Chapter 104

No.1

The gallery's central exhibition space began to glow as the overhead lights dimmed. The crowd of elites slowly drifted toward the center, holding their drinks, preparing for the main event.

Preston guided Elisa toward a massive,seventeenth-century oil painting displayed on a freestanding wall.

For the next ten minutes, they stood shoulder to shoulder.The conversation flowed effortlessly from the authenticity of the brushstrokes to the current limitations of Al image-recognition algorithms in detecting art forgeries.

Elisa's deep, terrifyingly vast technical knowledge,combined with her razor-sharp commercial instincts, completely captivated Preston. He was used to women who agreed with everything he said to get his money. Elisa challenged him, corrected him, and elevated the dialogue.

Preston looked at her profile. The harsh gallery spotlights softened against her pale skin. A look of undisguised, intense attraction burned in his eyes.

He reached into the inner pocket of his suit jacket and pulled out a heavy, gold-embossed private business card. He held it out to her.

"Elisa," Preston said, his voice dropping to a low,intimate register. "I want to formally invite you to lunch tomorrow. Just the two of us. I want to discuss funding your offshore node in detail."

No.2

Elisa looked at the card. This was the lifeline. This was the money she needed to bypass August's financial chokehold. She raised her hand to take it.

"Mr.Vance."

The voice came from directly behind them. It was freezing cold and heavy with absolute, crushing authority.

Elisa's hand froze in mid-air.

August materialized from the shadows like a ghost.He stepped so close to Elisa that the fabric of his tuxedo sleeve brushed against her navy suit. The smell of his cedarwood cologne invaded her lungs,making her stomach twist.

"I highly recommend you conduct a thorough due diligence before you commit a single dollar to this woman," August stated. His eyes were locked onto the gold card in Preston's hand.

Preston slowly lowered the card. He turned to face the undisputed king of New York real estate and commerce. He did not back down,but his posture became guarded.

No.3

"What exactly do you mean by that, Mr.Chambers?" Preston asked.

August turned his head. He looked down at Elisa.He did not look at her like a husband looking at a wife. He looked at her with the blank, disgusted stare of a stranger looking at a rat in the subway.

"Some people in this city," August sneered, his voice loud enough to draw the attention of the surrounding billionaires, "are very skilled at fabricating their resumes and wildly inflating their actual value to secure funding."

Preston's brow furrowed. He was a man who trusted his own intellect above all else.

"You seem to know a great deal about Miss Wilder's background," Preston challenged.

The nearby guests stopped talking. They leaned in,their eyes darting between the three figures.

Allena hurried over, her diamond dress scraping against the floor. She grabbed August's arm,her eyes wide with panic, terrified he was about to

No.4

publicly admit he was married to the woman he had just brought his mistress to confront.

August stared into Elisa's dead, emotionless eyes.The memory of her handing him the divorce papers, the absolute apathy in her voice when she told him she didn't want a penny of his money,fueled a blinding, destructive rage inside him.

He raised his chin. He delivered the most vicious,calculated lie of his life.

"I don't know her well at all," August said. His voice was a block of solid ice. "She is simply a low-level employee | recently fired from one of my subsidiaries. Because she couldn't keep her hands off company property."

The words dropped into the quiet gallery like a live grenade.

A collective gasp rippled through the crowd.Whispers instantly erupted.

Elisa's heart violently contracted. A sharp, physical pain pierced her chest. She had stopped expecting basic human decency from August a long time ago,but this public, malicious assassination of her professional character still made bile rise in her throat.

No.5

Allena let out a massive, silent exhale of relief. A sick, triumphant smile spread across her face.

Preston's expression didn't change, but his mind raced. What a laughably transparent lie. He knows I've seen the FDA hearing reports. He knows I know who Faye is. The realization hit him with the force of a physical blow. August wasn't trying to convince him; he was sending a message. He is willing to publicly humiliate himself with a lie this crude just to attack her. This wasn't business. This was a declaration of total, irrational war. And Vance Capital did not invest in warzones.

Preston took a physical half-step backward,creating distance between himself and Elisa.

He slipped the goId card back into his pocket.

"Mr. Chambers' intel is always... fascinating,"Preston said. His voice was now polite, distant, and completely closed off, masking his strategic retreat. "I appreciate the perspective.Unfortunately, Vance Capital operates under strict risk-management protocols. We do not invest in assets that are currently engaged in active warfare with the Chambers Group."

Elisa did not scream. She did not defend herself.

Her analytical brain calculated the variables

No.6

instantly. Because of the NDA Germaine had forced her to sign, she could not legally scream, I am his wife of seven years! If she threw a tantrum without proof, she would only cement the label of a "crazy,fired employee."

She placed her empty champagne flute onto a nearby cocktail table.

She looked up at August. She didn't look angry. She looked at him with absolute, freezing pity.

"Your acting," Elisa whispered, her voice so low only August could hear it, "is even more nauseating than your taste in women."

August's left eye twitched violently. The muscle in his jaw jumped, but he forced his face to remain an arrogant mask of victory.

Elisa turned her back on Preston and August. She walked away from the crowd, heading toward the dimly lit corridor that led to the restrooms. She needed exactly sixty seconds of isolation to force oxygen back into her lungs.

Behind her, Allena loudly praised August. "You are so brave for exposing a scammer like that, honey!"she cheered, drawing nods of agreement from the sycophants.

No.7

In a matter of seconds, Elisa had been violently rebranded. She was no longer a tech genius;she was a scheming gold-digger and a thief.

August watched Elisa's straight back disappear around the corner of the dark corridor.

He felt no victory. The hollow, burning sensation in his chest only grew worse. He roughly peeled Allena's hands off his arm.

"I need to make a call," August muttered.

As August stepped away from the crowd, Simon materialized from the shadows, matching his boss's long stride. "Sir," Simon murmured, his voice barely audible over the ambient gallery noise. "We just intercepted the intel. Preston Vance's private agenda tonight was to discuss funding Aethel's offshore server node with Faye."

August's eyes turned to absolute ice. He dismissed Simon with a sharp wave of his hand and kept walking, his feet moving on autopilot, tracking Elisa into the shadows.