Chapter 46. Thresholds

“If this fails,” Lilah said, “it takes more than Ledger with it.”

The Council chamber sat still, half-lit by dawn, but her words rang through it like gunfire. Harper stepped through the doors at that moment—just in time to hear the warning.

Harper took her place, crossing one leg over the other, not bothering to smooth her skirt. She scanned the agenda—Southeast expansion milestones, market feedback from Tokyo and Bangkok, team integration metrics. Standard fare. But today’s tension wasn’t in the footnotes. It was in the air.

When the side doors opened again, time fractured.

A tall figure appeared—silver at the temples, posture exact, steps slowed not by age but by calculation. Adrian Shaw. Her mentor. Her architect. The man who had once shaped her voice in strategy briefings, who told her empathy was a distraction and ambition should never sleep.

Now he stood inside Ledger HQ like no time had passed. Like his disappearance from Ledger, from her life, f