A Widow's Poison, A Wife's Rebellion novel Chapter 187

The line went silent. A roaring noise filled Xenia's head, and her entire body went numb. It took her a long moment to process what she'd heard. "What did you say?"

"We never even got our hands on Starla," the man repeated. "Mr. Farley personally came and took her away."

Xenia felt the world spin. Herbert had taken Starla. He had actually gone and rescued her himself. And here she was, pathetically believing Starla had been suffering all night.

No wonder Herbert had treated her with such contempt. That bitch had never even been in danger; he had saved her!

Did her brother know? She remembered the missed calls from Fairfax. She picked up her phone, her thumb hovering over his name, but after a long, agonizing moment, she couldn't bring herself to call him.

...

Meanwhile, at the Yelchin Group headquarters, Fairfax was dealing with a massive headache. The project with Palatial Inc. was falling apart. After a grueling meeting that lasted until four in the afternoon, he returned to his office and chain-smoked one cigarette after another. The air grew thick with smoke as Gabriel stood nervously before his desk.

"Hoggart Group?" Fairfax growled, the name tasting like ash in his mouth. "Why in the world would they be interested in a project with Palatial Inc.?"

Gabriel fell silent. He was right. In all the years he'd worked for Fairfax, there had never been any interaction with the Hoggart Group. There was no basis for a personal vendetta.

And yet, they had poached the Palatial project right when the Yelchin Group was halfway through. It looked exactly like a targeted attack. What was more telling was the behavior of the Palatial executives. Normally, they wouldn't dare offend Fairfax. But this time, they had risked his wrath to hand the project over to Hoggart. It seemed less like a choice and more like they'd been strong-armed. The whole affair reeked of a hostile takeover.

Fairfax looked at Gabriel, his eyes narrowing. "Are you suggesting Hoggart Group is intentionally targeting us?"