Chapter 5

Summer's POV

The air inside Sterling Tech's executive boardroom was so thick it was hard to breathe.

BANG!

I slammed a thick stack of bank statements onto the glass table, glaring coldly at the trembling man sitting across from me.

It was Ryan Carter, my head of R&D, who had been with me for three years.

"Fifty thousand dollars," my voice was like ice. "That's all it took for Ethan to buy your dirty soul and throw away three years of our team's hard work. You really are pathetic, Ryan."

Ryan collapsed onto his knees, tears streaming down his face. "Summer, please! My mother needed a kidney transplant, and Ethan threatened me... I had no choice!"

"You had no choice, so you decided to bury my entire company with you?" I showed absolutely no mercy. "Security, call the cops. You can tell your sob story to a judge."

After Ryan was dragged out, the room fell silent again.

The mole was caught, but the crisis was far from over.

My VP rushed in, dripping with sweat. "Summer, we have a bigger problem. Ethan put out a warning in the tech sector. Anyone who funds our project is an enemy of the Mercer Group. All the venture capitalists who agreed to talk to us just blocked our numbers."

"And our server host just terminated our contract. They are shutting down our servers at midnight tonight."

I clenched my teeth so hard my jaw ached, my nails digging into my palms.

Ethan was trying to suffocate my company.

No data, no funding, and now, no servers.

If the servers went dark, we would face massive breach-of-contract lawsuits. It would be the end.

"We have six hours until midnight," I stood up, my head spinning from exhaustion. I had to grip the table to keep from falling. "Contact overseas server providers. I don't care how much it costs, migrate our data now!"

"It's useless."

A deep, cold voice drifted from the doorway.

Adrian Mercer stood there, looking sharp in his custom black suit, followed by two elite assistants carrying briefcases.

He walked over to me, looking down at my pale, exhausted face. "Ethan has blocked every exit. Overseas server migration takes at least three days to clear security audits. You don't have that kind of time."

I lifted my chin, my eyes bloodshot. "I'm not going down without a fight."

"I can give you access to Mercer Group's private servers. My tech team can migrate your data in two hours," Adrian said casually, as if talking about the weather.

I stared at him warily. "What's the catch?"

I wasn't stupid.

Adrian was a ruthless businessman. He never did anything for free.

Adrian leaned in close, his long fingers pinching my chin, forcing me to look directly into his dark, dangerous eyes.

His presence was heavy, intoxicating, and completely dominant.

"Move into my estate," he said, his voice low and commanding. "Tonight is the Mercer family dinner. My father wants to meet you. As my wife, you need to play your part. If you ruin this, Sterling Tech disappears by tomorrow morning."

My chest tightened.

Was this another trap?

Looking into his cold, handsome face, a wave of bitterness washed over me.

I had escaped Ethan's cage, only to step right into Adrian's web.

To this man, I was just a convenient chess piece he could manipulate at will.

"Fine," I forced a hollow smile. "I agree."

Adrian let go of my chin and tossed a black titanium card onto the table. "Buy yourself a proper dress. I'll pick you up at seven. Don't embarrass me."

With that, he turned and walked out.

I stared at the black card, my eyes burning with unshed tears. But I forced them back.

Right now, I didn't even have the luxury to cry.