Chapter 5

Hunter's shout tore the silence apart.

"Clara! Have you lost your mind?!" He lurched forward two steps, eyes bloodshot, pointing up at me. "You'd throw away your business judgment just to spite me? Do you know what breaking a contract in public means?"

Then he turned on the man beside me. "Adrian Frost. You waited until she was vulnerable and used a patient's mental state to grab Whitmore assets. Only you would go this low."

Adrian didn't so much as move an eyebrow. He simply put a hand on my waist.

"You still think the engagement is me throwing a tantrum at you?" I said. "You think a lot of yourself."

I glanced back at Hayes.

He came forward and laid three documents on the podium, each with a red wax seal.

"Ladies and gentlemen." His voice carried. "As chief counsel to the Whitmore family, I'm going to read three legally binding documents into the record. All three were signed by Miss Clara personally and notarized before her accident."

The screen behind us blew them up. Black and white, no room for interpretation.

"One. Unilateral termination, without penalty, of the entire merger agreement between Whitmore and Blake Group."

"Two. Immediate withdrawal of all Whitmore credit guarantees and bridge loans extended to Blake Group."

"Three—" Hayes paused on purpose. "Redirection of the ten billion dollars originally earmarked for Blake into Frost Global's clean energy and infrastructure projects."

The room went loud, then went cold.

Hunter stared at my signature on the screen and staggered back a step like he'd been hit.

"No... that's not possible..." He was talking to himself now. "You loved me. How could you have done this before the crash—"

"There's more, Mr. Blake."

Adrian finally spoke. He leaned toward the mic, eyes fixed on Hunter.

"Ten minutes ago, Frost Global closed on a controlling stake in Ascend Capital."

Whatever color was left in Hunter's face went with it.

The room recalculated in about four seconds. Nobody looked at him again. People came at the stage with raised glasses and enormous smiles, congratulating the two families, calling it the deal that would redraw Wall Street.

And in the middle of all that noise, the ballroom doors banged open.

Blake Group's CFO came through them soaked in sweat, cameras be damned, yelling across the room.

"Sir! It's over! It's all over!"

His voice cracked. "Seven market makers just issued a final notice. Without the Whitmore guarantee our asset valuation collapsed. Every partner bank is demanding three billion in additional margin before the open tomorrow!"

He grabbed Hunter's arm like it was the last solid thing in the room. "If the money isn't there by nine, they're going to force liquidation."

Hunter's legs went out from under him. He dropped to his knees on the polished marble, staring up at me like he was seeing me for the first time.

I looked down at him and felt nothing.

I leaned toward the microphone one last time, and said it so the whole room could hear.

"Hunter. Don't fall apart yet."

"This is only night one."