ANNA’S POV
"He's not going to back down on the corridor timeline," Ralph said, sliding the revised contract across the table. "Crimson Moon controls the port access. We control the routing efficiency. If he tries to push the deadline up, that's leverage we use."
Three hours in. Maps and margin breakdowns had taken over the table, a plate of sandwiches between us that neither of us had finished. Ralph worked the way he always did — direct, unhurried, not a motion wasted.
He set his pen down. "What does Luca want? Out of this."
I kept my eyes on the contract. "He's just working through regret. That's all this is."
"And if the regret is real?"
My hand went still on the page instead of turning it.
"It doesn't matter if it's real," I said. "Real or not, it doesn't change what he did."
"
