Victor stood up and leaned over her shoulder, his chest nearly brushing her back, his proximity sending a sudden, electric warmth along Corin’s skin. Over the past month, the professional boundaries between them had begun to subtly shift into something far more intimate and charged. Victor was absolute terror to his enemies, but to Corin, he was fiercely protective, infinitely patient, and openly fascinated by her sharp mind and calm resilience.

"Can you trace the full destination of the six million?" Victor asked, his deep voice vibrating near her ear.

"Not just your six million," Corin said, a cold, sharp smile touching her lips as her fingers flew across the mechanical keyboard. "I uncovered an additional fourteen million dollars he secretly embezzled from Blake Logistics over the past year during his initial courtship of Vanessa. He’s been running a massive, illegal Ponzi scheme—using Blake Logistics' operational capital to pay off his old, high-interest gambling debts to a bookmaking syndicate in Chicago."

Victor’s eyes gleamed with dark, lethal satisfaction. "If old Arthur Blake discovers that his prospective son-in-law has been robbing his legacy company blind from day one, the wedding is canceled before the invitations can even be printed."

"No," Corin said softly, spinning her leather chair around to face him directly. "We don't inform Arthur Blake just yet. We wait."

Victor raised an eyebrow. "Wait for what?"

"For the annual Blake Logistics Gala next Friday night," Corin explained, her voice dropping into a razor-sharp whisper. "That is the exact event where Richard plans to formally announce his new fund and sign the final merger contracts between Harris Capital and Blake Logistics in front of the press."

Victor looked down at her, his expression shifting from corporate calculation to unadulterated admiration. "You want to execute him publicly in front of the entire Pacific Northwest elite."

"He threw me onto the street like trash in front of L’Auberge," Corin said, her gray eyes flashing with quiet fire. "I want him ruined in front of every single person whose respect he spent his whole life trying to buy."

Victor reached out slowly, his large, leather-gloved hand gently cupping the side of her face. Corin’s breath caught in her throat, but she didn't pull away.

"You are truly extraordinary, Corin," Victor murmured, his blue eyes searching her face with intense sincerity. "Richard Harris was the greatest fool in this city. He held a flawless diamond in his hands and was too blind to see it."

"Victor..." she whispered, her heart hammering against her ribs.

"Next Friday night," Victor declared smoothly, taking half a step back while maintaining his sovereign aura. "You will not enter that ballroom as an auditor, Corin. You will enter as my guest. And by midnight, Richard Harris will come to realize that the woman he discarded has returned as his executioner."

The grand ballroom of the Bellevue Imperial Hotel was a sprawling sea of polished marble columns, cascading white orchids, and towering champagne pyramids. The absolute pinnacle of Seattle high society had gathered—senators, real estate tycoons, tech billionaires, and powerful syndicate heads who operated in the heavy shadows of high finance.

Richard Harris stood near the center of the ballroom floor, wearing a custom Italian silk tuxedo, holding a heavy crystal tumbler of twenty-year-old scotch. He beamed with supreme, arrogant satisfaction as he conversed animatedly with Arthur Blake, the powerful, white-haired patriarch of Blake Logistics.

"I am telling you, Arthur," Richard boasted smoothly, taking a slow drag from a costly cigar. "The new consolidated fund will yield twenty-five percent returns in the very first quarter. Once we merge our logistics algorithms, no financial house on the West Coast will be able to touch us."

"And what of your ex-wife?" Arthur Blake asked, his sharp gray eyes narrowing with subtle suspicion. "The rumors in the financial district say she vanished completely a month ago. The municipal police were asking questions regarding discrepancies at your previous firm."

Richard waved a dismissive, heavy hand, a smug, cruel smile touching his lips. "Corin was mentally unstable, Arthur. The poor girl couldn't handle the emotional strain of our personal issues. She took a few hundred thousand from our domestic reserve accounts and fled town out of shame. My legal team is handling the paperwork quietly. She’s a nobody now. You don't need to worry about her."

Suddenly, the heavy double doors at the main entrance of the ballroom swung open.

The loud chatter filling the vast hall died down instantly in ripples. A heavy, suffocating hush fell over the three hundred guests as six muscular, broad-shouldered security guards in dark suits stepped aside to clear the grand entryway.