From Betrayed Luna to Wolf Queen (Lillian) novel Chapter 83

CHAPTER 83

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Brandon sat at the kitchen table of his family’s estate, staring at his phone screen. The device had been buzzing nonstop since six in the morning. Messages from former associates. Notifications from social media accounts he wished he had never created. News alerts with his name attached to words like fraud and scandal and disgrace.

His father walked in without greeting him. He set a stack of papers on the table, each one marked with red ink and signatures.

aggressive

“Three more pulled out this morning.” His father’s voice was stripped of emotion, reduced to the cold, mechanical tone of a man calculating losses. “The Henderson Group terminated their contract at seven fifteen. The Walsh family withdrew their investment at eight. And ten minutes ago, I received a letter from the Caldwell banking group informing us that our line of credit under review.”

Brandon’s stomach turned. “Under review? That means they’re going to cancel it.”

“Of course they’re going to cancel it.” His father dropped into the chair across from him. “Nobody wants to be associated with a family whose son got exposed as a fraud in front of the entire city. You didn’t just embarrass yourself, Brandon. You put a target on everything we’ve built.”

I did this. All of it. Every single consequence traces back to my own stupidity.

Brandon wanted to argue. He wanted to point fingers, shift blame, find someone else to carry the weight that was crushing him. But every direction he turned, every excuse he reached for, led back to the same place.

He had lied. He had been caught. And now the bill was due.

His father picked up the stack of papers and walked out of the kitchen without another word. The silence he left behind was worse than any lecture.

Across the city, Logan stepped out of a car three blocks away from Imperial Group headquarters and walked the remaining

distance on foot.

The morning air was crisp. The building rose ahead of him, a tower of glass and steel that reflected the clouds like a mirror pointed at the sky. He had built this company from nothing, had watched it grow from a single office into an empire that spanned continents. And today, for the first time in years, he was going to walk through the front door without anyone knowing

who he was.

Richard Hale had been flagging issues for weeks. Complaints about employee conduct. Reports of senior staff abusing their authority. Whispers about a culture that had drifted from the principles Logan had established when the company was still small enough to fit in a single room.

Logan hadn’t told Richard he was coming. He hadn’t told Marcus. He hadn’t told anyone. He wanted to see the truth, not a rehearsed version of it.

He wore a plain gray jacket over a simple white shirt. No watch. No designer label. No indication that the man walking through the revolving doors owned every square inch of the building he was entering.

The lobby of Imperial Group headquarters was massive. Polished marble floors stretched in every direction, reflecting the enormous crystal chandelier hanging from the four story ceiling. Glass partitions separated the reception area from the elevator banks, and security stations flanked the entrance like checkpoints at a border crossing.

Logan approached the main reception desk, where a young woman with sharp nails and sharper eyes sat behind a curved marble counter. Her nameplate read JESSICA BARNES.

She was smiling brightly at a man in a tailored suit who had arrived just before Logan. Her voice was warm, professional, dripping with the kind of attentiveness that companies train into their front line employees.

“Good morning, Mr. Patterson! Welcome back to Imperial Group. Your meeting with the marketing division is on the fourteenth floor. I’ll have someone escort you right away. Can I get you a coffee while you wait?”

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The man thanked her and stepped aside.

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