Iris Webb POV
Iris hasn't called Sophie in seven months.
The last time they spoke was at the rehearsal dinner. Sophie was talking about a case she was working on. Iris was trying on her wedding dress one more time. They were laughing about something stupid. Everything was fine.
Everything was not fine.
Iris stares at Sophie's contact in her phone for five minutes before pressing the call button. What if Sophie doesn't answer. What if Sophie has moved on like everyone else. What if the only real friend she had decided that associating with Iris Webb was bad for her career.
Sophie answers on the first ring.
"Iris. Oh my God, where are you? I saw the videos. I tried calling a hundred times. I went to your apartment and your landlord said you'd moved. I didn't know where you went."
Iris can't speak because hearing Sophie's voice makes everything real in a way it hasn't been real before.
"I'm in Queens," Iris finally says. "I'm working at a diner. I'm living in a basement apartment. I'm alone."
"You're not alone," Sophie says immediately. "You're not alone anymore. I'm coming to get you right now."
"Sophie, I need to tell you something first. Something that's going to sound crazy."
There's a pause.
"Okay. Tell me."
Iris tells her. About the pregnancy. About the plan. About wanting to take Grant's company and destroy it the way he destroyed her. She tells Sophie everything and waits for her friend to hang up on her like everyone else has.
Instead, Sophie says, "We need to meet with someone. Someone I trust. Someone who can help us figure out if this is actually possible."
Two days later, Iris is sitting in a quiet restaurant in Manhattan at a table in the back where nobody can see her.
Sophie is across from her. A man named Marcus is next to Sophie. Marcus has gray hair and tired eyes and he looks like the kind of person who's seen every kind of financial crime and wouldn't judge you for asking him to help you commit one.
Sophie ordered wine. Iris ordered water because her pregnant body won't let her drink anything else.
"Tell him what you want to do," Sophie says gently.
Iris takes a breath and lays it out. Every detail. The shell companies. The anonymous investment vehicles. The plan to buy controlling shares so slowly that nobody notices until it's too late. The plan to own Grant Sullivan's company without him knowing it's her until the moment she tells him.
She talks for fifteen minutes without stopping.
Marcus listens without interrupting. His face doesn't change. He just sits there with his hands folded on the table like he's heard worse.
When Iris finishes, Marcus leans back in his chair.
"This is possible," he says slowly. "But it's complex. And it's cold."
Something about the way he says cold makes Iris flinch.
"What do you mean cold?" she asks.
"I mean this isn't about justice. This isn't about fairness. This is about deliberately and methodically destroying someone's life. It's cold. It's calculated. It's the kind of thing that once you start, you don't stop until someone is completely broken."
Iris puts her hands on her belly where her daughter is growing. Where the evidence of Grant's betrayal is literally living inside her body.
"He destroyed me in public," Iris says quietly. "In front of eight hundred people. He humiliated me and then disappeared. And now he's going about his life like I never existed while I'm working at a diner for eight dollars an hour."
She looks at Marcus directly.
"I'm going to destroy him the same way. Slowly. Completely. And he's going to have no idea why until I tell him. He's going to feel what it's like to lose everything."
Sophie reaches across the table and takes Iris's hand.
"Then let's do this," Sophie says.
Marcus studies Iris for a long moment. Like he's trying to figure out if she's serious. Like he's trying to decide if he wants to be part of something this dark.
Finally, he nods.
"I know people. Accountants. Lawyers. Financial experts who know how to move money in ways that can't be traced. It's going to be expensive. It's going to take time. And it's going to require you to be smarter than you've ever been."
"I can do smart," Iris says. "I did smart for four years at my old company. I was good at seeing patterns in systems. At finding weaknesses."
"Good," Marcus says. "Because you're going to need to be brilliant."
He reaches under the table and pulls out a folder. It's thick. Maybe two hundred pages. He slides it across the table toward Iris.
"Sullivan Industries Vulnerability Assessment," Iris reads the label.
"Everything you need to know is in there," Marcus says. "I've been studying their company for the last two days. Every financial statement. Every board member. Every transaction. Every weakness. That company has problems. Deep problems. And most of them lead back to one person."
"Who?" Iris asks.
"Your ex-fiancé."
Iris opens the folder and starts looking through the pages. Financial documents. Charts. Analysis. A complete map of Sullivan Industries from the inside.
"Grant's business partner, Harrison Cole, has been with him since the beginning," Marcus continues. "Cole has access to everything. He's also embezzling. About two million a year. Grant doesn't know. But Cole does and he's covered his tracks pretty well."
"How is that a vulnerability?" Iris asks.
"Because if someone knew about it, they could use that information to leverage Cole. Get him on their side. And if Cole turns on Grant, the whole company falls apart from the inside."
Iris feels something shift inside her chest. This isn't just about taking over a company. This is about using Grant's blind spots against him. Using his trust in the people around him.
"There's also a problem with the board," Marcus says. "Some of them are old money types loyal to Grant's father. Some of them are newcomers who are being investigated for securities fraud. Some of them might be willing to switch sides if the price is right."
Sophie squeezes Iris's hand. "We can do this. It's going to be hard and it's going to take time and it's going to require you to be someone you've never been before. But we can do this."
Iris looks at the folder in her hands. This is the moment where she decides. Where she chooses the path that's going to define the rest of her life.
She thinks about her daughter growing inside her. About raising her in a basement apartment. About being erased from the world while Grant Sullivan goes on with his life like she never mattered.
She thinks about what it would feel like to walk into his office and tell him that she owns him. That she owns his company. That the woman he destroyed is now the woman who destroyed him.
"How much is this going to cost?" Iris asks.
"A lot," Marcus says. "You're going to need at least fifty thousand to get started. For lawyers and accountants and to begin buying shares invisibly. And that's just the beginning."
Iris looks at Sophie. Sophie is her best friend. Sophie stuck with her when everyone else disappeared. Sophie is the only person in the world who knows about the baby and hasn't judged her.
"Can you help me figure out how to get the money?" Iris asks.
Sophie doesn't hesitate. "I have savings. My family has money. We'll figure it out."
Marcus opens another file. This one has numbers. Timelines. Projections.
"If we start now and we're smart about it, you could own controlling shares within nine months. By that point you'd be seven months pregnant. Close to giving birth."
Iris feels her daughter move inside her. A small flutter. Like she's responding to the plan.
"Nine months," Iris repeats. "I can work at a diner for nine months."
"You'll have to," Marcus says. "You need to stay invisible. You need to keep living your life like nothing's changing. No one can know what you're planning."
He closes the folder and pushes it back toward Iris.
"This is everything. Study it. Memorize it. Understand Sullivan Industries better than Grant Sullivan understands it. And then we start making moves."
Iris holds the folder against her chest and realizes that her life just split into two different timelines. The timeline where she's a broken woman working at a diner forever. And the timeline where she's a woman building something in the shadows.
She's choosing the second timeline.
She's choosing to become someone Grant Sullivan never saw coming.
"When do we start?" she asks.
Marcus checks his watch. "We already have."