I never imagined I would lie motionless, feigning a coma, only to discover the woman I was going to marry was waiting for me to die, while the quiet housekeeper by my bedside was the only one who truly saw me.

The Cross Penthouse on Manhattan’s Upper East Side was draped in white lilies and black velvet. Silver champagne trays floated through a crowd of hundreds of elite socialites, politicians, and corporate titans.

Victoria moved through the room like a queen ascending her throne. Diamonds glittered at her throat, and Marcus stood discreetly at her side, raising a glass of scotch to their silent victory.

“To the new era of Cross Enterprises,” Marcus whispered, clinking his glass against hers behind a towering floral arrangement. “The board votes on your appointment as CEO on Monday.”

“To Adrian,” Victoria smirked, raising her glass. “May he rest in peace.”

In the service kitchen near the back, Mara adjusted her catering uniform. She carried a tray of crystal wine glasses, her earbud humming with Adrian’s voice. He was stationed in a surveillance unit parked in the alleyway below, patched directly into the penthouse’s smart-home security network.

“I’m inside the study,” Mara whispered into her collar mic as she slipped past the security guards near the private wing.

“Be careful, Mara,” Adrian’s voice sounded in her ear, laced with genuine concern. “Marcus placed two private security men near the safe.”

“I know what I’m doing,” Mara replied quietly.

She slipped into the quiet, mahogany-paneled office where Adrian had spent hundreds of late nights working. The room smelled faintly of his familiar cologne—sandalwood and tobacco—and for a second, Mara felt a strange ache in her heart. She pushed the feeling down and approached the wall mirror behind his desk.

She touched the hidden biometric scanner. Using a high-resolution silicone print of Adrian’s thumb that they had fabricated at the safe house, she pressed it against the glass.

The wall clicked open, revealing a hidden steel vault.

Inside sat the true ledger—the hard-drive backup containing every wire transfer, every recorded call, and every illegal contract Victoria and Marcus had forced through over the last three years.

As Mara reached for the hard drive, the heavy wooden door behind her clicked open.