My brother thought it was funny to give my daughter a dog bowl with scraps while the whole family laughed. She broke down, and in that moment, something inside me snapped. Forty-eight hours later, they all discovered exactly what a mother does when you humiliate her child.

The air in the room instantly turned to ice.

I didn't step back; I stood my ground, my eyes locking onto his.

"And who exactly are you?" I asked, my voice dropping into that familiar, dangerous calm.

The man smiled, but it didn't reach his cold, gray eyes.

"My name is Victor Sterling," he said, walking slowly toward a sleek mahogany desk.

"Jason Vance was a fool, a weak boy playing a man's game. But he was my puppet, Elena."

"And when you cut his strings, you didn't just ruin him. You cost me fifty million dollars in unrecovered investments."

My heart gave a heavy thud, but I refused to let my expression falter.

Victor Sterling was a name spoken in whispers among the city's elite—a billionaire investor rumored to have deep ties to the criminal underworld and corrupt politicians.

"Jason’s crimes were his own, Mr. Sterling," I said, keeping my posture rigid.

"If you lost money, you should have chosen a better business partner. I have nothing to do with your losses."

Victor let out a soft, mocking laugh, tossing a thick leather folder onto the desk between us.

"Oh, but you do, my dear," he whispered, leaning forward.

"This folder contains a very carefully fabricated trail of bank transactions."

"It shows that the seed money for your beautiful new design firm came directly from Jason's offshore fraud accounts."

"To the federal government, it will look like you didn't just know about his crimes—it will look like you helped him launder the stolen money."

I stared at the folder, a chill running down my spine.

"That is a lie," I breathed.

"A lie told by a man with unlimited resources is indistinguishable from the truth in a courtroom," Victor replied smoothly.

"I don't care about Jason. But I want my fifty million dollars back. You have one week to sign over seventy percent of your company to me, or I will hand this folder to the authorities."

"They will freeze your assets, shut down your business, and when you go to prison, Lily will become a ward of the state."