Clara
The formal proposal from Kingsley Holdings arrived on Sebastian's desk four days after my meeting with Ethan, delivered by courier in a leather portfolio thick enough that Sebastian's assistant needed both hands to carry it in.
I sat across from him in his study while he read through it, watching his expression shift from cautious hope to something harder as he turned each page. By the time he reached the end, his jaw had tightened in a way I recognized from every difficult negotiation I'd watched him navigate over the past year.
"Well?" I asked, unable to wait any longer.
"The capital is there," Sebastian said slowly. "Full three hundred and eighty million, structured as a combination of direct investment and restructured debt terms, enough to close the gap entirely and stabiliz
