Silence hung heavy in the receiving room.

Ethan tapped his fingers rapidly against his thigh, calculating the risk. "Absolutely not," he muttered.

Hubert crossed his arms. "She needs to heal. She does not need to deal with a shark like you."

Daxton did not look at her brothers. His eyes stayed locked on her, waiting.

She felt the weight of his stare. Her mind flashed to Joaquin's arrogant face, to Julianne throwing the broken umbrella at her feet. Dating the most powerful man in New York would be the ultimate social death sentence for the Stafford family.

She lifted her chin and smiled coldly. "Deal."

Carter gasped loudly. Bennett nearly dropped his teacup.

A flash of dark satisfaction lit up Daxton's eyes. He closed the distance between them in two long strides. He reached out and took her hand.

He bowed his head and pressed his lips just above her knuckles. His mouth barely grazed her skin, but the heat of his breath sent a violent shiver up her arm.

She yanked her hand back. Her heart skipped a beat.

Daxton straightened up. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a black velvet box.

"This was meant as an apology gift for breaking the contract," Daxton said softly. "Now, it is just a hello."

She opened the box. Resting on the black silk was a flawless, unheated pigeon-blood ruby necklace.

Her gaze locked onto the heavy pendant, her professional instincts immediately taking over. She recognized the deep, unheated saturation and the distinct, meticulous facets of an antique 1920s European cut. It was an absolute masterpiece of historical jewelry making, entirely priceless.

Before she could say no, Daxton stepped behind her. He brushed her hair aside and fastened the heavy platinum clasp around her neck.

His warm fingertips dragged slowly across her bare nape. Her stomach tightened.

Declan marched over and shoved Daxton back by the shoulder. "Back off. Keep your distance."

Daxton raised his hands in mock surrender. He nodded to her parents. "I will pick Kinsley up tomorrow evening for dinner."

He turned and walked out, his presence leaving a heavy vacuum in the room.

The second the door closed, all four of her brothers surrounded her.

"Are you crazy?" Ethan yelled, pulling up Daxton's ruthless corporate takeover history on his phone. "He destroys people for fun!"

She touched the cold ruby resting against her collarbone. "Relax. I am just using him to ruin my ex-husband. I will not fall for him."

Upstairs, Amiyah stared at the glowing red jewel around Kinsley's neck.

Her chest heaved with toxic jealousy.

She retreated to her bedroom, locked the door, and pulled out a burner phone.

She dialed the number of a sleazy tabloid journalist. She was going to leak the story of Kinsley's pathetic foster background and her divorce.

Meanwhile, in Manhattan, Joaquin stood in his office at Stafford Holdings. He was sweating.

His assistant ran into the room, holding an iPad. "Sir, our stock is plummeting. A massive, untraceable fund is shorting us across the board."

Joaquin ripped his tie loose. "Which competitor is doing this?" he screamed. He had no idea the Wilder family was already crushing him.

Ember walked in carrying a cup of herbal tea. She leaned her fragile body against his chest. "Do not stress, baby. You are so smart, you will fix it."

Joaquin kissed her forehead. He thought of Kinsley, convinced she was currently starving in an alley. "I will crush whoever is doing this. Just like I crushed Kinsley."

At midnight, Kinsley walked into Ethan's massive server room. The walls were lined with glowing monitors and cooling fans humming loudly.

Ethan sat in a leather gaming chair, wearing noise-canceling headphones, his fingers flying across his mechanical keyboard.

She set a glass of iced Americano on his desk. She dropped a small, encrypted USB drive next to it.

"Do it," she said.

Ethan plugged the drive into his terminal. High-resolution security photos popped up on the center screen.

They showed Joaquin and Ember walking into a luxury hotel room, timestamped three months before the divorce.

Next to the photos was an audio file.

It was the recording of Julianne screaming at her in the rain, calling her "trailer park trash."

Ethan smirked. "If we send this to the New York Times, Stafford's PR team will bury it with money."

"Then do not use traditional media," she said, her voice devoid of mercy.

Ethan cracked his knuckles. "I am deploying a botnet. Decentralized posting on X. They will not be able to delete it."

She leaned over and pressed the Enter key herself.

At 3:00 AM, a thread titled "The Fake Deep Love of Wall Street's Golden Boy" exploded on X.

The botnet tagged the SEC, major financial news outlets, and every prominent gossip influencer.

Within ten minutes, the post hit one hundred thousand retweets. The internet woke up.

The photos proved Joaquin violated his own morality clause. But it was Julianne's audio that lit the fire. The sheer classist hatred in her voice triggered massive outrage across the country.

At 7:00 AM, pre-market trading opened. Stafford Holdings stock immediately crashed 15%.

