Chapter Thirty-Six: Blood in the Water POV: Elias It started as a whisper in the digital undercurrent, a malignant ripple distorting the calm surface of his control. Then came the flood. An anonymous leak, meticulously timed, hit the financial news wires just before the markets opened. Attached was a confidential board memo – doctored, twisted, dripping with insinuation – and worse, a private recording. A conversation Elias had never consented to, captured in some unseen moment of vulnerability, now stripped of context and weaponized. By noon, his name wasn't just splashed across headlines; it was being torn apart by piranhas in a feeding frenzy. The language was visceral, predatory: *Unfit. Compromised. Lovesick Tyrant. Verno Holdings Adrift.* The narrative was set, the water chummed. By two o’clock, four board members – Liu, Drey, Malik, and predictably, Roarke – had formally requested an emergency vote of no confidence. Their emails landed like formal declarations of war, copied
Last Updated : 2025-07-20 Read more