Chapter 4

The morning sun hit the floor-to-ceiling windows of the Washington Tower on Wall Street.

Jonas stood by the glass. His eyes were bloodshot. He hadn't slept.

He pressed the intercom button on his desk.

"Deploy the decoy files to the core servers," Jonas ordered his Chief Cybersecurity Officer. "Activate the tracking scripts."

Twenty miles away, in the Long Island estate, Ariel was eating a blueberry muffin.

Today is the day Jonas gets ruined, Ariel thought. Caspian is probably sitting in the VIP lounge right now with a Trojan horse on his flash drive.

Jonas heard it. His fingers tightened around his ceramic coffee mug.

His phone vibrated on the desk. A voice note from Caspian.

"Hey man, get to the club early. I've got a killer proposal to show you."

Yesterday, Jonas would have smiled. Today, the sound of Caspian's voice made his skin crawl.

Jonas hit the intercom again.

"Call Caspian," Jonas told his assistant. "Tell him I have acute gastroenteritis. Cancel the golf trip."

"Sir?" the assistant asked. "That's our biggest merger meeting."

"Do it," Jonas snapped.

He hung up. He logged into the master terminal. He downgraded Caspian's database access to read-only.

At 3 PM, Caspian sat in the golf club VIP room. He checked his watch. He cursed under his breath.

He pulled out his encrypted laptop. He connected to the Washington servers remotely. He needed those files today.

He typed in his password. He hit enter.

A massive red screen flashed.

ACCESS DENIED.

Caspian's heart slammed against his ribs. He hammered the keyboard. Nothing worked.

In his office, Jonas watched a red dot blink on his monitor. The tracking script had locked onto Caspian's IP address and physical GPS location.

Jonas's chest felt hollow. His best friend was a rat.

He took a screenshot. He emailed the entire packet to his head of corporate security and the firm's ruthless litigation department. He added a single instruction: Destroy him.

That night, Jonas walked into the Long Island estate. His muscles ached. The betrayal weighed on his shoulders like lead.

He saw Ariel walking down the hallway in her pajamas.

Ariel stopped. Her eyes went wide.

Wait, Ariel thought. Why is he home? Why isn't he crying over his stolen company? Did the plot change?

Jonas stopped in front of her. He looked down at the girl who had just saved his life and his empire. His throat felt tight. He couldn't say thank you. The curse would choke him.

He reached out his hand. He rested his palm on the top of her head. He gave her hair a gentle, awkward pat.

"Get some sleep," Jonas said softly.

Ariel froze. Her entire body went rigid. Her breath hitched.

Oh my god! Ariel screamed in her mind. Why is he touching my head?! Did he find out I ate his black caviar from the wine cellar?! Is he measuring my skull to crush it?!

Jonas bit the inside of his cheek. The pain stopped him from bursting into laughter.

He pulled his hand back, faked a cough, and walked quickly to his room.

He's completely lost his mind, Ariel thought, watching him run away.

At the end of the hallway, hidden in the shadows, Cherilyn stood perfectly still.

Her fingernails dug so deep into her palms that they drew blood. She watched the cold, ruthless Jonas show affection to Ariel.

Panic seized Cherilyn's chest. She was losing her grip on the family.

She pulled out her phone. She scrolled to her contacts from St. Jude's Prep School.

She was going to destroy Ariel tomorrow.

Ariel walked into her bedroom. She looked at her new school uniform hanging on the door.

Great, Ariel thought. Tomorrow I have to deal with the Upper East Side mean girls. My life is a joke.