Thomas Bradford sat in front of James Morrison, senior vice president at Capital Trust Bank, in a private dining room at the Riverside Club on Friday afternoon.Morrison had been one of Shaw Realty's most reliable banking partners for three years approving credit facilities with minimal scrutiny and maintaining steady support through multiple business cycles."James, we've done business together for three years," Thomas said in a calm voice. "In that entire time, have we ever given you reason to doubt Shaw Realty's financial integrity?"Morrison shifted in his seat, not meeting Thomas's eyes. "This isn't personal, Tom. You know I respect Elias and everything he's built. But Capital Trust has a primary duty to our depositors and shareholders. When we receive allegations that seemed true of securities fraud from someone who appears to be an insider, we have to take them seriously."" True allegations," Thomas repeated carefully. "Can you tell me what makes these allegations true beyond

The meeting took longer than usual. Elias came in tired as he saw Sera concentrating on the laptop and was writing some things down.At the top of the table were financial records. She smiled at him although the expression on her face was a mixture of worry and concern."I've been reading everything Marcus sent over," she said, having a tender expression on her face. "The credit suspensions, the liquidity projections, the timeline of attacks. Elias, this is disastrous."He loosened his tie and sank into the chair across from her, as he sighed out loud. "I know. Marcus gives us a thirty-four percent chance of surviving the next sixty days without bankruptcy"Those aren't acceptable odds." Sera closed her laptop and looked at him, massaging the space beneath her eyebrows. "So let's talk about solutions. Plausible ones, not just crisis management and damage control.""I'm listening," he said.Sera picked up one of Marcus's spreadsheets. "The immediate problem is liquidity—you need approx

Sera sat in the ward of a private hospital watching the IV drip that carried chelating agents through her bloodstream. Three days of treatment had reduced the thallium levels significantly, but Dr. Alistair had explained that the psychological recovery would take much longer than the physical healing. The tremors in her hands had stopped, the nausea had subsided, but something deeper had broken that medication couldn't fix.Elias sat beside her bed, his laptop open but mostly ignored as he monitored her closely as he was someone who'd come too close to losing everything that mattered. He'd barely left her side since they'd discovered the poisoning, sleeping in the hospital chair and conducting business through phone calls taken in the hallway."You should go home," Sera said quietly, her voice still weak. "Get real sleep. Shower. Check on the company. I'm fine here.""You're not fine," Elias replied, closing his laptop. "And Shaw Realty can survive without me for a few days. You're t

By 10:00 AM Tuesday morning, the character assassination campaign against Elias had achieved what Dorian's network had designed it to accomplish—complete invasion in all social media spaces. Thomas Bradford stood in Shaw Realty's conference room, surrounded by monitors displaying the falsified information across every platform."It's everywhere," Thomas said in a calm tone as he briefed the crisis management team. "Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Reddit, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube. The original articles from this morning have been shared over two hundred thousand times combined. Major news outlets are now running their own stories—not the fabricated allegations directly, but coverage of 'controversy surrounding Shaw Realty CEO.'"Sarah pulled up examples on the main screen. "Bloomberg just published: 'Shaw Realty Faces Questions About Business Practices Amid Online Allegations.' The Wall Street Journal has: 'Real Estate Mogul Elias Vance Responds to Fraud Claims Circulating Online.' CNN

Sera sat on the floor of the hotel suite's bathroom at three in the morning, her back against the cold tiles, unable to stop the violent shaking that had seized her body hours ago. She'd been sitting there since midnight, unable to force herself back into the bedroom where Elias was sleeping, unable to close her eyes without seeing invisible cameras watching her every movement.The physical poisoning had been terrible—the nausea, the tremors, the growing weakness as thallium accumulated in her system. But at least she hadn't known it was happening. She'd suffered in ignorance until the blood tests revealed the truth.This was different. This was knowing that for five weeks, someone had watched her in her most vulnerable moments. Had recorded her sleeping, changing clothes, crying when she thought she was alone. Had captured intimate moments with her husband that should have existed only in their memory. Had turned her bedroom—the one place that should have been absolutely safe—into a