Chapter 51 · The Maid Who Reads

"I vote no." Jae's voice cut flat across the table, and for one second nobody in the boardroom breathed.

Corazon's pen stopped mid-signature, hovering there like it forgot what it was for. "Approved?" she said, like the word itself had personally insulted her. She set the pen down with a click that sounded too loud in the quiet. "Mr. Jae Min, the strip of land is worthless to us without the hotel wing. Explain your no."

"Explain the sixty-page term sheet you handed us four hours ago," Jae said, not even looking up from it. "Nobody's read it yet. Not really."

Grant Whitfield smiled the way he always did before he took something — slow, easy, like he had all the time in the world because he already knew how this ended. "I've read it. Twice. It's clean."

Every head turned to me. Not because I was supposed to have an opinion.