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Mara looked up into Damian Rusk’s impenetrable, dark eyes, feeling the cold weight of the grand ballroom press down on her chest. The crystal chandeliers overhead seemed to mock her, casting sharp, brilliant reflections off the polished marble floors where she had spent weeks preparing for this night. / Chapter 10 / 10

Chapter 10 - The Unbreakable CrownThree years later.

The front page of the Chicago Tribune featured a glowing, full-color spread on the Sunday Living section.

“THE POWER DUO OF THE WINDY CITY: How Mara Ellison-Rusk and Damian Rusk Transformed the South Side and Redefined Chicago Philanthropy.”

Inside the sprawling master suite of the Rusk estate, Mara stood before the tall mirror, adjusting the emerald-and-onyx diamond ring on her finger. It still caught the light with the same fierce, unyielding brilliance as the day Damian had slipped it onto her hand.

Behind her in the mirror, Damian appeared, wearing a tailored black suit without a tie, the silver at his temples making him look even more formidable with age. He wrapped his arms around her waist, resting his chin on her shoulder.

“The foundation board meeting is in an hour,” Damian murmured, pressing a warm kiss to her neck. “Are you ready to run the city?”

Mara turned in his arms, wrapping her hands around his broad shoulders, looking straight into the dark, devoted eyes of the man who had burned down an empire just to build a world for her.

“I don’t need to run the city, Damian,” Mara whispered with a confident, radiant smile.

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@The heavy oak floorboards groaned under the boots of the approaching man, a low, rhythmic sound that cut through the chatter of the room like a blade. The two young bucks standing beside my stool didn’t hear it at first. They were still basking in the cheap warmth of their own cruelty, chuckling over the prospect of sending me off to find a candlelit wine bar with miniature cheese boards.

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Alexander Reed did not breathe. For three agonizing seconds, the air inside the grand marble foyer seemed to freeze, trapped beneath the weight of a horrific realization. The man who controlled eighty percent of the city's tech infrastructure, whose signature could bankrupt corporations and whose name was whispered with a mix of awe and terror in boardrooms, was suddenly nothing more than a terrified son.

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She leaned up and kissed him deeply.

“We already own it.”

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