The moment Raleigh made eye contact with them, a dark look passed over his face. He swiftly looked away, acting as if they didn't exist, and resumed his conversation

with Vesta's group.

Right then, Leonard and Corinne walked into the hall, flanked by The Lancaster Group's development team.

They spotted Thorne and Vesta almost immediately.

Leonard had known Thorne for years, though they ran in different circles and hadn't crossed paths in a long time.

Smiling, Leonard approached. "Mr. Henderson. It's been a while."

"Mr. Lancaster," Thorne replied smoothly. "Long time no see."

After exchanging pleasantries with Thorne, Leonard's gaze shifted to Vesta. A flicker

of genuine admiration crossed his eyes.

It was his first time seeing Vesta in person.

He extended a polite hand. "You must be Ms. Hawkins. A pleasure."

Vesta shook his hand. "Nice to meet you."

Suddenly, a booming voice echoed nearby. "Mr. Ferguson! There you are. I've been looking all over for you."

Hearing the commotion, Leonard snapped his head toward the sound and immediately spotted Stewart.

While he had never interacted with Stewart personally until their recent phone call,

he had seen enough press photos of him and Charlene online to recognize the man instantly.

Over the past few weeks, Leonard had taken a deep dive into the Al industry and realized exactly what PrimeStar Technologies represented in the market.

Alienating Stewart and Charlene would be a catastrophic business move.

He turned back to Thorne. "I need to go say hello to Mr. Ferguson. Mr. Henderson, let's catch up later?"

"Of course," Thorne said, gesturing for him to go ahead.

Leonard nodded and glanced at his sister. "Corinne, let's go."

They had managed to find a temporary fix for their company's crisis, but it came with exorbitant costs and severe delays.

Corinne knew her brother wanted to smooth things over with Stewart and Charlene, but her pride refused to bend.

She shot a venomous glare in their direction and crossed her arms. "Leonard, haven't I humiliated myself enough? Even if I go over there and practically beg, they aren't going to change their minds about the deat So why should I subject myself to that? If you want to go, go by yourself."

Without waiting for his response, she looped her arm through Vesta's. "Let's go look over there," she said with a forced smile, dragging Vesta away.

Leonard frowned deeply but kept his mouth shut, signaling his assistant to follow him as he headed toward Stewart.

Meanwhile, The Lancaster Group's tech team was mingling. As fate would have it, one of their developers was an old college classmate of Raleigh's.

They had greeted each other a few minutes earlier. Watching Corinne storm off with Vesta after blatantly refusing to greet the PrimeStar executives, Raleigh couldn't hold back his curiosity. "What's the deal with Director Lancaster and PrimeStar? She looks like she hates Mr. Ferguson and his team. Is there some bad blood between them?"

"I heard Director Lancaster and Director Ross have some personal history," the classmate whispered back.

"But that's not even why PrimeStar killed the deal," the classmate continued, leaning

in closer. "Word is, Director Ross specifically targeted us because of Mr.

Henderson's girlfriend, Ms. Hawkins."

Raleigh's expression hardened.

Her again.

He demanded, "What do you mean?"

shë

"PrimeStar was ready to sign with us. But the second Director Ross found out that our boss, Corinne, was close friends with Ms. Hawkins, she torpedoed the whole thing Corinne swallowed her pride and begged, but Director Ross wouldn't budge. So the deal fell through, and now our executives are pulling their hair out trying to fix the mess."