Grant Emerson stood in his office thousands of feet above the ground floor.He liked to be up there, with the rain clouds stretched out before him like floating cotton soaked in dye. In the city, the sun rarely ever burned bright, which meant that the skies were almost always one viscous shade of blue or the other. When he was there, standing so high up in the air, Grant felt like a god, like the people thousands of feet below him who looked to be the size of specks from such a great distance were just that: specks. It was a good feeling, this sense of divinity. It was all the more reason why he loathed Kayla and the Johns and the cunningness that ran in their blood like a taint. No other woman could have matched him like she had, move for move. For every inch he gained, he lost another. For every foothold he ceded to gain new ground, she claimed another. Grappling her was like grappling a chess grandmaster, like trying to take hold of a snake sliding in a barrel of butter.He walked

Lei waited outside the boardroom, watching the siblings settle in. Both arms locked behind her back, she stood guard, her spine straight as an arrow, eyes forward— just the way that they had taught her at the academy. Even through the glass doors, the John siblings dislike for each other was palpable. So corporeal, you could touch it. Hell, dislike seemed like an inadequate way to describe what they felt for each other.Sean was unbridled, roiling hate. Tate sat in his chair, curled up like a cottonmouth snake. She had learnt to fear the man—when he struck, he struck hard and fast. Hamish was as cold as ever, a portrait of their father the chairman. When they assigned her to Kayla, Lei was young, barely into her adolescence. The chairman arrived one day and she could still remember it: his slowly graying hair, the sunglasses. He stared down at her for seconds that bled into minutes and made her uncomfortable."This one," he had said to their commander and that was that. Her fate h

Sean was hungry for a fight.After the meeting they just had with their father, Tate could tell that the bulky man wanted to break something—whatever he could lay his hands on. Perhaps, pump his fist into the first face that he found obnoxious or clutch his own hair and scream. He could always tell when his brother was on the verge of doing something stupid, which was almost every other day.It was why he took him to their usual spot at the nightclub. Nothing annoyed Sean as much as losing to their sister's wit—a sentiment that Tate understood completely, a sentiment Tate shared. But he also knew that nothing soothed the man's soul more than a night away from work. Music and the beautiful women that paraded the club, they were a balm for his soul. The best part was that he could buy the all with money and he had lots of that.Sean hunched over the table which was covered with every kind of wine imaginable. There was chardonnay, champagne and rosé. At least those, Tate could recogniz

Reynolds could not believe his good fortune.He had hoped to get back with Kayla, but he had not expected it to happen so soon, or that she would be the one to ask him. He had missed her sorely. Maybe a little too much. But he knew Kayla. When his wife set her mind to something, there was no convincing her otherwise, except she changed her mind herself. It was one of the many things he loved about her— the driving force that was her determination. Throwing himself into work had helped him take his mind of her.When she asked him to return home with her, he was so stunned that be asked her if she was certain she wanted him to. "Are you sure you want that?"She nodded. "I have never been more certain of anything." said she. That was all Reynolds needed to hear. He grabbed his car keys and gathered what little belongings he had strewn around the house and tossed them into his duffel bag. They took his car, leaving the Rolls Royce Kayla had arrived in behind. Jovian would return the c

She called Ceneau's cell phone number over and over again, and although it rang each time, not once did he receive her calls.Kayla was at a restaurant with her husband, Reynolds. They had decided to eat out. It was the fourth night since she asked him to return to their home and their relationship was finally going smoothly again after weeks of turbulence. Nearly everything was going smoothly again. Everything besides her brother's proposed marriage.Ceneau Johns had vanished into thin air and his wedding to Mr Zhang's daughter was merely weeks away. She was a trying to panic.Rey had excused himself to visit the rest room and she immediately snatched up the opportunity to dial Ceneau's number. He was as silent as nothingness for days and it starting to make her panic. He had left the country for São Paulo to continue his book tour. None of them had heard from him since then, although there were reels on Instagram from his nights out clubbing—which was basically every other night s