The string quartet had stopped playing in Sterling Tower’s penthouse ballroom. Crystal flutes lay broken on the marble, and board members crowded around Mia while the stock ticker kept falling across the screens.
Mia clung to one director’s arm with tears running over her makeup. “I don’t know what happened! Chloe put a time bomb in the system. She’s trying to destroy us all!”
The oak doors at the end of the ballroom flew open.
Declan stood in the doorway. Dried blood had matted his hair, and his wool coat was stained from the morgue.
Several directors stepped away from him.
“Declan!” Mia ran toward him with both arms open. “Thank God. They’re blaming me. They’re saying horrible things.”
He passed the directors and overturned tables without looking away from the first-anniversary dia
