normal.
Healing.
As I was leaving, Claire handed me a small paper bag.
“Just some vitamins. Take it easy.”
When I got back in the car, the paper bag in my hand, I felt a sudden, heavy tiredness.
The kind that comes after holding yourself tight for too long.
The car took me home.
The apartment was dark.
Zane wasn’t there.
A note on the counter said: *Had to meet a client.
There’s soup in the fridge.*
I put the vitamins on the counter next to his note.
I went to the guest room.
The white orchid was still there, alive and calm.
I changed into soft clothes and got into bed.
My body ached.
My mind replayed Chen’s thin smile.
The feeling of every eye in the office on me.
My phone buzzed. Follow the newest chapters on g.com.
My Partner: Check-up completed?
Me: Yes.
All normal.
My Partner: Good.
The car comes at 8:45.
Then, a moment later, another message.
My Partner: Chen is having dinner at The Grove tomorrow with a reporter from the Business Times.
He likes to talk.
I read it twice.
He wasn’t just giving me information.
He was giving me a weapon.
A time, a place, a weakness.
He was trusting me to know what to do with it.
Me: I’ll be ready.
I put the phone down.
The tiredness was still there, but under it was something else.
A low, steady current of purpose.
The battle wasn’t just with Zane and Jovi anymore.
It was here, in the office.
With men like Chen.
With whispers that followed me everywhere.
Vance and I weren’t just partners in revenge anymore.
We were allies in a war on two fronts.
And he had just shown me where the next enemy stood.
The next morning, I went to work early.
At my desk, I opened the Business Times website.
Found the reporter’s name.
Anya Ford.
I searched on her past articles.
I began to cross-reference them with Astera’s financial releases from the last two years, looking for a pattern, for a clue Chen might have given her.
I was deep in the data when my office door opened without a knock.
Zane.
He looked out of place in his casual clothes, his face serious.
“We need to talk,” he said.
“It’s about Jovi. She’s not doing well. She’s scared. And she asked me to come here to talk to you.”