Chapter 7

Three days passed.

I received an invitation I had been expecting.

Nicholas Brooks, patriarch of the Brooks family, the most powerful old-money clan in the city, was turning eighty.

The Brooks family was Michael's mother's side, the family of Helen Brooks.

They were also the biggest power behind Michael.

The party was less a birthday celebration than a damage-control operation the Brooks family was staging on Michael's behalf.

They wanted to show the world that the Brooks family still stood behind him.

They also wanted a look at the founder of Nova Capital, who had appeared out of nowhere, and…