“It won’t.”
“But it changes everything.”
“Yes.”
Her eyes dropped briefly to his palm, then rose to meet his again. There was no panic in her now. Too much shock for that. Too much trust, too, which hit him harder than he expected in the middle of strategy and consequence.
The phone continued toring.
Magnus released her hand, reached across to the nightstand, and picked it up. One glance at the screen confirmed what he alreadyknew.
Leif.
Of course.
Magnus answered without taking his eyes offElia.
“Talk.”
There was a pause on the other end, brief and measured. Then Leif’s voice came through, cool and direct. “We have movement on the contract.”
Magnus looked at the shield in the center of his palm, then at the identical mark on Elia’s.
“You have more than that,” hesaid.
Leif went silent.
Magnus’s gaze held on Elia as he spoke the next words.
“We have a situation.”
Chapter 17
ELIA STOOD AT THE THRESHOLDof Magnus’s study and knew something in the room had shifted.
The Severin brothers rarely looked unsettled. Power lived in their posture, in the way they moved through the world as if it belonged to them. Today that certainty remained, but another current threaded through the air. Tense. Dangerous. The kind of hush that followed a realization too heavy for speech.
Documents covered the long table. Screens glowed with spreadsheets and legal filings. Magnus stood at the center of it all, one hand braced against the polished surface, his head bent toward the paper Leif had slid across the table.
Elia hesitated in the doorway, uncertain whether to interrupt. Magnus noticed her immediately. He always did. His gaze lifted, sharp and alert, and the tension in his expression eased by a fraction when he saw her standing there.
“Come here a moment,” hesaid.
His voice carried warmth, steady and certain. He held out his hand, drawing her toward him instead of merely summoning her. When she reached him hedidn’t let her drift away again. His arm settled around her shoulders, pulling her close against his side in a claim that made the room suddenly smaller. Only then did he glance toward the brothers watching them, as if their attention no longer mattered.
Magnus slid the paper toward her. “Read the name.”
She leaned over the table and focused on the ownership line at the center of the document.
Elia Lucia.
The room seemed to tilt beneath her feet. She read it again, certain she had misunderstood. Her name remained on the page. “That isn’t possible.”
No one answered. Magnus watched her with a concentration that stripped away every layer of composure she possessed.
Leif spoke first. “It’s well-buried, but the shell company that holds the Donati port contracts lists a single controlling shareholder.” His finger tapped the paper. “You.”
The word fell into the silence like a stone.
