RAPHAEL’S POV
“Sixty-forty or nothing,”
My voice sliced clean through the murmurs in the luxurious conference hall, laced with the kind of finality that brooked no argument.
I stood up slowly, adjusting the black cuff of my Italian silk shirt, eyes sweeping over the diverse faces of Asia’s most notorious underworld leaders seated around the round table.
Each of them carried years—decades—of violence and empire beneath tailored suits and polite smiles, yet none dared meet my gaze head-on.
The room was located in the topmost floor of The Marlowe Pearl, a five-star skyscraper hotel overlooking the bustling cityscape of Kuala Lumpur.
The crystal chandelier above us shimmered like judgmental stars, casting refracted light across the polished mahogany table.
Yet, despite the glitz, th
