The silence of my private suite felt different now less like grief and more like clarity, as though the house finally knew that I wasn’t coming home to fall apart anymore.
I didn’t remove the suit immediately.
I sat with it.
Let the fabric wrinkle beneath my weight.
Let the pins in my hair remain tight.
Because today hadn’t ended it had only paused.
The war I declared in the boardroom was just the opening verse, and I knew the chorus would be sung behind closed doors, where real legacies are reshaped by shadows and deals whispered between enemies who smile with teeth instead of trust.
A knock came.
Once.
Then again.
No announcement.
No assistant.
Just a quiet knock.
And somehow, I already knew it wasn’t Edward.
It wasn’t Caleb.
It wasn’t even Valerie or Camilla.
I opened th
