All Chapters of THE HEIRESS: Chapter 51 - Chapter 60

By the time full daylight broke, the hospital had turned into a newsroom.Reporters packed the courtyard, drones humming over the entrance like metallic insects. Security had to escort us through service corridors to keep cameras off our faces.Inside, the Hartman family HQ had gone to emergency mode. Screens, files, crisis plans…everything buzzing.Damien’s voice came first over the speaker. “The clip is everywhere. Charlotte phrased it as Hartman Truth Leaks. Hashtags, financed view‑boosts, she’s bought reach from three continents.”I was standing by Luca’s room window, watching him sleep while the chaos bled through the hallway walls. “Anything that proves it’s manipulated?” I asked.Adrian answered from his laptop beside the bed. “Enough to convince experts, not enough to convince the public. She’s mixing genuine footage with forged timestamps…precision disinformation.”Elias said from across the room, “The regulators called again. They’re freezing the joint account until verifica

Evelyn-6 a.m.The hospital smelled different after sunrise…not antiseptic anymore, but like paper and burnt coffee. The crisis had slowed, but the silence it left behind felt unnatural, stretched too thin.Luca was awake this time. Real awake. Sitting up against a wall of pillows, bandages visible at the edge of the gown, eyes clearer than they’d been in days. A nurse had just left, leaving two untouched cups of peppermint tea.“You could have stayed home,” he said softly.“I tried,” I lied.He smiled like he could see straight through me. “No, you didn’t.”I took the chair beside him. There was a pale grey dawn pooling through the blinds.“They stopped the data loop,” I said. “Charlotte’s signal’s gone.”“For now,” he replied, voice rough. “She’ll try again.”“She always does.”He studied me, something heavy in his expression. “Adrian called her signature genius. When he said it, it sounded like admiration.”“He’s angry at himself, not her.”“Maybe both,” Luca said quietly.He paused

Evelyn - One Week LaterRain traced lines down the glass walls of Hartman Tower, washing the city into blurred silver. From the CEO’s floor, the skyline looked endless but all I could see were the fractures Adrian left behind.Contracts frozen, investors waiting, the Alliance Act suspended. Everyone was looking at me to explain what came next.Elias had warned me that once this happened, once Adrian Blackwood walked out, the entire trust between our families would shatter. But instead, what I saw was opportunity: a chance to rebuild the partnership clean.“Miss Hartman,” Damien said softly from the doorway, “the media draft is ready.”I nodded without turning. “Read it.”He cleared his throat. “‘Effective immediately, the Alliance remains active under revised leadership. We reaffirm transparency and ethics above expansion.’”I could almost hear the board’s skepticism threaded between those words.“Add one line,” I said. “Call it Phase Two Implementation. People believe in progress mor

Evelyn - Nightfall, LondonThe rain hadn’t stopped. It pressed against the panoramic windows of Blackwood Tower like a living thing…grey, relentless, waiting for an answer. Inside, the boardroom felt colder than brass.Every executive seat was filled. Holographic displays flickered to life as shareholders joined remotely from Tokyo, New York, Cairo. A thousand eyes, and none patient.Eleanor Wright, still interim chair, stood at the end of the oval table. “We proceed with the official vote on Hartman Industries’ Phase Two proposition. Before we begin formalities, Miss Hartman, this assembly grants you final words, for or against yourself.”Her tone was diplomatic; her posture, defensive. They weren’t convinced yet.I stood and glanced at the reflection of the city across the glass. “Thank you,” I said, voice steady.“You all know what we’ve lost. Reputation, trust, and perhaps the only man who believed both corporations could coexist without greed devouring progress. Adrian Blackwood’

Evelyn - Hartman Tower, Lower Operations, 02:17 a.m.The elevators were locked to clearance level Omega. Only four people in the entire building could access this floor.I was one of them.Rows of dormant servers hummed quietly in the sub‑basement, like sleeping giants dreaming in light. Around them, glass walls flashed faint translite reflections of running code…patterns even Damien hadn’t fully decrypted yet.He stood to my right, eyes hollow from two sleepless nights, his fingers a blur across the holo‑keyboard.“Charlotte’s probe hit the outer firewalls an hour ago,” he said. “We blocked it, but she left something…almost elegant.”“Define ‘almost’,” I said, already knowing the answer.“Encrypted echo string. It replicates internal access requests using your authorisation signature. It’s wearing your face in the network.”The thought bit deeper than fear…it was personal. “Can you track its source?”“Only partially. Her packets hop across mirror nodes built from Adrian’s old funding