“Is Sylvie on the call too?”

“Yeah.”

“Put me on speaker.”

Jarrod tapped the phone and switched to speaker mode.

Only then did Maurice ask, “Has Joseph reached out to you? Have you noticed he’s been super busy lately? I tried to make dinner plans with him today, but he said he had something going on. No idea what he’s up to!”

Sylvie paused.

Lately, Joseph had barely been in touch. Even when she messaged him about something, it was rare for him to reply. He seemed distant, almost cold.

She tried to convince herself that it wasn’t intentional-he was probably just swamped at work.

After meeting Elias, Elodie went straight home.

She was completely wiped out-set an alarm and crashed for the entire afternoon.

It was six by the time she finally dragged herself out of bed. The worst of the post- chemo misery seemed to have faded.

Tonight, Alexander was treating everyone to dinner. Elodie knew they were genuinely happy for her, so she had no intention of dampening the mood.

She got herself together and headed to the restaurant Alexander had picked out. Over dinner, she told them about Jarrod giving her a stake in Nexus Analytics. Esmeralda nearly choked on her drink. “Nexus Analytics? Twenty percent? Since when is Jarrod so generous?”

Nexus Analytics might have been just one of the many companies under The Silverstein Group, but it was a heavy-hitter-top three in its field across the region, and well-respected to boot.

“He can’t possibly just be feeling charitable,” Esmeralda said, eyes wide with suspicion. “Wait-could this be his way of compensating you? Because he set up a company for Sylvie?”

“If Jarrod actually cared about Elodie’s feelings, he wouldn’t have started a company for Sylvie in the first place,” Alexander scoffed. “And since he did, there’s no way he feels guilty about Elodie.”

Some men, he thought, were simply shameless-Jarrod being a prime example: calculating, cold, and completely heartless. So much for the old adage about lasting affection.

Elodie didn’t intend to dwell on it. As things stood, she was the beneficiary. Unless Nexus Analytics ran into serious trouble, all she had to do was sit back and collect the checks.

After dinner, Esmeralda was in high spirits and suggested they hit a bar.

But Elodie was a lightweight and quick to get tipsy-plus, with her health, drinking was out of the question. She was about to decline when she noticed Alexander’s face had gone cold as he stared at his phone.

She hesitated, then asked softly, “What’s wrong, Alex?”

Alexander’s expression was grim. He looked up and handed his phone to Elodie. “Someone just sent me a photo. Take a look.”

Esmeralda leaned in, curious.

Elodie glanced at the screen-and her eyes turned icy in an instant.

In the photo was Seymour, one of the engineers from VistaLink Technologies’ tech department. Sitting across from him was Keith.

Keith, meeting secretly with someone from their tech team? There was only one

reason.

Esmeralda’s temper flared. “Jarrod’s right-hand man? Meeting up with our staff in private? He’s obviously trying to poach our people!”

Elodie understood immediately. Especially now-Neural Intelligence was actively recruiting.

And at a time like this, they were reaching right into VistaLink Technologies’ talent pool.

Alexander’s jaw tightened as he let out a cold laugh. “So, they wait until the ink’s barely dry on your divorce papers before making a move! I didn’t expect Jarrod to be heartbroken, but did he have to stab us in the back the very next day?” Freshly divorced, and already he was coming after VistaLink Technologies?