I never told my parents that I had invested $500 million to save their failing company. My sister took credit, claiming she had closed the deal. At the victory party, my five-year-old son accidentally spilled water on his dress. She hit him so hard he lost consciousness. My mother snorted, “You clumsy speculator! Take the boy and go!” I gave them one last chance to apologize. Instead, they shouted, “Your sister saved us! You’re nothing but a burden!” Then they turned their attention to me. “Hello, our CEO…” What I had done had completely shattered their world.

Inside me, the mother, the protector, screamed in pain. But another part of me—the CEO, the woman who built a billion-dollar empire in a studio apartment with a laptop, while they thought I was “searching for meaning”—froze.

I sensed a presence behind me. A shadow fell across the floor.

“Is he okay, ma’am?” a quiet voice asked.

This was Elias, my head of security. To my family, he was just a man in a black suit they suspected of working at the hotel. To the rest of the world, he was the most important person in Aurora Holdings’ personal security detail.

“Elias,” I said, my voice as cold as the marble beneath me. “Take Leo to a private room upstairs. Have Dr. Aris examine him immediately. Stay with him at all times.”

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