Chapter 4: Whispers in the Boardroom**
By 8:00 AM the following morning, the Vance Global headquarters in Midtown was under siege. Stock prices had plummeted nine percent at opening bell, and the board of directors was gathered in an emergency executive session.
Victoria paced furiously across the plush carpet of the 40th-floor boardroom. Her phone was vibrating non-stop against the mahogany table.
"It’s an impersonator. A deepfake actress. Anything!" Victoria snapped at the company lawyers sitting around the table. "Issue a press release immediately denying all claims. Threaten to sue any media outlet that prints her name!"
"Victoria, shut up," Charles said, sitting at the head of the table. His eyes were bloodshot, his designer tie loosened.
"Excuse me?" Victoria scoffed, placing her manicured hands on the table. "I am protecting our empire, Charles! The board votes on the hospital privatization deal in three days. If investors get spooked, we lose the two-hundred-million-dollar buyout!"
"She knew about the ring," Charles said, his voice barely above a whisper. "Nobody knew the specific inscription inside your engagement ring except me, the jeweler, and Elena. Because Elena designed it for our mother before she died."
The room fell dead silent.
Suddenly, the massive digital presentation screen on the wall flickered. The PowerPoint slides showing quarterly financial projections dissolved into static.
A high-definition video feed replaced the slides. Sitting before a plain white wall, wearing a simple black sweater with her hair neatly tied back, was Elena.
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"Good morning, members of the board," Elena’s voice echoed crisply through the room's high-end speakers. "I believe you're reviewing the sale of the St. Jude Community Health Network. Before you cast your votes, there are a few bank routing numbers you should see."
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