Six men stood there in the middle of the room. Before Arthur stood a man in his early fifties with short height, dark curly hair and a thin mustache on his upper lip. Four more much younger men stood behind him with the same black clothes the guards wore at the VIP entrance.

They obviously worked for this unknown man and Arthur.

“Congratulations, Mr. Valencian,” the man said in a thick Russian accent. His mustache twitched as a smirk tugged at his dark lips.

“Congratulations to us, Ivanov. After all, it’s the result of both of ours hard work.”

I frowned.

Ivanov? Why did this name sound familiar?

My lips parted in shock. Ivanov, one of the partners of the Russian company Ace was going to sign the deal with.

He was with Arthur? Oh God!

What are they congratulating each other about?

That Russian shook his head. “Nah, I just helped you for the sake of my friendship with Antonio and the promise you gave me. All the planning was yours. And finally, that nephew of yours signed the contract. I was starting to doubt your plan but seems like your nephew trusts his uncle blindly.”

A silent gasp slipped past my lips. With my hand over my mouth, I stood there, shocked.

Ace signed the contract? But how? I sent Carter to stop him. Didn’t get my message?

Shit!

This shouldn’t have happened. Why did Ace sign it? He should’ve waited for me.

Or was I already late? Maybe he signed even before I arrived here?

Failure and disappointment ran through me.

I was right. It was a part of Arthur’s master plan. But the sad part was, I couldn’t stop it from happening even if I was aware of it.

Ivanov being connected to Antonio didn’t surprise me at all. Even when Antonio went down, he left his friend behind to help Arthur with his plan to destroy us.

But what promise did Arthur make to Ivanov that he agreed with his plan?

Whatever it was, it wasn’t too late. If I tell Ace everything about them and the deal, he will find a way to deal with it.