Chapter 1: The Ash in His Palm**
The grey flakes stuck to Dominic’s sweat-slicked palm like cold remorse. Beyond the floor-to-ceiling glass of his Manhattan penthouse, rainfall blurred the glowing skyline into bleeding streaks of neon. Behind him, Victoria smoothed down her burgundy gown, completely unfazed by the wreckage she had engineered.
"You're being reckless, Dominic," Victoria said, adjusting her diamond necklace. "The board approved our merger announcement an hour ago. Elena is a nobody. Whatever she was carrying is no longer your concern."
Dominic turned around slowly. His hazel eyes, rimmed with red, locked onto hers with a quiet fury that made her step back. "She carried my child. And you stood in this office and told security she was an extortionist."
He snatched his coat from the leather chair and grabbed his assistant’s shoulder. "Claire, charter a jet to her hometown in coastal Maine. Now."
"Dominic, if you walk out that door, you forfeit the chairmanship," Victoria warned, her voice hardening.
May you like
"Take the company," Dominic whispered, walking past her into the private elevator. "I’m taking my life back."
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