"If we do not strike back immediately with our full corporate capacity, Father, the other clans will think we are too weak to defend our own name after what happened at the ballroom tonight."
Ghina paced aggressively across the sleek, dark floor of the Vanya Clan Corporate Office, her breath rattling in her throat as she stopped right in front of her father's massive mahogany desk. The morning light filtering through the reinforced glass window panels illuminated the fine layer of sweat on her forehead, her face contorted with a lingering, bitter rage. She tapped her fingers against the polished wood, her long manicured nails creating a sharp, rhythmic clicking sound that echoed throughout the spacious executive suite. Her father, the stern patriarch of the Vanya clan, sat completely mot
