The champagne flute slipped from my fingers, shattering against the marble floor of my father's study. Through the window, fireworks exploded over Manhattan's skyline—everyone else celebrating the new year while I stood frozen, staring at the will that had just destroyed my life. "Everything to Adrian Marlowe," the lawyer's voice echoed in my mind. "The company, the properties, the assets." Three days. My father had been dead for three days, and already I'd been erased. I pressed my palm against the mahogany desk where Dad used to let me sit while he worked, back when I was small enough to believe nothing could hurt me. Back before he married Adrian's mother. Back before Adrian became the golden son and I became... whatever I was now. The door opened behind me. "Sienna." Adrian's voice was flat, emotionless. The same tone he'd used for three years—ever since I'd started working at Marlowe Technologies, desperate to prove myself worthy of being his sister. His equal. His anything. I didn't turn around. "Congratulations. You got everything." "Your father made his choice." "Our father," I corrected, though the words tasted bitter. Dad had adopted Adrian when he married Elena, but I'd always been the afterthought. The daughter from his first marriage. The reminder of the wife he'd loved and lost. Adrian moved closer. I could smell his cologne—cedar and something darker. "If you're here to contest the will—" "I'm not." I finally faced him, forcing myself to meet those steel-gray eyes that had haunted my dreams since I was fifteen. Ten years of wanting someone who looked at me like I was an inconvenience. "I'm here to clean out my things." Something flickered across his face. Surprise? No, Adrian didn't do surprise. He was always three steps ahead, always in control. "You're leaving Marlowe Tech?" "I'm leaving New York." The words came easier than I expected. Maybe because I'd rehearsed them a thousand times in the mirror, trying to convince myself I could actually do it. "I accepted a position in Tokyo. I start in two weeks." His jaw tightened. "Tokyo." "Nakamura Industries offered me a VP position last month. I turned them down because..." I trailed off, laughing bitterly. Because I'd been stupid enough to think staying mattered. That he'd eventually see me as more than his father's daughter. "It doesn't matter why. They still want me." Adrian stepped closer, and my traitorous heart stuttered. Even now, even after everything, my body responded to his proximity like a compass finding north. "We need you here," he said. "The board transition—" "You need my vote to maintain control." I'd done the math. Without my minority shares, Adrian's position as CEO wasn't guaranteed. "I'll sign them over to you. Consider it a goodbye gift." His eyes narrowed. "Why?" "Why what?" "Why now? You've spent three years following me around like a lost puppy. Sitting in on every meeting, volunteering for every project I touched. What changed?" The cruelty of it stole my breath. He knew. Of course he knew. And he'd never said anything, just let me humiliate myself day after day while he pretended not to notice. I grabbed my bag from the desk, fingers trembling. "I got tired of chasing someone who was never going to catch me." I made it to the door before his words stopped me cold. "I saw the security footage. From New Year's Eve." My hand froze on the doorknob. "Dad's office, six-thirty PM. Two hours before his heart attack." Adrian's voice was closer now, right behind me. "Want to tell me what you two argued about, Sienna?"