All Chapters of Love in the Shadows of Legacy: Chapter 31 - Chapter 40

Lily's POVI was at my desk by 6 AM every morning that week and didn't leave until after 8 PM most nights.Sleep felt like a luxury I couldn't afford when half the board was waiting for me to fail and the other half was barely tolerating my existence.Janet brought me breakfast most mornings because she'd figured out I was skipping meals."Miss Rose, you can't keep working like this. You'll burn out.""I'm fine." I didn't look up from the quarterly reports I was reviewing for the third time. "I just need to understand how everything connects.""You need rest.""I need people to stop questioning whether I deserve to be here." I finally met her eyes. "Rest can wait."She sighed but didn't argue, and left me with scrambled eggs and coffee that had gone cold while I worked through revenue projections.Bruno Sterling had been right when he'd said I needed to learn the language of finance and I'd spent the past week essentially getting a crash course in corporate accounting.EBITDA and prof

Lily's POVI was still at my desk at 11 PM on Saturday going through quarterly financial reports when most normal people were out having lives.But I wasn't most people anymore, and sleep felt like a luxury I couldn't afford when the board was watching my every move, waiting for me to fail.The numbers on my screen were starting to blur together after eight straight hours of reviewing expenses but something kept nagging at me about the consulting fees.Thompson Enterprises paid millions every quarter to firms I'd never heard of and when I'd asked department heads about what these consultants actually did, their answers were vague."Strategic advisory services" one executive had said."Market analysis and competitive intelligence" another had offered.But nobody could point to specific deliverables or explain what value we were getting for the money.I pulled up the complete list of consulting payments for the past three years and started color-coding them by amount and frequency.Red

Lily's POVSophia called Sunday afternoon while I was still angry about Alexander standing me up for our 9 AM meeting."Lily, I know you're stressed but you need to get out of your head for a few hours. There's an event tonight at the Fontaine Gallery, very exclusive, perfect for networking.""Soph, I can't. I have work to catch up on and I'm exhausted.""Which is exactly why you need this." Her voice was warm and insistent. "You've been working yourself to death and you need to remember there's more to being CEO than just sitting in an office. You need to build relationships with the right people.""What kind of event?""Art collectors and business leaders are very low-key. It's not a corporate thing, just sophisticated people who appreciate culture and might become valuable connections." She paused. "Trust me, Lily, showing up at these events matters. People need to see you as someone who belongs in their world."I looked at my laptop, opening spreadsheets of suspicious transactions

Lily's POVI couldn't sleep Sunday night because my mind kept replaying the scene at the gallery with Alexander standing too close and warning me about Victor like he actually cared.Which made no sense given that he'd spent three weeks systematically trying to destroy me and had succeeded in leaking my arrest record to humiliate me publicly.So why would he suddenly show up to warn me about someone offering genuine help?I rolled over and checked my phone, showing 2:47 AM, and pulled up the photos I'd taken of the financial irregularities because focusing on work was easier than thinking about Alexander's eyes when he'd said he was trying to protect me.The consulting payments to fake companies connected to Marcus Chen, David Rothschild, and Jonathan Pierc, who'd all been at the gallery tonight with Victor.Was that a coincidence, or was there something bigger happening that I couldn't see yet?My phone buzzed with a text from Rafael: Are you awake? I've been thinking about our conve

Lily's POVBruno Sterling's office door was closed when I arrived at 8 AM Monday morning and Janet said he'd asked not to be disturbed until our meeting.I knocked and he opened it immediately, looking like he hadn't slept."Miss Rose, come in. Close the door and lock it."The seriousness in his voice made my stomach drop and I did as he asked."What did you find?""Systematic embezzlement spanning three years involving at least five people that I can confirm." He pulled up spreadsheets on his computer. "The total amount stolen is approximately $187 million."I sat down hard because even though I'd suspected something big this was bigger than I'd imagined."Walk me through it."Sterling spent the next hour showing me the evidence and it was damning.Marcus Chen, David Rothschild, and Jonathan Pierce had created a network of shell companies with names that sounded legitimate, like Apex Strategic Group and Meridian Consulting Partners.These fake companies billed Thompson Enterprises fo