At midnight, he planned to dismantle the opposition to the acquisition.

Sleep, in Rayan’s opinion, was something people did when there were no useful decisions left to make.

The aircraft accelerated.

The exhausted nurse slept through it.

Thirty minutes later, they entered turbulence.

It was nothing severe.

Just enough to rattle the glasses.

Just enough to shift bodies slightly sideways.

Just enough for the sleeping woman’s head to slide from the headrest…

…and land directly against Rayan Al-Zahir’s shoulder.

Faris stood immediately.

So did Nabil.

Half the cabin seemed to inhale at once.

The flight attendant froze with a bottle of champagne in her hand.

Rayan slowly turned his head.

The woman remained asleep.

Her cheek rested against the shoulder of a suit handmade in Milan.

One strand of hair had fallen across her face.

Faris stepped closer.

“Boss,” he whispered, “let us remove her immediately.”

Rayan raised one finger.

Faris stopped.

“Don’t you dare touch her.”

Silence.

“Sir?”

“Let her sleep.”

Faris stared at him.

Nabil stared at Faris.

The flight attendant suddenly became extremely interested in arranging napkins.

Rayan looked down at the young woman again.

She had not moved.

He noticed something he had not seen before.

Her hands.

There were faint marks across the backs of them from medical gloves worn too long. A tiny healing cut crossed one knuckle. Her nails were short and unpainted.

A hospital identification card protruded from her canvas bag.

CHLOE BENNETT.

PEDIATRIC NURSE.

HARBOR STREET CHILDREN’S CLINIC.

Rayan knew the clinic.

His company had rejected a funding request from it six months earlier.

He remembered signing the decision.

Not because he had studied the clinic.

Because he signed hundreds of decisions.

Harbor Street had been a line on a spreadsheet.

Nothing more.

Another patch of turbulence shook the aircraft.

Chloe shifted.

Her forehead nearly struck the plastic edge beside the window.

Rayan’s hand moved before he thought about it.

He placed his palm between her head and the hard surface.

The woman settled back against his shoulder.

Then she whispered something.

“Mama…”

Rayan went still.

Chloe’s face tightened in her sleep.

“Please don’t go.”

Something inside him shifted.

Not softened.

Rayan had trained softness out of himself years ago.

But something moved.

The cabin temperature dropped.

Chloe shivered.

Rayan looked toward the attendant.

Before he could speak, she hurried forward with a blanket.

Rayan took it.

Everyone watching expected him to hand it to the attendant.

Instead, the most notoriously untouchable businessman in the region unfolded the blanket himself and carefully placed it over the sleeping nurse.

Faris’s eyebrows rose.

Rayan ignored him.

His phone vibrated.

A message from his chief strategist.

BOARD ASSEMBLED. NEED YOU ON VIDEO NOW.

Rayan typed one sentence.