Barry stayed in his study after the men had gone, the silence pressing around him. Papers lay scattered across the desk, reports his men had gathered, names, accounts, shipments, debts. He studied them with the same cold patience he gave to everything else.
Jessica’s family. Her brother’s gambling debts in Milan. Her uncle’s quiet investments in a chain of construction companies. All threads, all weaknesses.
He leaned back in his chair, tapping the edge of the glass against his knee. His mind was already moving pieces on a board no one else could see. If Jessica thought she had him cornered, she’d soon learn he had already mapped every exit, every betrayal, every way to break her down until she begged for his mercy.
The marriage had only ever been leverage. Nothing more.
Still, to make
