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The fluorescent hum of St. Vincent’s emergency room felt like a physical weight pressing down on my temples. Dr. Sarah Vance moved with quiet efficiency, her gloved fingers gently pressing against my ribs. Every breath I took felt like inhaling splintered glass, but I kept my jaw clamped shut, refusing to give the pain the satisfaction of a sound. / Chapter 21 / 25

Chapter 21 - The London Terminal

The private jet touched down at Heathrow under a slate-gray London sky that mirrored the architecture of the financial district below. As the cabin door hissed open, the crisp autumn wind swept across the tarmac, carrying the scent of damp pavement and high-stakes ambition. Marcus led the ground detail, securing our transit to a Victorian townhouse nestled in the heart of Mayfair—a secure European hub owned by Romano Holdings.

"The European branch of Vanguard didn't fold when we dismantled the New York assets," Dante said, setting his leather briefcase on the mahogany desk in the townhouse's private study. He unbuttoned his cuffs, rolling his sleeves up as he activated a secure tactical map on the wall monitor. "They’ve been quietly consolidating their remaining liquidity into a single entity based here in London: Blackwood Securities."

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The Slack notification sound was still echoing across the entire Prescott Global ecosystem by the time Claire walked out of the downtown skyscraper. Within four minutes of her typing that single sentence, the IT department tried to purge the message, but it was already too late. Screen recordings had been captured, screenshots distributed across private WhatsApp chats, and corporate gossip channels were melting down.

The Slack notification sound was still echoing across the entire Prescot...

The doorknob wrenched back and forth in a blind, furious frenzy, rattling the hollow wood of the bathroom door until the frame groaned. On the other side, my mother-in-law, Brenda, shrieked obscenities, her voice warped and jagged through the gap.

The doorknob wrenched back and forth in a blind, furious frenzy, rattlin...

The heavy iron gates of the Lawson ancestral estate in Phoenix swung open, welcoming Christopher’s car into the manicured courtyard. Evelyn Lawson sat in her high-backed velvet chair in the sunroom, her fingers trembling slightly against the heavy silver handle of her cane. She had not slept a wink since Victoria’s text message a week ago. Every tick of the grandfather clock in the hallway sounded like a countdown to an explosion.

The heavy iron gates of the Lawson ancestral estate in Phoenix swung ope...

I walked over to the monitor, my eyes scanning the corporate registry data flashing across the screen. "Blackwood. That’s the firm Karen used to route her offshore bonuses through before she took over as COO of Doyle Meridian."

"Which means whoever runs Blackwood is the true architect of the original takeover," Dante replied, turning to look at me. "And they know you're in town."

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Chapter 22 - The Shadow at the Window
Chapter 23 - The Stitch in the Seam
Chapter 24 - Crossfire in Mayfair
Chapter 25 - The Brother's Secret

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