Chapter 1

They say family comes first. They say if you work hard, do good, and stay loyal, things will eventually work out fine for you.

That was exactly what Jane Vale had done all her life. She gave her family everything. She gave her work everything.

On the night of her promotion, she believed all those sacrifices were finally about to pay off.

But when the screen lit up, it wasn't displaying her achievements. It was displaying her downfall.

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A final, precise stroke of blue eyeshadow completed the look, and Jane Vale paused to study her reflection in the glass. For a second, she almost didn't recognise the striking woman staring right back at her. That was exactly the point she wanted to make.

A sharp knock broke the quiet moment. The door swung open, a maid stepped into the room.

"Ma'am, the driver is waiting outside."

Jane reached down to grab her purse from the floor.

"Thank you, Madam Tiffany. I am done."

"Before you leave, may I have a brief word with you?" the maid requested.

Jane shook her head, her gaze fixed on the mirror. "Like you just said, the driver is here." She pulled a neatly folded piece of paper from her purse, her carefully prepared speech. "Tonight is the company gala and my official promotion night. We will have our talk when I get back." She walked straight out of the room.

Tonight wasn't just any ordinary night on the social calendar. It was Vale Corp gala, celebrating her family's massive corporate empire. Yet, Jane had never once leaned on the power of her last name to get ahead.

It had taken countless late nights, endless revisions of product lines, and consistently outperforming every expectation thrown her way to get here. She had climbed her way up from Head of the Cosmetic Department, now about to be newly appointed Executive Director.

The moment she stepped outside, the cool night air brushed softly against her skin. The driver hurried to open the door for her.

"Ma'am, you look exceptionally beautiful tonight. You don't have to introduce yourself, your dress would" Nathan said with a respectful smile.

Jane smiled back, the tension in her shoulders easing slightly. "Thank you, Nathan."

As the vehicle passed through the streets, Jane’s thoughts involuntarily drifted to Greg Morris. Her husband of four long years.

Nothing about how they lived felt like a genuine marriage. He had strictly insisted that she keep her maiden name after the wedding, and she was only allowed to go to his place on weekends. He had never even touched her.

"Ma'am, we have arrived at the venue."

Jane stepped out of the vehicle, arranged her dress, and walked confidently toward the grand entrance.

One. Two. Three.

The heavy glass doors swung open before her.

The moment she stepped in, every single head in the room turned in her direction. Lively conversations instantly dipped into hushed whispers.

Jane moved through the crowded room with a poised smile, her chin lifted high as she acknowledged the wave of compliments with a slight, elegant bow.

Her eyes scanned the room, searching the crowd for Greg. He wasn't there.

The smile didn't drop from her face, but her heart lost a bit of happiness. Retreating to a quiet, dimly lit corner of the hall, she pulled out her speech and began to anxiously rehearse the lines under her breath.

The lights shifted when her father stepped onto the main stage.

Henry Vale's voice filled the hall. He welcomed the guests briefly before making an announcement, the moment Jane had been waiting for.

"At Vale Corp, we deeply value raw talent, hard work, and humility. One of our very own staff members has shown all these rare qualities time and time again."

Jane's heart started beating fast.

"The screen directly behind me will now display a few of her greatest achievements, so you all know exactly why she truly deserves this..."

Murmurs suddenly started to spread through the audience. Low and confused at first, then rapidly growing louder.

"What on earth is that?"

"This is absolutely unbelievable."

Jane’s breath paused. Her head snapped toward the massive screen behind her father. The triumphant smile vanished from her face completely.

Horrific images flashed across the screen. Financial documents, confidential files, her explicit signatures stamped on every page. Millions of dollars in illicit transactions.

She shook her head. "No..." She yelled louder into the crowd, "Turn it off! That's not true! I am being framed!"

"Your signature is on every single document up there," someone from the front row scoffed loudly.

"I swear to you, I have never done anything illegal. Not drugs, not anything." Jane cried out, her eyes wide with fear as she looked around the room for support.

"You are the head of the cosmetics department," an investor yelled back. "If anyone in this company could pull off smuggling something like this, it’s you."

Jane's chest tightened so hard she could barely draw oxygen. "I didn't do this. I know nothing about it."

"And what about the offshore bank accounts? Those are registered directly under your name too."

Jane opened her mouth to defend herself, but the words died in her throat. A squad of uniformed police officers entered the hall, and silence fell over the crowd.

The lead officer stepped forward, his eyes locked on the stage. "Who is Jane Vale?"

Every single gaze in the room turned toward her. The officer strode directly to her side. "Jane Vale, you are under arrest for promoting and selling illegal drugs both within and outside the country."

Tears spilt over her eyelashes, blinding her as her knees went weak. She forced herself to stay upright, refusing to collapse in front of the cameras.

"Dad..." Her voice broke completely as she stumbled blindly toward Henry, reaching out for him. "You trust me, right? Please tell them. Tell them I would never do something like this."

Henry didn't even look down at her. He coldly turned his face away, his eyes fixed firmly on the documents flashing on the screen.

Heavy footsteps approached from the side of the stage. "Jane, how could you do this to us?" Leo Vale, her brother, demanded. His voice carried a brutal mix of manufactured anger and disbelief. "Do you honestly want to ruin the entire reputation of Vale Corp?"

Jane stared at her brother, in that exact second, reality clicked in her mind. The stock prices, the corporate reputation. He wasn't asking her this as her brother. He was questioning her strictly as an endangered shareholder.

Jane straightened her trembling shoulders, wiping the tears from her face with the back of her hand. She extended both her wrists toward the waiting officers.

The cold metal of the handcuffs snapped tightly around her wrists. The sharp click echoed through the silence of the hall. Jane didn't look back at her family for a single second as they led her away.

Outside, the night air felt significantly sharper and colder against her bare skin. The heavy steel door of the police van swung open. She stepped inside, and the door slammed shut with a deafening sound.

As the vehicle pulled away from the venue, Jane leaned her head back against the cold wall and tried to steady her breathing.

"They will come for me," she told herself. "My family will bail me out and clear my name. Aggressively defending me right there would have destroyed Vale Corp's reputation, which they spent decades building. They had to play along." She muttered.

The van hit a deep pothole in the road, shaking the entire vehicle. Jane's head struck hard against the metal wall, a sharp pain hit her.

When she opened her eyes against the dim light filtering through the metal wall, she noticed something peculiarly wedged between her fingers. It was a small, tightly folded note.

With shaking, cuffed hands, she carefully unfolded the paper.

"You were never supposed to make it to that stage, Jane. Next time, don't."