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"Ten years," she said, her voice dropping into that conspiratorial, faux-sympathetic register she reserved for people she was about to sacrifice. "Every transaction, every asset transfer, every subsidiary write-down from the legacy accounts. The board wants a full audit by Friday, Evelyn. And given your... meticulous reputation, you are the only one we trust to tear it apart." / Chapter 10 / 10

Chapter 10 - THE FINAL RECKONINGMin-ho Park looked at me with dark, calculating eyes that were so unnervingly similar to Jae’s it sent a chill straight to my marrow.

"Evelyn," he said, his voice raspy and deep, carrying a faint, heavy Korean accent that Jae had long since lost. "My son chose well. You have his mother’s analytical mind... and his stubborn refusal to stay out of legacy vaults."

I kept my hand firmly on my phone, my thumb hovering over the emergency alarm icon. "You're supposed to be dead. Jae thinks—the entire city thinks you died in Seoul fifteen years ago."

Min-ho let out a low, dry chuckle, closing the leather ledger and setting it gently back into the box.

"Dead men make terrible enemies, Evelyn, but they make magnificent leverage," Min-ho said, taking a slow step toward me. "Monica Shaw and her little corporate cronies didn't just steal five million dollars from Blackridge on a whim. They were being funded by someone inside Park Holdings. Someone who wanted to test your husband’s new empire... and draw him out into the open."

My heart hammered against my ribs. "What are you talking about?"

Before Min-ho could answer, the heavy steel door behind me slammed shut with a resounding, thunderous bang.

I whipped around.

Standing in the doorway, blocking the exit, was Thomas Vance—the managing director of Park Holdings, the man Jae trusted more than anyone else in the corporate world.

Vance wasn't wearing his usual polished smile. His glasses were off, and in his right hand, he held a heavy, suppressed automatic pistol, pointed directly at the floor between us.

Min-ho walked up behind me, stopping just a foot away, his dark eyes gleaming with dangerous amusement in the dim basement light.

"Welcome to the real family business, Evelyn," Min-ho whispered softly as my phone began to vibrate violently in my hand, displaying an incoming call from Jae’s personal number.

On the screen, flashing bright in the dark vault, was a single word: HUSBAND.

I looked at Vance, then back at Min-ho, realizing with absolute, terrifying clarity that the trap hadn't been sprung by Blackridge Capital at all.

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The heavy mahogany door of the dressing room seemed to close in on us, trapping the suffocating tension inside. Richard’s hands were shaking as he clutched the small, tarnished silver pendant. His knuckles were bone-white.

The heavy mahogany door of the dressing room seemed to close in on us, t...

The heavy silver fork slipped from my fingers, clattering sharply against the gold-rimmed porcelain of my dinner plate.

The heavy silver fork slipped from my fingers, clattering sharply agains...

The heavy mahogany door of the Fairmont Copley suite clicked shut with a muffled, expensive thud.

The heavy mahogany door of the Fairmont Copley suite clicked shut with a...

Blackridge had just been the bait.

And the war for Park Holdings was only just beginning.

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