The oppressive humidity of Redharrow seemed to intensify within the glass-walled confines of the Pierce Group executive offices. Natalie Pierce, the woman often called the "Ice Queen" for her professional composure, felt a rare c***k in her armor. Though she had been raised within the Pierce Clan, her status had always been precarious—the daughter of a "matrilocal" son-in-law, a man who had married into the family rather than carrying the bloodline. To the core of the family, she was a high-functioning asset, but rarely a confidante.
Today, however, the hierarchy of her world had been completely inverted. The revelation that their local dynasty was merely a stray branch of a far more formidable tree—the Main Clan of the Southern Coalition—explained the suffocating arrogance of the man sta
