All Chapters of The Shadow Billionaires : Chapter 1
- Chapter 10
11 chapters
CHAPTER 1: THE BOARDROOM CLASH
The night New York’s skyline burned with stormlight, the boardroom at Vonn Enterprises gleamed like a stage. Chrome. Glass. A thousand-dollar silence.At the head of the long table sat Celeste Vonn, her posture carved from marble, her eyes cool and steady over the glow of her tablet. Around her, the board murmured, lawyers, strategists, investors, every one of them watching the door.Then it opened. Dickson Ford walked in, calm as a shadow. No introduction, no hesitation. His suit was sharp but wrong somehow, too clean, too still. A soldier’s posture wrapped in corporate polish.Celeste didn’t look up at first. “You’re late,” she said, voice smooth as steel wire.“Traffic,” he replied. No apology. Just two syllables, level, almost bored.Her eyes lifted, ice meeting fire. “We don’t tolerate tardiness here, Mr. Ford. Especially from employees we didn’t request.”“I’m not an employee,” he said. “I’m your new security advisor. You requested me the moment your last one resigned mid-shift.
CHAPTER 2: THE FALLOUT — PART 1
The headlines hit the screens before dawn. VONN ENTERPRISES UNDER ATTACK CEO UNHARMED, SOURCE CLAIMS INSIDER WARNING.By the time Celeste Vonn stepped out of her black car, a wall of cameras waited behind security tape, flashes cutting through the Manhattan rain. Her bodyguards flanked her, but the tall man ahead.Dickson Ford, moved like the eye of the storm: silent, focused, impossible to ignore.Inside the marble lobby, the world snapped back to cold order. She strode past reception without a word, her heels echoing across the polished floor. Dickson followed a few paces behind.“Reporters?” she said without looking back.“Ten outlets, maybe more. Someone leaked the breach.”“Someone from your team?”“My team doesn’t leak.”She stopped at the elevator, eyes narrowing at the mirrored doors. “You sound certain.”“I don’t assume,” he said. “I confirm.”The elevator opened, He waited for her to enter first, She didn’t thank him. The doors slid shut, the city disappeared, for a long mo
CHAPTER 2: THE FALLOUT — PART 2
A phone buzzed on the counter. Celeste walked over and picked it up, scanning the screen. Her assistant had texted a single image, a still frame from the lobby’s camera feed.A man standing behind the security cordon earlier that morning, watching her car. The same face appeared in another photo from years ago, her father’s funeral.Her stomach dropped, She showed the phone to Dickson. “Recognize him?”He froze, that one second of hesitation was enough.“You do,” she said quietly. “You know him.”Dickson’s eyes lifted, calm again. “No.” but his heartbeat, she could almost hear it.“You’re lying.”“Wouldn’t be the first time,” he said, turning toward the door.“Don’t walk away from me.”He stopped, back to her, shoulders tense, she stepped closer. “Who are you really, Dickson Ford?”When he turned, his face was unreadable, but his voice carried something dark, something that wasn’t denial.“Someone your father once tried to destroy.”The words landed like a blow. She didn’t move. Didn’
CHAPTER 3: THE INTRUDER — PART 1
The flash of lightning had barely faded when Celeste lunged for the fallen pistol. Her pulse hammered loud enough to drown out the storm.The silhouette she’d seen in the glass couldn’t have disappeared, there was nowhere to go in the penthouse but up or down, and she owned both directions.“Security!” she hissed into the intercom.No response, a flicker of movement, down the hall, past the art wall. Bare feet on marble. She sprinted, gun up, breath ragged.The hallway lights shivered as if the storm outside was inside now, following her. Another crash, the sound of glass breaking somewhere deeper in the apartment.Celeste rounded the corner and saw the open balcony door, curtains whipping in the wind. The intruder hadn’t fled; he’d stumbled. A trail of dark drops dotted the floor. Blood.She edged forward. “Who’s there?” No answer.Her reflection flashed in the glass, eyes sharp, hair disheveled, gun steady. She hated that she looked scared.Then, movement. A shadow crouched by the
CHAPTER 3: THE INTRUDER — PART 2
The shot tore through his sleeve, sending him stumbling back with a snarl. He dropped the pretense, lunged, grabbed her wrist, slammed her against the desk.The laptop slid off, shattering on impact. The screen blinked once, then died.“Who sent you?” she gasped, struggling against his grip.He leaned close, his breath cold. “Same people who sent your assistant. Only, I don’t miss.”She drove her knee upward, hard. He grunted, loosened his grip just enough for her to twist free and grab the letter opener from the desk. One swing, a slice across his forearm. He cursed, backing off.Then the building lights went black, darkness swallowed them both. She heard him moving, the scrape of a shoe, the metallic click of a weapon.Celeste ducked behind the couch, heartbeat hammering in her ears. Lightning flared outside, briefly outlining him near the door. Then another flash, behind him this time, a gun pressed against the back of his head.“Drop it,” a low voice said.The man froze, celeste k
