Diana's head snapped toward her best friend.
She already knew.
She'd known the second Zari's voice dropped half an octave, that familiar tone of reluctant pragmatism.
"Private money," Zari continued, eyes locked on Diana, unwavering. "Individuals who don't care about balance sheets or quarterly reports. They invest in influence. In people. The right name attached to you could open every door that's been slammed in your face for three years—labels, sponsors, even getting Lumière into major retailers."
Diana's laugh was hollow, echoing off the brick walls. "You mean patronage"
Zari didn't flinch. "I mean survival. We're not talking small-time venture bros; we're talking the kind of backers who reshape industries."
Ethan exhaled through his teeth, leaning back with a skeptical frown. "We're not there yet. Private equity comes with strings—control, equity shares. We'd lose autonomy."
"We're past there," Zari shot back, her tone sharpening. "Autonomy doesn't pay the rent."
Hannah finally looked up from her tablet, setting it down with deliberate care. "It's how empires are built, Diana. Fashion, music, film—no one gets to the top without strategic alliances. You know that. Think about how many A-listers started with a 'mentor' pulling strings behind the scenes. It's not pretty, but it's effective."
Diana's fingers dug into her own arms, leaving crescent marks on her skin. She could feel the trap tightening, the invisible noose of obligation. They didn't actually even know the extent of what Zari meant. Once you owed someone like that, you never stopped paying—favors, appearances, pieces of your soul chipped away until you were just a polished shell.
Ava broke the silence, her voice laced with cautious optimism. "Then we pick the right one. Not just any rich creep with a yacht and a midlife crisis. Someone with real clout in entertainment, who sees the long game."
Zari leaned forward, her elbows on the desk, voice dropping to barely above a whisper as if the words themselves were dangerous. "There's one offer that isn't like the others."
Ethan frowned deeper, adjusting his glasses. "Who?"
Zari never looked away from Diana, her gaze steady and imploring. "ALG."
The room froze solid, the name hanging like a thunderclap.
Even the distant hum of traffic outside seemed to hush.
Ava actually laughed, high and disbelieving, clapping a hand over her mouth. "Girl. Shut the hell up. You're talking about Alexander Luigi Gian? The Duke himself?"
"I'm serious," Zari replied, unflinching.
"ALG?" Hannah repeated, her voice climbing an octave in shock. "The Duke? You're joking. He's not just private money; he's the puppet master of half the industry."
Zari shook her head slowly. "His office reached out again this morning. He wants a private meeting. Just dinner. No cameras. No publicity"
Hannah turned on Diana like a prosecutor cross-examining a witness, her eyes narrowing. "For reals? At this point, you're choosing to stay broke. Choosing to watch everything you built die because you want to play martyr a little longer? This isn't pride; it's suicide by stubbornness."
Diana's mouth fell open, stung. "Excuse me? You think I haven't fought tooth and nail for this?"
Ava bristled, jumping to Diana's defense, her foot kicking up onto the coffee table with a thud. "Back off, Hannah. You're acting like you work for the other side. Not everyone's comfortable turning their life into a transaction."
Hannah's eyes flashed with irritation, her manicured nails tapping sharply on the glass. "Keep talking, little girl. I will take this heel off and beat the attitude out of you. I've been crunching these numbers while you're playing with filters on Instagram."
"Try it," Ava smirked, crossing her arms defiantly. "I'd love to see you explain that to HR—if we still had one."
Ethan pinched the bridge of his nose, his voice weary. "This is unproductive. We're spiraling, not solving."
"Enough!" Zari's voice cracked like a gunshot, slicing through the bickering. "All of you—shut up. Just shut up."
She turned to the room, chest heaving, her dark curls framing a face flushed with emotion.
"Let's just get things done once and for all," Zari said, her words measured but edged with steel. "We know of course how it works with people like that. He invests both in material things and humans alike. We just need to know our way around him so we don't get stuck in an even worse trap. That should be our line of thinking right now. Not... this"
"You seem quite eager," Ethan mumbled under his breath, crossing his arms. "You're not the one going after all."
Zari whirled on him, her eyes blazing. "You think I'm eager?" Her laugh was broken glass, sharp and painful. "You think I like this? That I want to sell my best friend to some billionaire because it's convenient? Because it's an 'easy fix'?"
Her eyes filled with tears, but the fury won out, spilling over in a torrent. "Have any of you actually looked at her lately? Really looked? Do you know she can't sleep without pills that barely work anymore? That she's up at four a.m. doing half-assed sun salutations in the living room because the nightmares won't let her rest—the ones about losing everything, about being forgotten? That she flinches every time her phone buzzes because she's waiting for the next final notice, the next rejection, the next call from Ryan begging for money she doesn't have?"
Diana couldn't move.
Couldn't breathe.
The words hit like a spotlight, exposing the cracks she'd hidden so carefully.
Zari's voice cracked, but she pressed on, pointing at each of them in turn. "You keep arguing numbers and optics like this is a boardroom exercise, like it's all hypothetical. But if she breaks—if she decides one morning that breathing isn't worth the fight anymore—we'll all stand around her grave saying 'we should've done something.' Blaming each other, regretting the chances we didn't push her to take."
Diana felt the tears slip down her cheeks before she could stop them, hot and unbidden. She immediately wiped them off.
Zari wiped her eyes angrily with the back of her hand, her voice dropping to a hoarse whisper. "So yeah. I'm eager. Because I'm terrified of losing her."
No one spoke.
Diana stared at the floor, throat raw.
And in that silence, the decision was made.