They filed out quickly, leaving Preston, Samantha, and me alone in the vast boardroom.

The silence in the room was heavy, punctuated only by the distant hum of city traffic below.

Preston walked over to the table and leaned down, his face inches from mine.

“You think you’ve won, Claire?” he whispered, his voice trembling. “You’ve just ruined the company your father built.”

“No,” I said, looking him dead in the eye. “I saved it from you.”

Samantha pulled her coat over her shoulders and walked toward the exit, her heels clicking rapidly.

“We’re leaving, Preston,” she said without looking back.

Preston stared at me for one last second, a desperate calculation playing out behind his eyes.

He turned and followed her out of the room, slamming the heavy double doors behind him.

I sat alone at the table, my hand resting on my father’s documents, feeling the first wave of relief wash over me.

But the feeling was short-lived.

My phone vibrated on the table, the screen lighting up with an incoming alert from our joint financial monitoring service.