First Person Point of View – Alexander)*
The phone felt heavier than it should have in my hand.
I glanced at the screen only long enough to confirm the number. The same number that had followed me across time zones and late-night negotiations. The man who held the fifty-million-dollar note that could pull the entire company under if he decided the terms had changed. My secretary stood waiting, expression carefully blank, the way she always looked when she knew the call was not ordinary.
I turned to Victoria and Aria.
“Excuse me for a moment.”
Victoria gave a small, understanding nod. Aria kept her eyes lowered, but I felt the weight of her presence the same way I had felt it in the car, the same way I had felt it across the breakfast table. The night in the hotel was still too close t
