Max shut down the live feed, the screen going black. Seron's rage still echoed in his mind, predictable, loud, reckless. "Still nothing?" Max asked calmly. One of the tech men shifted uncomfortably.
"We traced the signal hops, sir, but whoever he's speaking to knows how to disappear. Burners, rotating numbers, foreign relays. No fixed point." Max's jaw tightened, just barely. "Run it again," he said. "Strip it down to behavior patterns. I don't need names. I need intent."
"Yes, sir." Max stood, straightening his cufflinks. "If they think staying invisible keeps them safe, they're wrong. It just means they don't know what game they've walked into." He paused at the door, turning back.
"And flag every financial anomaly tied to Seron. Every wire. Every favor. People always leave fingerprints when money moves."
"Yes, sir." Max stepped into the elevator, his reflection staring back at him, cool, unbothered, calculating. But for the first time that day, something bothered him. Ruby had dismantled a boardroom without breaking her voice. And someone else had noticed.
Ruby arrived at the mansion slowly, her eyes lifting to take it all in this time. Last night had been a blur. Shock, exhaustion, adrenaline. This morning, she had left in a rushheels clicking with purpose, heart pounding with unfinished business.
Now, standing at the entrance, reality settled. "Mrs. Byron," Jo said warmly, stepping forward. "Mr. Byron wanted me to assure you that you have everything you need. Let me introduce you to the staff." Ruby straightened instinctively.
"This is Lizzy, your personal chef. Jessica is the head of housekeeping. And this is Maron, he and his team take care of the grounds and the stables." The staff stood in quiet respect, eyes curious, assessing. Ruby offered a small, gracious smile. All she wanted was a single minute to breathe.
"Thank you, Jo," she said softly. "I'll be in my room for now. Is Mr. Byron home?" She paused, the words catching.
"I mean… is my husband home?" Jo shook her head. "No, Mrs. Byron. He stepped out earlier."
"Alright. Thank you." Ruby turned and made her way upstairs, the mansion stretching endlessly around her, luxurious, silent, heavy with secrets. But instead of heading straight to her room, curiosity tugged at her. Max's room.
Her steps slowed as she stood outside the door. This was the man she had married in desperation, strategy… survival. A man powerful enough to make her a CEO overnight. A man feared by the very people who once crushed her.
She pushed the door open. The room was immaculate. Dark wood. Clean lines. Everything precise, controlled, just like him. Nothing out of place. Nothing emotional. No warmth.
Ruby walked further in, fingers brushing the edge of his desk. What have I stepped into? she wondered. Yes, she wanted revenge. On Seron. On Acacia. They had humiliated her, broken her, made her feel small. But Mia, Malvin, and the rest of the board… they were different.
Those were people who smiled while calculating your downfall. Power-hungry. Strategic. Dangerous. They didn't like this new arrangement.
And Ruby knew, deep in her bones, that they would do anything to take back control. She inhaled slowly, steadying herself. This wasn't just revenge anymore. This was war. And she had married the most dangerous man in the room.
Ruby drifted farther into the room, her curiosity no longer gentle.
This wasn't just a bedroom. It was a command center. She stopped at the desk again. One drawer was locked. That alone set her nerves humming. Max didn't strike her as a man who locked things without reason.
She hesitated, then tugged harder. Locked. Her gaze swept the room until it landed on a slim black key resting inside a carved wooden tray on the nightstand as if it had been left there on purpose. Too easy, she thought. Still, she picked it up. The drawer slid open smoothly.
Inside were neatly stacked files, thin, precise, labeled in bold black ink. Her breath caught.
SERON BYRON
MIA BYRON
MALVIN ANDERSON
Ruby swallowed. This wasn't new. This wasn't impulsive. Her fingers trembled as she opened the first file.
Seron. Photos. Financial statements. Private emails. Bank transfers traced through shell companies. Hotel receipts. Mistresses. Lawsuits quietly buried. Evidence of siphoned company funds, millions. Dates stretched back years.
"Dear God…" Ruby whispered. She flipped to the next folder.
Mia Byron. Board manipulation. Bribes disguised as "consulting fees." Votes bought. Suppliers coerced. A carefully documented pattern of control and intimidation.
Then Malvin. Legal loopholes. Case files. Payoffs. Contracts rewritten after signatures. Entire cases quietly made to disappear.
Ruby's chest tightened. Max hadn't just been watching them. He'd been building cases. Her fingers slid to the last folder. The name stopped her cold. ACE BROWN
She frowned. "I don't know you," she murmured. The file was thicker than the rest.
Inside were surveillance photos, Ace entering hotels, leaving private residences, slipping into board-adjacent offices under different identities. There were forged credentials, offshore accounts, and burner phone logs.
And then, Ruby froze. A photograph slid loose and landed on the desk. Ace Brown… standing beside Seron. Close. Familiar. Another photo, Ace with Mia.
Laughing. Another, Malvin, handed Ace a folder. Ruby's pulse spiked.
He's the connector. She flipped deeper. Ace Brown wasn't just involved. He was the architect.
A fixer. A strategist. The person who made problems vanish. The one who cleaned up scandals, buried crimes, and manipulated outcomes from the shadows. And Max knew. There were handwritten notes in the margins, Max's handwriting, sharp and controlled.
He thinks he's untouchable. He underestimates loyalty. Seron will break first. Mia will burn everything to save herself. Malvin will fold the moment he sees prison.
Ruby leaned back in the chair, her legs suddenly weak. This marriage wasn't a coincidence.
Her appointment wasn't a mercy. She was bait.
And Max had placed her directly in the middle of the boardroom, where all their enemies were exposed, furious, and desperate.
Max stepped into the foyer just as the last indigo bruised the horizon. Inside, the house was a golden fortress, silent, warm, and smelling of expensive cedar. It was the kind of artificial peace that only vast wealth can buy and iron-fisted control can protect.
Ruby was a silhouette against the floor-to-ceiling glass. Her heels were discarded on the rug, her hair a wild, dark silk against the rigid line of her shoulders. She looked like a queen who had just survived a siege.
"You watched," she said, her voice barely a whisper.
Max's smile didn't reach his eyes, but it was there, sharp and possessive. "Every second."
She finally turned, the flickering lamplight catching the tremor in her hands as she held up the photos.
"Then explain these. I'm not naive, Max. We both knew this marriage was a transaction. I had my goals, you had yours. I didn't care that I was being used, because I was using you right back. But this?" She shook the photos, her voice cracking. "This is you dropping me into the center of a war with people I don't even know."