CHAPTER 4: THE DESCENT — PART 1
The elevator dropped in silence. No hum, no gears, just gravity and the faint vibration of air moving past steel.Celeste pressed her back to the wall, arms crossed, the small cabin light flickered red across Dickson’s face, carving sharp shadows into his jawline. He looked carved from stone, unflinching, unreadable.“How far down does this go?” she asked, voice tight.He didn’t look at her. “Deep enough that no one finds it by accident.”“That’s not an answer.”“I wasn’t giving one.”She glared at him. “You have a habit of talking in riddles, Mr. Ford. That stops now.”He exhaled through his nose, eyes fixed on the digital floor counter, an old display flashing downward, –01, 02, 03.“You really want answers?” he asked quietly.“I wouldn’t be here otherwise.”“Then start by accepting that your father’s empire wasn’t just steel and glass. He built a war machine, buried under your feet, and I think you already knew that.”Her pulse quickened. “I knew he had side projects. Strategic ass
CHAPTER 4: THE DESCENT — PART 2
Dickson wiped a layer of frost from the glass. A nameplate appeared beneath the condensation.SUBJECT: CAPTAIN E. RAYNOR. STATUS: PRESERVED.His breath caught. “Raynor…”Celeste looked at him. “You know him?”“He was my commanding officer.”Shock rippled through her. “Your father kept him down here?”Dickson stared at the pod, voice low. “We thought he was dead. All of us.”The man inside stirred weakly, mouth forming a word, Run, before Celeste could react, the lights overhead flared white. The entire vault came alive, machines whirring to life, monitors switching from static to synchronized feeds.On every screen, a message appeared, “Unauthorized access detected. Lockdown sequence initiated.”Dickson grabbed Celeste’s arm. “Move!”The gate behind them slammed shut. A siren blared, low and mechanical. A metallic voice filled the air, “Containment protocol active.”A section of the floor split open, mechanical turrets rising like claws. Celeste fired first, sparks burst from the nea
CHAPTER 5: THE COLLAPSE — PART 1
The tunnel ceiling groaned. Dust rained down like ash. “Move,” Dickson said, grabbing Celeste’s arm.The metal footsteps above grew louder, steady, mechanical, merciless. Celeste didn’t look back. She could feel them closing in. The air carried a pulse that didn’t sound like footsteps anymore, more like a countdown.They reached a cross-section where the tunnel split in two, left, upward toward the service elevators.Right, down toward maintenance storage.Celeste’s voice was raw. “Which way?”Dickson hesitated. “Up gets us topside.”“And down?”“Safer. For now.”She gave a bitter laugh. “Since when has safe ever worked for us?”He looked at her, then up the left path. “Stay behind me.”She did. Barely. Her heels clanged against the metal grating as they climbed, hands gripping the rails slick with condensation.Another explosion rippled through the shaft below, fire chasing the darkness. Celeste stumbled, catching herself. The light flickered once, twice, then black.“Dickson?”“Keep
CHAPTER 5: THE COLLAPSE — PART 2 A
Sloan didn’t flinch. “It’s begun.”Celeste shouted over the rising alarm. “What did you do?”“I didn’t do anything,” he said. “She did.”They turned toward the pod.The woman, Celeste’s mirror, opened her eyes.Dickson raised his weapon instantly. “Don’t move.”The clone’s gaze fixed on Celeste, calm and detached. Then, softly, she spoke.“Termination sequence initialized.”Every console lit up at once, code streaming across the glass in perfect sync. Celeste ran to the control panel, typing frantically. “She’s rewriting the vault systems!”“Meaning?” Dickson demanded.“She’s targeting the whole building, if she finishes this, the tower will”The lights exploded into blinding white. Sloan’s voice cut through the chaos, half laugh, half gasp. “This is what he wanted! A new order, no weakness”Dickson grabbed Celeste’s arm, dragging her toward the exit. “Now!”Behind them, the pod cracked. The clone stepped out, water pouring off her like rain. Her movements were smooth, mechanical grac
CHAPTER 5 – THE COLLAPSE: PART 2 B
The words shimmered on the mirror wall, then dissolved into static. Celeste’s reflection rippled, then blinked when she didn’t, her pulse spiked. “She’s in the system.”“Not just in it,” Dickson said. “She is it.”The lights flickered, brightened, and the reflection turned solid. The clone stared back from the mirror, same face, calm and expressionless.“You shouldn’t run from yourself.”Dickson aimed his weapon at the mirror. “Get back.”He fired. The glass spider-webbed, the image shattering, but her voice stayed.“You can’t shoot a ghost.”Celeste’s hand trembled on the rail. “She’s playing with us.”“Then we change the game.” Dickson pulled open the roof hatch. Heat from the elevator shaft rushed in. “Up top. Now.”Celeste hesitated, glancing at the ruined mirror. “What if she”“Celeste!”She climbed. He followed, closing the hatch behind them, above, the shaft was a column of smoke and flickering orange light. The elevator cable creaked under their weight.Dickson clipped his har