Lucy's POV
My heart stopped the moment Anna's words cut through the room like a blade:
"Then we terminate our partnership."
The floor tilted beneath me, panic surging like a tidal wave up my throat. No, this wasn't how it was supposed to go. Anna Shaw was meant to crack under pressure not flip the entire damn table.
She's bluffing, I told myself, clinging to the hope like a lifeline. She has to be bluffing.
The Phoenix Project was a guaranteed win. No sane executive would walk away from a goldmine over some glorified escort.
But the look in Anna's eyes wasn't the look of someone bluffing. It was cold. Unflinching. Calculated.
I forced a calm expression onto my face, though my mind spiraled through the implications. Without Phoenix, I'd lose everything my position, my leverage. My title as General Manager wasn't just a job; it was my legitimacy in the eyes of the Simpson family.
