Chapter 6 6

Branson didn't move. His hands remained pressed to the desk, fingers spread, the signet ring catching light from the window. Faith could see the pulse in his throat-fast, irregular, the only crack in his armor.

"You're threatening me." Not a question. A translation, as if he needed to render her words into a language he understood.

"I'm negotiating." Faith straightened. "You taught me that too. Always have leverage. Always be willing to walk away."

She stepped back, giving him space to think, to calculate. Julian stood motionless beside her, his face professionally blank, but she could feel his approval like warmth against her shoulder.

Branson's eyes found the USB drive. His thumb turned it over, once, twice.

"Kincaid approached you six months ago." He was reconstructing, she knew, building a timeline, looking for the moment he'd missed this developing. "The Mercer acquisition. You asked about my schedule that week. Whether I'd be home for dinner."

"I was gathering information. In case I needed it."

"And the bracelet you found in my desk-" His jaw tightened. "You thought-"

"I thought what you wanted me to think. What you've wanted me to think for three years. That you're unfaithful. That I'm irrelevant. That I should be grateful for whatever attention you choose to spare." Faith shook her head. "I don't care anymore, Branson. I don't care about your women or your secrets or your reasons. I care about getting out. Today. Now."

"Wait in the conference room," he said, his voice flat. He looked at Julian, not at her. "Give me thirty minutes."

Julian glanced at Faith, who gave a slight nod. It was a reasonable delay. A man like Branson wouldn't fold without a single move of his own.

"We'll wait," Julian said, gathering his briefcase.

As they walked out, Faith heard the door click shut behind them. She didn't look back. She sat in the sterile, glass-walled conference room, Holly hovering nervously by the door, while Julian checked his watch. Ten minutes passed. Then twenty. Through the frosted glass, she could see the silhouette of Branson pacing, a phone pressed to his ear.

Finally, the door to his office opened. Branson stood there, his expression unreadable, his tie slightly loosened.

"Back in," he commanded.

They resumed their positions. The energy in the room had shifted. The initial shock had burned away, replaced by something colder, more dangerous. Branson picked up the USB drive. He walked to his computer-sleek, minimal, positioned to face away from visitors-and inserted the drive into a port on the side.

The screen lit up. Faith couldn't see the display from her angle, but she watched his face. Watched the color drain from his cheeks as he scrolled through page after page of analysis. Kincaid's fund had been thorough. They'd identified every weakness in Jarvis Group's structure, every regulatory gray area, every board member with compromising history.

"Where did you get this?" His voice had changed. Not smaller. It was sharp, lethal, like the edge of a razor, stripped of all pretense. The voice of a predator that had just identified a genuine threat.

"I told you. Kincaid thought I could be useful. He sent me samples of his research, proof of his seriousness." Faith moved to stand beside him, close enough to see the screen. Charts in red and black. Projections of catastrophic loss. "I didn't respond. I didn't want to destroy you. I just wanted to leave."

Branson's hand closed on the mouse. He scrolled back to the beginning, reading more carefully now, the way he approached any due diligence. She could see him calculating-probability of leak, cost of defense, stock price impact if Faith testified in open court about corporate practices she'd observed from inside his home.

"This is extortion." But he didn't sound certain anymore.

"This is math." Faith gestured at the screen. "Sign the agreement I brought. I walk away with nothing. Kincaid gets no leverage. Your stock price stays stable. Or refuse, and we find out if your board values you more than forty percent of their investment."

The silence stretched. Branson's finger traced a line on the screen-quarterly projections, she thought, or cash flow analysis. His nail was bitten, she noticed. She'd never seen that before. He'd always been so careful, so controlled.

"Julian." His voice was rough. "The non-disclosure terms. I want them expanded. She can't speak to press, can't write memoirs, can't-"

"Already included." Julian produced a third document from his briefcase. "Standard NDA, mutual protections, penalties for breach. My client has no interest in publicity."

Branson took the document. Read it twice, three times, his lips moving slightly. Then he reached into his drawer and withdrew a pen-heavy, gold, the kind of object designed to signify importance.

He uncapped it. The click was loud in the quiet room.

"You'll regret this." He didn't look at her. "You have no idea how to survive without-"

"Sign, Branson."

The pen touched paper. His signature emerged in aggressive strokes-B. A. Jarvis, the letters he'd spent his life making valuable. Page after page, waivers and releases and quitclaims, each signature a nail in the coffin of everything they'd been to each other.

On the final page, his hand hesitated. Faith watched the pen hover, watched his throat work as he swallowed whatever words he was considering.

Then the pen moved. Final signature. Final surrender.

He threw it. The pen arced across the room and struck the wall, leaving a black slash on the cream paint before clattering to the floor. Ink splattered in a starburst pattern.

"Get out." His voice was barely audible. "All of you. Take your papers and get out of my building."

Julian moved with practiced efficiency, gathering documents, verifying copies, sliding papers into his briefcase with the speed of a man who'd learned to conclude business before opponents changed their minds.

As they reached the door, Faith paused. She turned to Holly.

"Holly, thank you for everything," she said, her voice low and steady. "Julian has your severance package. It's generous. Go live a life that's your own."

Holly's eyes filled with tears. She nodded, unable to speak, and clutched a new envelope Julian handed her. Then she turned and walked toward the main elevators, a small, loyal soldier leaving the battlefield for the last time.

Faith didn't look at Branson-she just felt the weight of his stare, a physical pressure on her back.

"There's one more thing." She reached into her bag and withdrew her phone. Checked the time. "Sure, here's the modified sentence:"New York State requires both parties to file jointly at the county clerk's office. We need to go to the courthouse. Now."

Branson's head snapped up. "You can't be serious."

"I am."

"You expect me to-" He gestured at himself, at the room, at the empire that demanded his attention. "I have meetings. The Frankfurt deal-"

"Can wait." Faith slipped her phone back into her bag. "Or you can explain to your board why the stock dropped forty percent because you were too busy to finalize your own divorce."

She turned and walked toward the door. Her hand was on the handle when his voice stopped her.

"Faith."

She didn't turn.

"This isn't over." The words came strained, forced through something that might have been pride or might have been fear. "You think you've won something. You haven't. You'll come back. They always come back."

Faith pulled the door open. The corridor stretched before her, gray and anonymous, leading to elevators and streets and a life she'd have to build from nothing.

"Come find out," she said, and walked through.