Chapter 7
The screen flashed with bold red banners reading EXCLUSIVE: STERLING DEVELOPMENT SCANDAL. A sleek, ambitious news anchor with perfectly coiffed blonde hair stared directly through the camera lens, her voice dripping with calculated urgency.
“Moments ago, leaked documents from an anonymous source inside the federal prosecutor’s office revealed that Sterling Development is currently under investigation for massive corporate espionage and insider asset stripping related to the upcoming downtown revitalization project…”
David groaned, dropping his head back against the hospital pillow and closing his eyes tightly. “They leaked it. Thorne’s people leaked it to the press before the market opened to tank our stock value.”
Valeria rushed to the wall-mounted remote, grabbing it from the tray table and clicking the power button with aggressive finality. The screen went black, plunging the room back into a tense, suffocating quiet.
“It doesn’t matter,” Valeria said, her voice trembling with barely contained fury. She turned to Special Prosecutor Vance. “How fast can you authenticate that flash drive? If we can prove before the market opens tomorrow that the data was exfiltrated without my brother’s knowledge or consent, we can issue an injunction against Thorne’s predatory acquisition bids.”
Vance crossed her arms, looking at Valeria with a flicker of professional respect. “The encryption is military-grade, Miss Sterling. It will take our cyber forensics team at least six hours to crack the primary partition. But Thorne doesn’t need six hours to cause irreparable damage to your father’s stock prices. By tomorrow morning, your institutional investors will start pulling out.”
Julian turned away from the bed, his broad shoulders squared. He pulled out his leather-bound appointment book, flipping past pages of schedules with steady, unhurried precision.
“Investors panic when they smell weakness, but they crawl back when they smell blood in the water,” Julian said quietly. He looked at his daughter, then down at his broken son. “Valeria, call our primary stakeholders. Tell them I am personally underwriting any liquidity dips out of my private trust fund. Not a single share gets sold.”
“Dad, that’s millions of dollars of your personal retirement capital,” Valeria protested, stepping toward him. “If the SEC seizes the holding accounts because of David’s technical co-conspiracy status, your personal estate could be frozen right along with it.”
“Let them freeze it,” Julian replied, his voice firm and absolute. “I built this company with my bare hands before David was even born, and I didn’t spend forty years building a reputation just to watch some opportunistic grifter and a second-rate real estate speculator tear it down in an afternoon. We fight.”
Special Prosecutor Vance nodded approvingly, tucking the manila folder back under her arm. “I’ll expedite the forensic decryption. If we find direct proof linking Harrison Thorne’s personal signature to the wire transfers on that flash drive, I’ll sign an arrest warrant for corporate racketeering by midnight.”
The prosecutor turned and swept out of the room, her navy blue suit jacket swishing with purpose.
David opened his eyes, looking up at his father with a shattered expression. “I’m sorry, Dad. I brought all of this to our doorstep. I brought her into our lives.”
“Regret is a luxury we don't have time for, David,” Julian said, walking to the door. He paused, looking back over his shoulder with a gaze that held both severity and unconditional paternal love. “Rest. When you’re discharged tomorrow morning, you’re coming back to the corporate office. You’re going to sit at your desk, look your department heads in the eye, and take responsibility for your blind spots. That is how you earn your way back.”
As Julian and Valeria exited the room, leaving David alone with his monitors, Valeria’s phone buzzed in her coat pocket. She pulled it out, glancing at the screen as they walked down the brightly lit hospital corridor.
May you like
It was an unknown number, accompanied by a single text message containing a photograph of her own apartment building’s front lobby, taken from across the street just three minutes ago.
***
