And now, in the time it took to raise a hand, all of that calculation reversed.

The same instinct for self-preservation that had made them laugh when I fell now made them vote to destroy him, and they did it with the same ease, the same absence of visible struggle, because for most people power is not a matter of principle but of direction, and the direction had simply changed.

I did not despise them for it.

I understood it too well.

I had spent eight years surviving the same way.

But I filed it away, the speed of that reversal, because a woman who is about to run a company should never forget how quickly a room full of frightened people will turn — including toward her, someday, if she gives them reason.

Chapter 14 — They Destroy Each Other

Cressida had already begun backing away from him, one careful step at a time, the way you back away from something that might still bite.

He saw her moving.

“Don’t you dare,” he snapped.