CHAPTER TWENTY TWO: SHADOWS THAT OBEY The night Madrid exhaled a warm, polluted breeze through its narrow streets, Leo Hartman sat alone in the dim corner of his penthouse office, a glass of ice-cold water sweating between his fingers. The city lights glimmered far below, reflections twisting across the window like nervous signals.His phone lay on the table. A message was still open on the screen.A message that had detonated every nerve inside him.“I wonder what the press will think when they see these. You know what to do. Or Fusion burns.”The attached still image—blurred, grainy, but clearly meant to look compromising—sat like a stain on the display. Leo had already shown it to his tech investigator. Already confirmed it was fabricated. Already confirmed the sender was Daniel Nwoko, his former classmate at London Business School—now a low-level startup consultant with a chip the size of a continent sitting on his shoulders.And now, after tracing the digital pathways across VPN

CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR— WHEN SCANDAL BECOMES A STAGEMadrid glowed like a polished jewel beneath the morning sun, but inside Fusion’s European headquarters, the air felt electric in a very different way. Not tense. Not afraid.Charged.For the first time since the Daniel incident, Leo Hartman sensed something new rising through the company’s veins—Opportunity.Not the quiet, steady kind that comes through contracts and expansions.No.This was the loud kind.The kind people tweet about.The kind that makes headlines, stirs gossip, captivates strangers.The kind companies rarely admit they use——but always do when the world hands them a spark.And Daniel’s scandal, in all its shadowy, rumor-tainted mess, had become that spark.Fusion was being whispered about across continents.Not confirmed.Not accused.Not charged.Just whispered about.A mystery.A question mark.An enigma.And in an age where attention was currency, a question mark was worth more than gold.Leo saw it.Felt it.Reco

---CHAPTER TWENTY SIX — THE CHARITY GAMBITThe morning after Wild’s historic Orbit launch, the world looked different.The skyline over Paris glowed through a soft haze, and the river below shimmered with early sunlight. But inside Fusion’s headquarters—the penthouse floor Leo now called his command center—the atmosphere was nothing like the calm outside.Wild had won the night.Orbit had gone global in a matter of hours.Six months free service had turned the internet upside down.And for the first time since Fusion became a rising star, Leo Hartman felt something pressing against his spine:Pressure.Real pressure.Heavy pressure.The kind that makes or breaks empires.He stood at the edge of the glass balcony, staring at the city with a quiet intensity. The numbers on his tablet were brutal:Orbit: 12 million downloadsOrbit: 1.9 million new business accountsOrbit: 6 months free, trending in 19 countriesWild: “Most innovative app of the decade?” – International Tech DailyWild:

CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT — The Gravity of Frenshikini Wild had changed many times in the last decade, but never the way it changed when Matteo Frenshikini entered the building. It wasn’t the Italian accent, or his old-world posture, or even the technical genius he clearly carried. It was something more subtle—something no one anticipated: People felt drawn to him. In believe Especially the women. felt ecstacy romantically.sexually. enticed But emotionally. And emotional closeness was far more complicated. It began in small moments. Fren listened—really listened—in a way most people in tech didn’t. He asked questions gently, made people feel valued, remembered details others forgot. When Precious mentioned her mother was in the hospital, he asked her the next day how she was doing. When Miriam presented an analysis,looking dashing hot her tighs exposed in a black tight gown Frenshikini blinked to see if it was reality and his eyes couldn't lie he looked directly at he

CHAPTER THIRTY— The Fire of HeadlinesThe storm began quietly—as storms often do—with a single post on a small blog that had fewer than 200 followers.A blurry photo.A misleading caption.A headline tuned just right to spark curiosity:“Wild’s Secret Romance?Tech Pro Linked to Virtual Assistant Contractor.”No mention of a child.No mention of pregnancy.Only implication and ambiguity.It should have died there.A small spark on an isolated page.But someone reposted it.Then another.Then it made its way to a gossip page.Then a tech commentary page.Then a business analysis page.Within 18 hours, the entire Lagos tech space had seen the story—and the wildfire had started. Fren Wakes to ChaosFren woke up early, sunlight filtering through the curtains, expecting a calm morning. He brewed coffee, sat on the edge of his balcony, and watched the rising city.But when he checked his phone, everything fell apart.74 missed messages.22 missed calls.Over 300 notifications.He frowne