Adrian expected damage. That truth settled over the next forty-eight hours with the cold precision of a failed calculation.
The hospital trap should have done what market sabotage and private psychological pressure could not. It should have forced a visible fracture between Lucien and Seraphina. The choice had been designed carefully: family against company, old wounds against present responsibility, personal loyalty against corporate survival.
In every previous pattern Adrian understood, that kind of pressure created distance, questions, and resentment. Silence sharp enough to turn into mistrust. Instead, the opposite happened.
By Monday morning, Ashford Tower felt more aligned than it had in weeks.
