The exile from Cross Empire had not been a retreat for Vanessa Leigh. It had been a incubation.
Her office—the "Special Projects" purgatory—was gone. Her access cards were deactivated. Her company phone was wiped.
She was, for the first time in a decade, unemployed.
But she was not powerless.
She sat in her apartment on the Upper East Side, a space that was as cold and sterile as the ambition that had paid for it. The lights were off. The only illumination came from the city outside, casting long, jagged shadows across the floor.
On the glass coffee table in front of her, lay the "weapon."
The plastic bag with the juice box straw. The DNA test results. The photos of Liam and Ethan.
She had thought it was "Game Over." She had thought she had won.
But then Liam had bought the bank. H
