Ryker
The doors to the elevator slid shut behind me with a soft mechanical sigh, muffling the distant chatter of the office. Alone inside the mirrored box, I let out a breath I hadn’t realized I’d been holding. My shoulders slumped slightly as I reached up to loosen my tie. Zerah’s laugh was still playing in my head like a broken record, looping again and again, even as I tried to shake it.
It was just a damn laugh. So why did it feel like someone had knocked the wind out of me?
I straightened as the elevator dinged, the doors opening to the executive floor.
The boardroom doors were already open. The heavy tension inside hit me before I even stepped across the threshold.
Twelve people sat around the massive, polished mahogany table. The board of SparkForge, my family’s company. My bir
