---- Chapter 19 Dante Mullen POV: The Shelby arrived the next morning. It sat in the executive parking garage like a panther, its Highland Green paint gleaming under the fluorescent lights. My assistant stood beside it, holding a small, elegant card. Thank you for your assistance today. A good teammate is hard to find. Let's keep it professional. | ran a hand over the car's perfect lines, a slow smile spreading across my face. She was magnificent. The car was, too. "She's something else, isn't she, sir?" my assistant, Julian, murmured. "She's a goddamned queen," | said, half to myself. | wasn't talking about the car. Julian cleared his throat. "Are you... serious about her, sir? A romantic pursuit?" | took the card and slipped it into my jacket pocket. "Anya Warner is not a 'romantic pursuit, Julian. She is a strategic alliance of the highest order. She's brilliant, she's powerful, and she has the backing of Fred Warner's entire empire. An ---- alliance with her would be... advantageous." But as | said the words, | knew it was more than that. | had been fascinated by 'Ghost' for years, the anonymous coder whose work was so far beyond everyone else's it felt like it had been sent from the future. To discover that this legend was a woman, and a woman who had endured what she had, only deepened my admiration. When | saw Glass laying his hands on her, that pathetic, sniveling coward, something inside me had ignited. It wasn't strategy. It was a raw, protective instinct | hadn't felt in a very long time. "So, the plan isn't marriage?" Julian asked, ever the pragmatist. | laughed. "Fred Warner would sooner feed me to his sharks than let me marry his daughter right now. No. Anya Warner isn't a prize to be won. She's a force to be reckoned with. You don't try to conquer a force like that. You align with it." | paused, looking back at the car. "And," | added, a genuine grin on my face, "it doesn't hurt that it drives Hamilton Glass absolutely insane to see me near her." The gift was her way of acknowledging the move | had made, and making a counter-move of her own. She was setting the terms of our engagement. Teammates. Allies. Not lovers. For now. | tossed the keys in the air and caught them. "Have my ---- schedule cleared for the next month, Julian. I'm joining The Apex Club's new project. Full time." | was never a man who played for second place. And the game for Anya Warner's respect was one | intended to win. Anya Warner POV: The gift had its intended effect. Dante understood the message. He showed up at The Apex Club the next day, not as a suitor, but as a colleague. He threw himself into the project we were working on-a new, decentralized and secure operating system-with a focus and intensity that matched my own. We became a formidable team, our minds working in sync, challenging and elevating each other's work. It was a partnership of equals, a concept Hamilton could never have grasped. The months flew by. My belly grew, and with it, my new company. Warner Digital was born, not with a splashy press release, but with the quiet acquisition of key patents and the hiring of the brightest minds from The Apex Club, including Sierra as my Head of Engineering. We were building something revolutionary. Something that would make Glass Innovations look like a relic from the Stone Age. While | built my future, Hamilton' s world crumbled. The scandal of our breakup, followed by the revelation of my true ---- parentage, had been a death blow to his public image. The story of his betrayal was too juicy, too compelling. He was no longer the golden boy of tech; he was a villain, a fool who had thrown away a princess for a hollow crown. His grandfather, Grant Daugherty, tried to do damage control, but it was too late. The Warner name carried too much weight. Doors that had once been wide open were now slammed shut in their faces. Deals fell through. Investors pulled out. Their stock price plummeted and never recovered. | heard through the grapevine that Hamilton had left his family's company, that he was trying to find Kacey, obsessed with the idea of making her pay for her part in the deception. He was a man chasing ghosts, haunted by a past he couldn't undo The day my son was born was the day the world shifted on its axis. | held him in my arms, this tiny, perfect human being, and felt a love so fierce and overwhelming it eclipsed everything else. He had my eyes. My father' s eyes. | named him Nicholas. Nicholas Warner. He would know his worth from the moment he drew his first breath. He would never be a ghost. He would never live in anyone's shadow. | had brought him into this world, and | would build a world ---- worthy of him. The final piece of my plan was about to fall into place.