Chapter 98

Desmond’s POV

The restaurant was dimly lit, it’s ambiance meant to evoke comfort, but it did nothing to calm the storm brewing inside me. I sat at the far corner, nursing a glass of whiskey that did little to dull my anger. The termination email from the Emperor’s Company had been staring back at me on my phone all day, mocking me. The contract was gone—my lifeline, my safety net—ripped away by that insufferable woman, Laila.

I clenched the glass tighter, the cold press of it against my palm grounding me as I thought of all the ways my carefully built empire was now at risk. The Emperor’s Company was the foundation of everything I had stolen... or, as I preferred to call it, earned. And Brenda—that useless woman—had made it worse.

Brenda’s smug face flashed in my mind. My fiancée. The one person I thought I could manipulate to my advantage had sabotaged everything. Laila had slipped through my fingers at the gala because of her unnecessary jealousy and theat