Chapter 173

Six years ago...

The elegant conference room was thick with the tension of a high-stakes negotiation. Valerio Marchesi sat at the long table, his dark eyes fixed on the open contract before him. On the other side of the table, Nora Hayes should have been seated, but she had left, leaving her own lawyers to advocate on her behalf.

The legal discussions continued a back-and-forth of legal jargon tha