Chapter 23 – Divide and Conquer

By Monday morning, Evelyn had made her decision.

She wasn't going to win this war by playing defense.

She was going to take control.

She arrived early at Drake Industries' Seoul headquarters, stepping into the still-silent marketing floor as the city's first rays of sun painted gold across the office glass. Her heels clicked with quiet confidence, her expression calm but focused. She passed by the framed campaign posters she had worked on and none of them credited to her directly, but each one holding pieces of her fingerprints.

The elevator doors pinged behind her. She turned just slightly and caught Genevieve's reflection in the glass.

"Early morning," Genevieve said breezily. "Planning another elevator pitch to Alexander?"

Evelyn didn't take the bait. "Just catching up on campaign metrics."

Genevieve's smile was thin. "Good. It's always helpful to stay… humble. You never know when the rug might be pulled out."

Their eyes locked for a brief moment but just long enough to acknowledge the battle neither of them dared name out loud.

Later that morning, Evelyn passed a slim flash drive to Noah under the guise of a coffee handoff. "It's time," she whispered.

Noah nodded. "Everything's backed up. When do you want the trigger pulled?"

"Right before the review meeting," she said. "We go in first."

At 9:00 a.m., Linda summoned the marketing team to the main boardroom for what she described as a "strategic recalibration" session. Evelyn noticed the room had been rearranged: Linda had moved the screen to the center, claiming the head seat. She was positioning herself.

Alexander wasn't there yet but his absence was temporary. Evelyn knew he would arrive just before the mid-quarter numbers presentation. He always did.

Linda launched into a high-level overview of recent campaigns, steering credit toward Genevieve's supposed "mentorship" and "refinements." Evelyn's own name never left Linda's lips.

Noah sat silent, scribbling fake notes.

Then Linda clicked to a revised slide for the LunarTech campaign. The copy was butchered, the core message stripped of nuance.

"I'm sorry," Evelyn said calmly, standing. "That's not the approved copy."

Linda blinked. "Excuse me?"

"I have the original here," Evelyn continued, plugging in the flash drive. "Along with a full audit trail of every unauthorized change made to the campaign documents under your login credentials."

The screen lit up, displaying side-by-side comparisons of document versions. Color-coded metadata, date stamps, and a list of file contributors. Noah projected them all from his tablet.

Gasps echoed through the room.

Linda's composure faltered. "You're mistaken. Those changes were reviewed by the strategy committee—"

"They weren't," Evelyn interrupted, her voice firm but steady. "And the email chain confirming that was deleted from the shared archive. I have a recovery log. So does IT."

Linda turned to Genevieve, searching for support. Genevieve's expression remained perfectly smooth. Aloof, even. She folded her arms and said nothing.

Evelyn advanced one more slide.

"This memo," she said, highlighting the document that had been saved under Linda's drafts, "accuses me of professional misconduct. It's unsigned and was never sent. But it was created using your login, during office hours, from your device."

The room had gone still.

Then the door opened.

Alexander Drake stepped in.

Every eye in the room turned. He surveyed the scene for half a beat, then calmly moved to the head of the table, taking a seat without acknowledging Linda or Genevieve.

"I was sent a copy of that memo last night," he said, his voice low and deliberate. "Anonymously."

Genevieve's brows lifted ever so slightly. She hadn't expected that.

Alexander turned to Evelyn. "Continue."

Evelyn exhaled and pressed forward. "Since Genevieve's return, there has been a pattern of quiet manipulation within our department. I have compiled documents, edits, deletion logs, and chain-of-command redirects that show intentional sabotage."

She nodded to Noah, who transferred the packet to everyone's tablets.

When Alexander looked up again, his expression was unreadable but his eyes were on Linda.

"Do you deny any of this?"

Linda's voice cracked. "This is all taken out of context. She's twisting the narrative. You've all seen how close she's gotten to you. Maybe that's what's influencing your..."

"Enough," Alexander said, his voice suddenly sharp. "You're dismissed."

Silence.

"What?"

"Effective immediately," he said without raising his voice. "Pack your things."

Linda turned to Genevieve. "You... You told me to watch her!"

Genevieve leaned back in her chair, cool as ever. "I advised you to keep an eye on rising talent. What you did after that was your decision."

It was a masterstroke. Genevieve severing herself from the consequences while letting Linda fall alone.

Evelyn felt the weight of it, but she didn't revel in it.

Alexander stood. "Evelyn, come with me."

She followed him out into the hallway. Once they were alone, he paused.

"You held your ground," he said.

"I had to," she replied. "They weren't going to stop."

He looked at her for a long moment. Then: "I'm appointing you as interim Head of Marketing."

Her breath caught.

"You've earned it," he continued, his tone quiet. "And for now… keep everything else between us private."

She nodded slowly. "Of course."

Neither said the word marriage. But it hovered in the silence between them.

As Evelyn returned to the boardroom, a fresh sense of purpose in her step, she glanced once at Genevieve. The woman smiled. She was cool, controlled, dangerous.

One enemy had fallen.

But the real war was just beginning.