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Now it’s also Yara’s reputation.

And that changes the rules.

Suddenly, what I thought was patience feels like a cage.

Like a countdown.

Like the quiet before a warhammer drops.

I close my eyes.

Inhale deep.

And I allow that strange, terrifying, serene clarity to wash over me again.

Not rage.

Not violence.

Just certainty.

I will not let him destroy her.

And if it takes every ally, every secret, every unlawful channel I’ve ever whispered with in dark alleys across star systems…

Then so be it.

Because this isn’t just corporate warfare.

This is a reckoning.

And sooner or later,someoneis going to bleed.

CHAPTER 12

YARA

Tidball finally makes his move.

The accusation lands on me like a punch to the sternum.

Not immediately.

Not with a shout.

But with that slow, creeping realization thatthe air in the room just doubled in densityand my lungs suddenly feel like they’re full of water.

I can smell the tension first — a metallic tang under the recycled air, like iron shavings against fresh wounds. I taste it on my tongue before I even register the words.

“Ms. Greenfield,” Tidball begins, voice the slow, careful cadence of someone delivering news youthinkyou’re prepared for but absolutely are not.

We’re gathered in the big boardroom — glass walls, long table, the kind of place designed to make people feel powerful even when they’re trembling from the inside.

But there’s no comfort here.

Just accusation.

Whispers.