Chapter 3 - Entering the Lion’s DenMonday morning, 7:55 AM.
I stepped out of a black town car and looked up at the towering glass monolith of Northstar Dominion. The lobby was a cathedral of brushed steel, white marble, and absolute power. As I walked through the security gates, my badge flashed gold—not guest access, not junior associate access, but executive override.
Odessa Crane’s private elevator whisked me straight to the 72nd floor.
The penthouse office smelled of old leather, black coffee, and unyielding ambition. Odessa was standing by the floor-to-ceiling windows, looking out over the city as morning traffic crawled far below. She turned around sharply, her sharp eyes scanning me from my tailored charcoal suit to the steady, unblinking composure in my gaze.
“Good. You didn’t wear black to your own funeral,” Odessa remarked, stepping forward to extend a hand. “Welcome to the real world, Camille.”
“Thank you, Mrs. Crane.”
“Call me Odessa. Now, let’s get down to business.” She walked over to her massive mahogany desk and dropped a thick manila folder onto it. “Your husband’s firm, Vance & Associates, is currently pitching for the municipal transit infrastructure contract. A ninety-million-dollar project.”
“I know,” I said. “I wrote the bid architecture six months ago.”
“And Adrian thinks he owns it,” Odessa smiled, a predator baring her teeth. “He’s currently negotiating a credit line with Meridian Bank using your proprietary risk model as collateral. But here is the fun part: your name was scrubbed from the metadata of every single document submitted to the city council. Sienna Vey signed off as lead strategist.”
A cold fury washed over me, instantly burning away any lingering warmth of the nine years I had wasted on Adrian. He hadn't just allowed Sienna to steal my credit; he had actively conspired to erase my legal claim to my own intellectual property.
“Can we block the credit line?” I asked quietly.
“Better,” Odessa said, sliding a legal brief across the desk. “We don’t just block it. We invalidate his entire corporate charter for intellectual fraud, freeze his corporate assets, and file an emergency injunction by Wednesday afternoon. And guess who Meridian Bank’s primary equity holder is?”
May you like
I looked at the document. “Northstar Dominion.”
“Checkmate,” Odessa whispered. “Show me how merciless you can be, Camille. Show me why I brought you here.”
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