Chapter 1 1

The coffee in the ceramic mug had gone cold hours ago, a stagnant pool of black mirroring the expansive, empty ceiling of the penthouse. Jonna Martin sat perfectly still on the beige sectional, her spine pressed against the firm cushions, listening to the silence that money bought. It was a heavy, suffocating silence, broken only by the aggressive vibration of her phone on the glass coffee table.

Frank Martin. Twelve missed calls.

She stared at the screen, her stomach tightening into a hard knot. She didn't reach for it. Instead, she swiped the notification away and opened her secondary Instagram account-the one with no profile picture and zero followers.

Her thumb hovered over the direct message request. She tapped it.

The image loaded in high definition, assaulting her retinas. It was a close-up of a carpet-a generic, hotel-grade floral pattern-but the focal point was unmistakable. A pair of platinum cufflinks, shaped like miniature anchors, lay discarded near a bed frame.

Flint's custom anchors. She had picked them out for his birthday three months ago.

The caption from user "Serena_S" was brief: He's not coming home tonight. Don't wait up.

Jonna didn't cry. There was no stinging in her eyes, no gasp for air. Just a cold, clinical calculation that washed over her, numbing her extremities. She took a screenshot, saved it to her encrypted cloud drive, and locked the phone.

The private elevator doors slid open with a soft chime, shattering the quiet.

Aunt Victoria stepped out, her heels clicking rhythmically against the marble floor like a countdown. She didn't knock; Harringtons didn't knock on doors they owned. Behind her, two maids in starched uniforms carried insulated cooler bags, marching with the precision of soldiers.

"Good morning, Jonna," Victoria said, though it sounded more like an accusation than a greeting. She didn't wait for a response. She gestured sharply to the maids. "Put the soup in the refrigerator. Top shelf. Make sure the temperature is set to thirty-eight degrees."

Jonna stood up, smoothing the wrinkles in her silk lounge pants. "Aunt Victoria. I wasn't expecting you."

"Clearly." Victoria turned, her eyes scanning Jonna's flat stomach with predatory disappointment. She walked to the dining table, her diamond ring-a rock the size of a quail egg-tapping against the polished wood. "I checked the medical logs. You didn't report your ovulation cycle this month."

A wave of nausea rolled through Jonna, distinct and acidic. She swallowed it down. Her mind flashed to the falsified data she'd submitted to the family's physician last week, a careful fabrication designed to buy her time. This sudden, visceral sickness was not part of her plan. "I've been busy."

"Busy?" Victoria let out a sharp, incredulous laugh. "Your only job, the only reason my brother paid off your father's pathetic little debts, is to secure the fourth generation. The Trust is getting impatient, Jonna. If your machinery is broken, we can outsource the labor. Surrogacy is quite streamlined these days."

The phone in Jonna's pocket buzzed again. Another message from Serena. A selfie this time, half a face, a bare shoulder, and a blurred figure in the background putting on a suit jacket.

Something inside Jonna snapped. Not a loud break, but a quiet, structural failure. The fear that usually kept her docile evaporated, replaced by the cold, sharp instincts of the crisis manager she used to be.

She lowered her head. She let her shoulders tremble, just enough to catch the light. She brought a hand to her face, shielding her dry eyes.

"Stop that," Victoria snapped, though her voice wavered slightly. "Tears won't fertilize an egg."

Jonna looked up. She forced her lower lip to quiver. "It's not me, Aunt V. It's not that I don't want a child."

She lowered her voice to a whisper, creating an intimate vacuum in the large room. "It's Flint."

Victoria froze. "What about Flint?"

"He... he has a block." Jonna picked at her fingernails, feigning deep embarrassment. "The pressure from the board, the IPO... it's affected him. Physically."

Victoria's eyes widened. "Physically? You mean..."

"Performance anxiety," Jonna said, the lie tasting sweet on her tongue. "Severe. And... ED. The doctors say it's psychological, but..." She trailed off, letting the implication hang in the air like smoke.

The silence that followed was heavy. Victoria's hand went to her throat, clutching her pearls. The concept of a Harrington male being anything less than virile was blasphemy.

"He made me promise not to tell," Jonna added, looking up with wide, pleading eyes. "Especially not his mother. It would destroy him if the family knew."

It was the perfect bait. Victoria was the family's broadcasting station. Telling her a secret was like publishing it on the front page of the Times.

"Oh," Victoria breathed out. Her posture softened, shifting from aggression to a grotesque form of pity. "Oh, my dear. I had no idea." She coughed, looking around the room as if the furniture might be listening. "Well. Stress is... manageable. We have specialists."

"Please don't tell anyone," Jonna begged, pressing her advantage.

"Of course not," Victoria lied smoothly. She grabbed her Hermès bag, suddenly eager to leave. "I have a lunch appointment. Drink the soup, Jonna. It's good for... stamina."

She hurried back to the elevator, her heels clicking faster now, fueled by the adrenaline of fresh gossip.

The doors closed.

Jonna's expression went blank. She walked to the window, looking out at the grey Manhattan skyline. She pulled out her phone and blocked Serena's number. Then, she picked up the cold coffee and raised it in a mock toast to the empty room.

The war had started.