Forty minutes after leaving the pink nursery, I pushed open the heavy glass doors of the top-floor law firm.
Adrian Mercer—Ryan's younger half brother and the sharpest corporate litigator in the city—sat rigid behind an expansive mahogany desk. His gaze held the same judgment I remembered from our last Thanksgiving together, three years earlier.
"Took you long enough," Adrian said.
I dropped my tote bag onto the leather guest chair. "I need a lawyer."
"You need a miracle." He leaned back, steepling his fingers. "Or maybe just a time machine to go back to that balcony."
"I didn't come here for a lecture."
"You came here because I was right." Adrian stood, buttoning his tailored suit jacket. "Three years ago, I told you to keep the original blueprints. I told you Ryan would eventually build his castle and lock you in the dungeon."
"And I ignored you. We established that."
"You defended him," Adrian corrected, his tone dropping an octave. "You called me a cynical bastard who didn't understand partnership. You stood by the railing, holding your little glass of champagne, and told me Ryan and you were a team. You said he would never cut you out of the final equity share."
I gripped the back of the leather chair. "People change."
"People don't change, Elena. They just drop their masks." He walked around the desk, stopping a few feet away. "So, what finally cracked the perfect marriage? Did he freeze your accounts? Did he try to push you off the board of directors?"
"He moved his pregnant twenty-three-year-old assistant into our house this morning."
Adrian stopped. The smug satisfaction vanished from his face. He stared at me, his jaw clenching once.
"He asked me to decorate her nursery," I added, keeping my voice flat.
Adrian let out a short, hollow laugh. An unexpected sound in the sterile office. "He really is an idiot."
"He thinks he won," I said. "He thinks I will smile for the cameras and play the supportive wife while his mistress gives birth down the hall. He offered me the west wing."
"Generous of him," Adrian sneered. "And what do you want to do?"
I reached into my bag and pulled out the thick manila envelope. I slammed the stack of copyright registration papers onto his pristine desk.
The top sheet slid forward, displaying the intricate architectural drawing for Dream House.
"I need you to act as my full legal proxy," I said, tapping my index finger against the raised steel seal. "Effective now."
Adrian glanced down at the documents. He picked up the first page, his eyes scanning the legal jargon. "You actually filed the copyrights under your own name."
"Ryan hates paperwork. He always signed whatever I put in front of him. He thought these were standard zoning permits."
"And he never checked the ownership clauses." Adrian tossed the paper back onto the desk. "You filed twelve separate copyrights. Commercial zones, residential towers, the underground retail spaces. You didn't leave him a single loophole."
"I drafted every line," I said. "I sourced the materials. I engineered the load-bearing structures. Ryan just cut the ribbons and smiled for the press."
"Proxy for what, exactly?"
"Revoke the design rights for Star River Bay."
He raised an eyebrow. "Ryan is preselling that project right now. The financing round closes next month. The entire valuation of his company rests on those waterfront properties. You designed those cantilevered terraces yourself."
"I know. That makes them my intellectual property."
"If I pull the rights, the city will halt construction by noon. The investors will panic. The bank will call in his loans." Adrian leaned closer, testing my resolve. "You will bankrupt him."
"I will bankrupt the company," I corrected. "Then I will buy the assets out of foreclosure. He keeps the debt. I keep the buildings."
"You want to burn it all down just to rebuild it without him."
"I want the cease-and-desist filed today," I said, ignoring his assessment. "Can you do it or should I find another firm?"
"Oh, I can do it." Adrian walked back around to his chair. "But once I send this, there is no going back. He will declare war. He will drag your name through the mud."
"He already did. He just didn't realize I had the bigger guns."
He opened his top drawer and pulled out a proxy agreement form. He grabbed a silver fountain pen, unscrewed the cap, and began filling out the empty fields.
"Standard retainer," he said, his pen gliding across the thick paper. "I take twenty percent of whatever we recover. But considering we are about to vaporize his primary asset, there might not be much left to take."
"I don't care about the money right now. I want the control. I want him to watch everything he built crumble because he forgot who laid the foundation."
"You always were the ruthless one," Adrian murmured. "You just hid it better than I did. You played the dutiful wife for ten years."
"The dutiful wife died in a walk-in closet full of pink maternity dresses."
He signed his name with a fluid, aggressive stroke. He flipped the document and pushed it across the mahogany surface toward me.
I reached for it. As I pulled the paper closer, my fingertips brushed against his.
His skin ran hot. I met his gaze and caught a flash of something sharp in his dark eyes. Ryan's estranged brother—the ally I had pushed away for three years—was finally back on my side.
"Sign on the bottom line, Elena."
I took his pen. The metal casing felt warm from his grip. I scratched my signature next to his, pressing hard enough to leave an indent on the wood underneath.
"Done." I handed the pen back.
Adrian examined the signature. He nodded once, a silent seal on our new alliance.
He turned to his computer, typing. A minute later, the printer in the corner spit out a formal letter bearing the firm's heavy black letterhead.
Adrian grabbed the paper and walked over to the fax machine near the window. He fed the cease-and-desist notice into the top tray.
"I have a contact at the city zoning board," Adrian said, punching in a sequence of numbers on the keypad. "They owe me a favor. We bypass the mail and send this to the enforcement office. They will lock the site down immediately."
"Do it."
The green light on the console flashed.
The machine hummed, pulling the thick paper down inch by inch. I watched the document disappear into the feeder. That single piece of paper carried ten years of my sweat, my designs, and my stolen future. It was the match that would ignite Ryan's empire.
The machine whirred, processing the transmission. The silence in the office stretched, thick and heavy, until a sharp beep shattered the quiet.
A small confirmation receipt slid out of the bottom slot.
"Notice served," Adrian said, tearing the receipt off and handing it to me. "The design rights for Star River Bay are officially contested. The city will act within the hour."
I picked up my bag, throwing the strap over my shoulder. The crushing pressure from the pink nursery finally began to fracture, replaced by cold clarity.
My phone vibrated in my pocket.
I pulled it out and stared at the glowing screen.
A new text message from Ryan glared back at me.
"Are you crazy? Why is the Star River Bay sales office sealed off?!"
