Ethan
The office they'd cleared for me at Ashford Enterprises sat two doors down from Sebastian's, a corner space with its own view of the harbor that someone on their facilities team had clearly scrambled to prepare on short notice, fresh paint still faintly detectable beneath the scent of new carpet.
I arrived on a Monday morning with two assistants, a security detail William insisted on given the sensitivity of the arrangement, and a folder of restructuring priorities I intended to implement within the first thirty days. I did not arrive expecting the particular unease that settled over me the moment the elevator doors opened onto the executive floor and I saw her.
Clara stood near the reception desk in conversation with an assistant, dressed in the kind of tailored composure I imagi
