Chapter 1

I'd barely stepped off the plane before Cassie's message came through.

Babe. Tell me this isn't about your fiancé Garrett. Get ahead of this before it's too late.

She'd sent a link. An anonymous forum post, the kind that lived in a corner of the internet where people aired their professional disasters to strangers.

The poster had written: Help — absolute disaster, I accidentally deleted the CEO's fiancée from the company system. Will she think I did it on purpose? I'm just clumsy, I swear!!

Below that: And he spent all night telling me off for it. Said I was physically mature but mentally a toddler. He's so mean to me uwu.

I laughed.

I sent Cassie a very large sum of money.

Then I forwarded the post to Felix Davenport.

Here's your justification for making me the official new face of Holloway Group. Consider it your birthday present.

Because the Ashfords, for all their old-money reputation, simply didn't compare to the Davenports — London's most interesting new power family. And yes, I was exactly that mercenary about it.

Once my assistant confirmed the screenshots were all saved, I sent one last message to Garrett himself:

You've worked hard holding Holloway together this year. Now that I'm back, take some time off. Go get her brain checked — it's not normal for a grown woman to still be operating at that level.

No reply from Garrett.

Instead, the forum updated:

Fiancée returning to the company tomorrow! And I'm the one organizing her welcome ceremony!!! I'm going in full bare-face with my plainest clothes so she has nothing to compete with. God please don't let her come for me. I just want to do my job!!!

The comments were overwhelmingly supportive.

I made a throwaway account and left one gentle note: Sweetie, are you sure he's the director, and not just the acting director? And whose people are on the board — his, or the fiancée's? That determines whether she comes for him or starts with you.

The comment was deleted within seconds.

I noted it. She moderated that forum like a national security operation. Not a single dissenting voice had survived.

She followed up with a clarification: Don't worry everyone, the fiancée is basically a pampered socialite. He gives her the money. He gives me the love. It's actually quite fair — I just worry that when she sees what it looks like when he truly cares for someone, she won't be able to handle it.

I turned to my assistant.

"Cancel tomorrow's welcome ceremony. Some things are better left unseen."

Then I called a meeting with my father's key people, and announced I'd be inserting a segment into the upcoming charity gala — an official moment where I would be named executive director of Holloway Group. As for Garrett, he could go back to the Ashfords and continue playing lord of the manor.

The room erupted in applause.