Chapter 77. Betrayal: pt. 1

Five days to the wedding.

Lucien sat behind his desk, shoulders squared yet weighed down, his gaze fixed on the columns of figures in the printed report spread open before him. The office was silent except for the faint hum of the air conditioner and the soft ticking of the clock mounted on the wall — a noise he usually ignored but now found irritatingly accusatory. He lifted the report again, his eyes scanning the numbers he had already dissected at least four times.

They weren’t just off. They were precise in their irregularity — calculated discrepancies, expertly tucked into corners of the financial logs where only a trained eye would look. Clean cuts, subtle transfers, shifts in digits that looked accidental until they accumulated into something undeniable. Someone had planned this. Someone who thought they were smart.

Someone who thought he wouldn’t notice.<