Chapter 373
But it was a way out — a way to reclaim what was hers, not for money, but for memory. This wasn’t a surrender; it was a counter-offensive. She would enter the belly of the beast to save her father’s name, and if she was lucky, find a way to burn Damon’s world down from the inside.
“You want me to help you find a wife?” Eliza clarified, her voice stripped of all emotion, a cold mask settling into place.
“Yes. You vet the candidates. You run the background checks. You tell me who is the best investment.”
Eliza looked out at the water. Dark and cold.
“Deal,” she said. “But I want it in writing. An ironclad contract. The moment you are officially engaged, the Solomon debt is nullified and all assets revert to me — free and clear.”
“Done.” Damon grinned. “Meet me at my office tomorrow at nine. We have a lot of résumés to go through.”
Eliza reached into her purse and pulled out a crumpled twenty-dollar bill — the last of the emergency cash her mother had left her, kept for moments of desperate pride. She dropped it on the table.
“For the water.”
𝖨ո𝗌𝘁аnt 𝗮c𝖼𝖾s𝘀 on 𝗀aln𝗼𝘷𝖾𝘭𝘀.𝖼𝗼𝘮
She walked out. The night air hit her face, but it didn’t wash away the feeling of grime. She was playing the game again. But this time, she was making the rules.
The CEO’s office at Luna Corp was a shrine to ego. Gold records on the walls, a desk of glass and chrome, and a view that looked down on the rest of the city.
Eliza sat opposite Damon, five dossiers spread before her. She wore her glasses, hair pulled back in a severe bun. She looked like a librarian who could kill you with a bookmark.
Damon was leaned back in his chair, feet on the desk, watching her. Not the files. Her neck.
“Focus, Damon,” Eliza snapped, tapping a folder. “Candidate One: Cathey Norton.”
“The intern?” Damon laughed. “She’s trash. A bastard child.”
“She’s Ferd Koch’s bastard child,” Eliza corrected, her voice devoid of emotion. “More importantly, her mother, Dosha, controls a significant bloc of offshore votes on the S&D board through various corporations. Marrying Cathey doesn’t just give you a link to the Koch name — it gives you a potential ally in Dosha to stage a proxy war against Dallas. It’s a hostile move. High risk, high reward.”
Damon stopped laughing. He looked at her with a mixture of fear and something else entirely. “You’d recommend her? Knowing she hates Dallas?”
“I’m giving you a business analysis,” Eliza said coldly. “You want power? Cathey is a grenade. You pull the pin, throw her into the Koch family, and watch the explosion.”
“You’ve changed,” Damon murmured. “You used to be… softer.”
“Soft gets you killed.” Eliza opened the second file. “Candidate Two: Lydia Stone. Old money. Zero scandal. Her father is a senator. She’s obedient, her family is desperate for a distraction from her brother’s DUI, and you could negotiate a substantial dowry.”
“Boring,” Damon muttered. “I hate boring.”
“You need boring,” Eliza said, meeting his eyes. “You have enough skeletons in your closet, Damon. You need a wife who smiles for the cameras and doesn’t ask where you were last night. Lydia is the safe bet.”
.
.