Chapter 8

The silence in Adrian Blackwood’s penthouse living room was a fresh wound after Eleanor’s dramatic exit. The air still hummed with the aftershocks of Adrian tearing up the amended Section 4.1.C, a public defiance that had cost him, and would cost Mara, dearly. Before the echoes could fade, the chime of the private elevator announced another arrival. A courier, crisp in his uniform, stood holding a flat, official envelope. He extended it to Adrian. “For Ms. Mara Vale, sir. Urgent, marked ‘Child Welfare Notation.’”

Mara’s breath hitched.