Ryan scanned the list, his eyes tracking the familiar, terrifying names of the financial elite.
He stopped at the seventh name.
The blood in his veins turned to liquid nitrogen. The air vanished from his lungs.
He stared at the name, the letters burning themselves into his retinas.
Lockridge Capital.
The silence in the Sanctum wasn't just quiet; it was a physical weight, pressing against Ryan's chest.
Lockridge Capital.
He stared at the heavy, embossed letters on the cardstock. The name seemed to vibrate, mocking the impenetrable fortress he believed he had built.
Diana's firm.
The very entity that had injected the initial seed capital into Rebuild Tech. The bedrock upon which his entire empire was constructed.
The implications exploded in his mind like a cluster bomb.
