Chapter 4

I sat at my small desk in the Cambridge apartment, staring at my laptop screen. The email notification had just appeared—a message forwarded by Michael from the Sterling family's network. My fingers hovered over the keyboard, hesitating before clicking to open it.

It was from James to his boss at Goldman Sachs, the investment bank where he'd worked for the past three years. The timestamp showed it had been sent just after breakfast.

"Dear Mr. Donovan," it began with false formality. "Please accept this as my immediate resignation from Goldman Sachs. Due to a significant change in my family's financial…