Joaquin was jolted awake in his penthouse by his phone ringing endlessly.

He stared at the trending hashtags on his screen. The blood drained from his face, leaving him pale and terrified.

Ember woke up beside him. She saw the thousands of comments calling her a homewrecker. She screamed, clutched her chest, and fell back onto the pillows, faking a heart spasm.

"Get my pills!" Ember cried.

Joaquin scrambled for her medicine while screaming at his PR director on speakerphone. "Take it down! Pay whatever it costs!"

"We cannot, sir!" the PR director cried. "It is a coordinated cyber attack. The platform refuses to intervene."

Julianne called on the other line, screeching that her country club friends were laughing at her.

Joaquin realized only one person had the motive. He dialed Kinsley's number, his hands shaking with rage. The automated voice told him he was blocked.

He threw his phone against the wall, shattering the screen. He ordered his security team to search every cheap motel in the city to find her and shut her up.

Back at the Wilder estate, Kinsley sat in the sunroom, elegantly slicing a piece of Eggs Benedict.

Hubert drank his coffee, watching the red lines dive on his financial tablet. He gave her an approving nod.

Amiyah walked in. She saw the news. Her face turned pale.

Her phone buzzed. The tabloid journalist texted her: The whole country loves Kinsley right now. If I post your fake dirt on her, my career is over. Deal is off.

Amiyah gripped her toast so hard it crumbled into pieces in her fist.

Charles stepped into the room. "Miss Kinsley, Mr. Brady's car is waiting outside."

She wiped her mouth with a linen napkin. It was time for her date.

Joaquin paced his destroyed office. The glass ashtray lay in pieces on the carpet.

Julianne sat on the sofa, her makeup ruined from crying. "The golf club suspended my membership!" she wailed.

Ember sat in the corner, dabbing her dry eyes with a tissue. "Joaquin, Kinsley does not have a job. Paying hackers must have drained whatever cash she had left."

Julianne's head snapped up. "The credit card! She still has the platinum sub-card attached to your account!"

Joaquin stopped pacing. A cruel, triumphant smile spread across his face. He thought he finally found the leash to choke her with.

He grabbed his desk phone and dialed the American Express VIP line. "Freeze the sub-card ending in 4102. Immediately."

He hung up and leaned back in his chair. "Let us see how she survives the weekend without my money."

At that exact moment, Kinsley was sitting across from Daxton inside Le Bernardin, Manhattan's most exclusive three-star Michelin restaurant.

Daxton had bought out the entire dining room. A lone violinist played soft jazz in the corner.

She wore a sleek black evening gown. The ruby necklace rested heavily on her chest.

Daxton smoothly cut a piece of A5 Wagyu beef and switched his plate with hers. His eyes watched her every move, dark and hungry.

"Your attack this morning was flawless," Daxton said, taking a sip of wine.

"It was just the appetizer," she replied, meeting his gaze. "I want Stafford Holdings completely liquidated."

Daxton smiled. It was a dangerous, thrilling look. "If you need capital to crush them faster, my checkbook is open."

When the waiter brought the bill, she insisted on paying.

She reached into her clutch and deliberately bypassed her new cards, letting her fingers brush against Joaquin's old platinum sub-card.

She pulled it out and handed it to the waiter, a small, calculated smile playing on her lips. She wanted to see exactly how predictable her ex-husband was.

A minute later, the manager walked over, looking deeply uncomfortable. "Miss, I am so sorry, but this card has been frozen by the primary account holder."

She looked down at the plastic card. Her smile widened into a soft, mocking laugh. "Of course he did," she murmured to herself. The sheer, pathetic predictability of his petty move was entirely expected.

Daxton did not find it funny. His jaw clenched. The air around him turned to ice. He thought she was being humiliated.

He reached for his wallet to throw down his own card.

She placed her hand over his, stopping him.

She reached back into her clutch.

She pulled out the heavy, solid metal Centurion Black Card her father had given her. She held it between her index and middle finger and handed it to the manager.

The manager saw the limitless black metal. He gasped softly, bowed deeply, and took it with both hands.

Daxton stared at the Black Card. The anger vanished from his face, replaced by a slow, deeply amused smirk. He realized she was playing a game on a level Joaquin could not even comprehend.

They walked out of the restaurant into the cool night air.

Daxton took off his suit jacket and draped it over her shoulders. "Your ex-husband is begging for your attention," he whispered near her ear.

She pulled the jacket tight. She got into the Rolls-Royce and pulled out her phone.

She dialed Ethan's number. "Ethan. Release the kill shot. Send the kidnapping evidence to every network. I want them dead tonight."