Ares's POV
The city outside my office was asleep, but my mind wasn't.
Zara's voice from the last meeting kept echoing in my head… "Your mother, Evelyn Duvall…"
She had said it with poison, the way only she could… a weapon wrapped in a smile.
But there was something off about the timing, about the way she looked at Jasmine before saying it. Zara didn't throw daggers without reason.
I loosened my tie and exhaled. The office lights dimmed automatically, but the silence only made the questions louder.
If Evelyn Duvall… Jasmine's mother… had ties to KnightCorp, why was it surfacing now? Why wait until the merger was weeks away?
Something didn't add up.
Nathan Pierce, my assistant, appeared at the door without knocking. He never needed to… he read me too well.
"You're still here, sir." he said quietly. "It's almost 2 A.M."
