The Saturday afternoon sun fell heavy through the tall windows of the Pedro mansion, throwing long gold bars of light across the marble floors. It was the kind of quiet that only money could buy: no traffic, no noise, just the distant hum of the air conditioning and the soft sound of Amara's heels as she paced the length of the sitting room.
She had the phone pressed to her ear.
"Ms. Amara." James' voice came through calm and even, the way it always did when he had already made up his mind about something. "It's time."
She stopped walking.
"Time," she repeated, not as a question.
"We have majority shares in Creed Tech now." A pause. "It's time to take Sebastian out of the game."
Amara was quiet for a moment. She moved to the window and looked out at the garden, the perfectly trimmed hedges, the stone fountain that had not been turned on in weeks. She had been waiting for this call. Longer than she had expected, if she was honest with herself.
A month.
