Chapter 23 · She Keeps the Firm

"You don't get a vote in this room, Mr. Vane." Marcus Doyle's voice cracked down the conference table like a gavel. "This is a partners' meeting."

"Then I'll wait outside your door until it's not." Cade didn't sit. He set a leather folder flat on the glass, right next to the printed motion with my name typed at the top under REMOVAL OF NAME PARTNER. "But you might want to hear what's in here first."

My stomach dropped through the floor. Nine partners. Nine faces. All of them had already seen the photo — me at the school gate, Maya's hand in mine, Cade's black SUV idling at the curb like a threat with tinted windows.

Sabrina Voss leaned back, arms crossed, smug as a cat with a mouse still twitching. "A five-year-old conflict of interest, hidden from every client who ever hired Avery Cole to fight Vane Capital. That's not a scandal, Avery. That's malpractice."

"I disclosed every case the day I found out he existed in my life again." My voice came out steadier than I felt. "Every single one went to outside counsel. And it doesn't matter how you spin optics —