The news reached me through my carefully maintained network of digital informants at precisely the moment Arthur Nightingale announced his political masterstroke to the world. Six engagements. Six rings. Six women who now represented the most comprehensive alliance structure in modern political history.
And one of those women was supposed to be mine.
I sat in my private study, staring at the secure tablet that had delivered this devastating intelligence through encrypted channels, feeling something cold and furious unfurl in my chest. The livestream of the Imperial Trade Summit was still playing on my wall display, showing Arthur's composed face as reporters bombarded him with questions about the unprecedented announcement.
Arthur had taken everything—not just the woman who was supposed to be my path to greater influence, but the entire strategic landscape I had been so carefully constructing.
