The sterile white lights of St. Raphael’s Medical Center hummed with a low, agonizing frequency. I stood in the corridor like a ghost trapped between two worlds—the crushing reality of poverty on one side, and a billion-dollar lifeline dangled by a man who treated human emotion like a design flaw.

"This... this is a fabrication!" Vance stammered, his hands shaking as he gripped the edge of the table. "Deepfake technology! Adrian, you're railroading my office because you can't manage your own security incompetence!"

"Is it?" Adrian asked softly. He leaned forward, resting his palms on the table. "Because the federal indictment was filed thirty minutes ago. Federal marshals are currently downstairs clearing out your associate's office, Richard. And they have warrants for your personal financial records, detailing the three million dollar wire transfer from Apex Global into your offshore account."

The color vanished entirely from Vance’s face. He looked around the table for allies, but the other board members were already leaning away from him as if he carried a plague.

"You're finished," Vance whispered, his voice trembling with rage. "Apex will destroy you. The market will crush Park Meridian before the week is out."

"Let them try," Adrian said, his voice dropping to a lethal whisper. "Get out of my sight before I have you thrown out the window."

Vance grabbed his briefcase and practically sprinted out of the boardroom, the heavy doors slamming shut behind him.

For a long moment, nobody spoke. The remaining board members sat in stunned silence, realizing just how completely Adrian had outmaneuvered them, using a bewildered twenty-two-year-old cleaner as his secret weapon.

"Meeting adjourned," Adrian said flatly.

As the board members scrambled to pack their belongings and evacuate the room, I stood frozen, my heart still hammering against my ribs. I pulled my hand away, rubbing my forearm where his touch had left a lingering, ghost-like warmth.

"You used me," I hissed, keeping my voice low as the last of the executives cleared the room. "You used me as a prop to shock them."

"I used you as an undeniable truth," Adrian corrected, walking over to stand right in front of me. The scent of rain and cedar washed over me. "They needed to see that I was no longer isolated. That my senses—and my control—are returning."

"I am not your weapon, Mr. Park. And I am not your pet therapist. I want my seventy thousand dollars cleared, my grandmother's care guaranteed, and then I am walking out of this tower forever."

Adrian didn't flinch. Instead, a dangerous, rare flicker of amusement touched the corners of his mouth.

"You think you can walk away now, Mara?" He tilted his head. "Apex Global didn't just buy a leak from Richard Vance. They bought a blueprint. And the person who engineered that breach knows why you are the only person who can touch me."

Before I could ask what he meant, the penthouse emergency alarms began to wail—a deafening, piercing shriek that cut through the silence of the sixty-fifth floor.