The silence in the car was a stark contrast to the opulent chaos they had just left behind at the Aurelian. Elara watched the city lights blur past, her mind replaying the humiliating scene with Eleanor Coote. The woman’s venomous words—shameless little slut—still echoed, a toxic whisper in her mind. She felt raw, exposed. The penthouse, which had felt like a sanctuary moments before, now seemed tainted by the encounter.“Should I…” Elara began, her voice small in the luxurious quiet of the sedan. “Should I just go back home today?” The question was absurd. She had no home. The penthouse was a temporary illusion, and the word ‘home’ referred to a life that had been systematically dismantled.Before Leo could answer, his phone buzzed, cutting through the heavy atmosphere. He held up a single finger, his expression shifting into one of focused intensity. “Olivia,” he answered. He listened for a moment, his eyes narrowing slightly. “Understood. I’ll be there.” He ended the call and,

Chapter 10:The words—“Tonight’s bell belongs to Aura Tech!”—hung in the air, not as a mere announcement, but as a fundamental rewriting of reality. For a moment, there was no sound at all, as if the grand hall itself was holding its breath. Then, a wave of frantic, disbelieving whispers broke out, a susurrus of shock and speculation. All eyes, wide with astonishment, darted between Elara, the fallen CEO now being treated like royalty, and Amelia, the queen of the hour whose crown had just been violently snatched away.Amelia stood frozen, the blood draining from her face so completely she looked like a marble statue in her golden gown. The world she had built, the success she had been savoring just moments ago, was collapsing in slow motion.“No… that… that can’t be right,” she stammered, her voice a thin, reedy thing. She took a stumbling step toward Benjamin Chalk. “Benjamin, there must be some mistake. The press conference yesterday… everything was confirmed! I’ve received no

The fluorescent lights of the police station’s service hall hummed a dull, monotonous tune, casting a sickly greenish glow over the three figures huddled on a hard wooden bench. Eleanor Coote sat with a chemical ice pack pressed against her cheek, the cold a dull counterpoint to the throbbing pain where Beatrice’s nail had caught her. The swelling made her face look lopsided, a caricature of her usual carefully composed self.Amelia paced in front of the bench, the sequins on her golden gown catching the ugly light with every agitated turn. The humiliation of her very public ejection from the banquet was a fresh, open wound, and now this—her mother, arrested like a common criminal.“I cannot believe this,” Amelia finally spat, stopping her pacing to glare at her mother. “I am dealing with the single most important night of my professional life, and you’re out here getting yourself arrested for trespassing? Do you have any idea the trouble you’ve caused me? I had to leave my own ce

“Consider it done, Leo,” Olivia replied, the sound of typing in the background. “They’ll feel appreciated without any fanfare.”“Good.” Leo paused, drawing a slow breath. This next part was the culmination of a plan years in the making. “Now, initiate Project Legacy. I want to transfer up to 80% of my controlling shares under Aether Ventures in Oceanic Group of Companies to Amelia’s name. I want them transferred!”There was a stunned silence on the other end of the line. “Leo… Aether Ventures is your life’s work. It’s worth ten times what Apex is, even after today. Are you sure?”A faint, sad smile touched Leo’s lips. “It was never my life’s work, Olivia. It was always meant to be hers. A safety net. A legacy. She just never knew I was building it for her. Now that she’s reached this peak on her own, she deserves to have the foundation secured beneath her feet. Make it happen. I want the paperwork ready for her signature by the end of the week.”The call ended, leaving a profound sile

Leo sat there, the phone still pressed to his ear, listening to the dial tone that echoed the hollow emptiness in his chest. The carefully set table, the candles, the ruined food—it was all a pathetic tableau of his own delusion. He was about to put the phone down when it vibrated with an incoming message. An unknown number. A video.With a sense of foreboding, he tapped the screen.The video was shaky, shot in a glamorous hotel ballroom. There was Amelia, more radiant than she had been on TV, laughing, her face flushed with victory and drink. And next to her was a man—tall, handsome, with the easy confidence of someone who owned every room he walked into. It was Julian Thorne, her college sweetheart, the one who had left for a banking career in London years ago. The one who had returned six months ago, swooping in as a consultant for Apex.The camera zoomed in as Julian, amid cheers and raised glasses, pulled Amelia into a deep, passionate kiss. Then, still holding her, he dropped to