Swallow.

"……." Robert Lorenz slowly tilted the champagne in his hand and looked around the party.

When he'd first arrived at the H.R TOWER, he'd had a rough idea what to expect.

He'd known Ha Tae-ung had bought a building in New York, and he'd already heard the man was throwing a party there.

But in person, the whole thing was far bigger than he'd imagined.

This wasn't just a party with a lot of money spent on it. The guest list was dazzling.

Robert glanced at the East River at night beyond the floor-to-ceiling glass, then turned back to the room.

It was a good building.

The location was good, even for Lower Manhattan.

It was close to Wall Street, it held offices and commercial space together, and the top floor was laid out to be lived in.

His decision to buy a building like this so boldly, at a time when the commercial real estate market was shaky, was interesting in its own right.

With office vacancies rising and interest rates climbing, plenty of investors were pulling out of commercial buildings.

Ha Tae-ung had moved the other way.

He'd bought while prices were falling. And then he'd put his own name on the building he bought.

The H.R TOWER.

So he'd never meant it as just an investment property.

An American garrison, then.

Robert's eyes narrowed. In St Moritz, the man had been nothing more than an amusing young Korean.

He'd had no fear, and his quick wits deserved credit.

The way he'd bet a hundred million dollars against Liang Jianguo and turned the board over had been impressive too.

Even so, back then he'd been just a new face who might show up in European society for a while.

Less than two months had passed since then.

And now that young man was throwing a party in his own name, for all to see, in the heart of Wall Street.

Nor was this some clumsy New York debut.

The people who'd come tonight were proof enough of that. Robert's gaze lingered on one corner.

Michael Herrington. The…