By 4:00 PM, the rain outside had stopped, leaving the city air clear and crisp as the late afternoon sun broke through the clouds, casting long, golden beams through the high windows of the judicial chamber.
Zeth sat at his table alone. Nielle was conspicuously absent, having checked out of the hospital pavilion under a cloud of sudden 'medical complications' the moment the court-appointed officer arrived with the collection kits. Her absence was an answer in itself, an admission of a failed play that Nate had already distanced himself from hours ago.
Nate had already pulled his hostile takeover bid from the European shipping conglomerate the moment his internal contacts informed him that Christian’s firm had launched a massive, preemptive counter-buyout of the Richason debt lines utiliz
