Chapter 10 - A New Blueprint (The Unexpected Ending)Three weeks later, the rain was pouring over Baltimore once again.
The light rail was delayed by twenty-eight minutes because someone had abandoned a shopping cart on the tracks.
Inside Crowe Meridian Holdings, the private elevator chimed.
The heavy steel doors slid open.
A young woman with a canvas bag overflowing with folders, charging cables, and half a blueberry muffin wrapped in a napkin stepped inside, rushing to avoid getting her shoes wet.
She stopped dead in her tracks.
Leaning against the brass rail, wearing a charcoal suit, a black silk tie, and a faint, unmistakable smirk, was Adrian Crowe. Beside him stood Cole, holding an umbrella and looking profoundly resigned to his fate.
Harper blinked, clutching her six-dollar coffee to her chest.
âOh,â she said, her cheeks turning pink. âMr. Logistics. I... I can take the regular stairs today if youâre busy.â
Adrian reached out, his hand gently catching the edge of the steel door before it could close, exactly as he had the first day they met.
âNo,â Adrian said softly, his dark eyes warm with a light no one in Baltimore had ever seen before. âThe stairs are for everyone else. You ride with me.â
Harper let out a long breath, a small, genuine smile breaking across her face as she stepped inside and splashed a drop of coffee dangerously close to his custom-made shoes.
âGood,â she muttered, leaning against the rail beside him. âBecause my light rail commute was an absolute disaster, and I need someone to complain to.â
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Adrian looked down at herâat the damp hair, the ink-stained thumb, the white ribbon shoelaceâand realized with absolute certainty that his empire, his money, and his cold, calculating world would never be the same again.
And for the first time in his life, he wouldn't have it any other way.
