The executive board floor glowed with its usual polished calm, but tonight the atmosphere felt off. The lights seemed too bright. The air is too clean. The silence was too deliberate; it was just like the whole space was waiting for something to happen.John stepped out of the lift with Morgan and Celine flanking him. Every executive assistant along the hallway straightened immediately, offering cautious greetings. Their eyes followed him like they sensed the storm beneath his calm surface.Morgan leaned in slightly. “Quinn is in his office. He has been there for the past two hours. No visitors. No calls. He sent a message earlier requesting a private meeting with you.”Celine raised a brow. “Convenient timing.”John smiled faintly. “He always did like to make the first move.”They reached the wide double doors leading to the Ethics Executive Suite, Quinn Carter’s domain. The golden plaque gleamed with quiet authority.Morgan placed his hand on John’s shoulder. “Whatever happens in th

The red glow from the breach alert still flickered faintly across the surveillance hub, casting sharp lines across every face in the room. But no one moved. No one breathed. All eyes stayed locked on the name glowing in the centre of the screen.A name that should never have appeared. A name that stayed far from every scandal, every whisper, every suspicious trail.Leonard Hale.Morgan stepped forward until he stood nearly nose to the screen, hands curled into fists. “Leonard. That quiet old fox. He always acted like he barely cared about the Circle’s politics.”Celine shook her head slowly. “That man has never shown loyalty to anyone. Not to Quinn. Not to Maeve. Not to the board. Not even to the Circle itself. He is the most unpredictable of them all.”John said nothing.Yara looked terrified as she whispered, “Sir… he accessed your archives directly. He did not even attempt to steal anything else from the system. He went only for the files connected to your inheritance and your fat

The private runway behind the Crest Tower glowed with cool white lights, cutting clean lines through the darkness. The wind carried a bite, the kind that signalled something was shifting beneath the surface of the night. The jet waited at the end of the strip, engines humming with a quiet hunger.John strode across the tarmac with Morgan to his right and Celine to his left. Yara had forwarded the estate coordinates minutes earlier. Marcus Thorne’s fortress. The gathering point of the old guard. Hale’s sanctuary.Celine walked briskly. “We will arrive in forty minutes. I have already arranged a landing clearance disguised as a diplomatic visit. Thorne will not expect you, but his system will not flag your arrival as hostile.”Morgan grinned. “Not hostile does not mean friendly.”John spoke with even calm. “We are not going there to fight.”Morgan muttered, “Yet.”The flight crew stood at attention as John boarded the jet. The interior smelled of polished leather and cold steel. No luxu

John moved through the estate corridors with a pace so controlled it felt like pressure bottled behind glass. Morgan and Celine followed quickly, their footsteps echoing down the long marble hall. Behind them, the murmur of the old guard rippled through the mansion as Hale’s thin composure finally began to crack.Morgan hissed, “Quinn really called an emergency board meeting without you. That is bold.”Celine replied sharply, “Bold or desperate. He knows you left the building. He is taking advantage of your absence.”John did not slow. “He wants the board to claim instability. He wants them to question my decisions. He wants to paint me as reckless for coming here.”Morgan smirked. “Too late. You walked into Hale’s den like you owned the place.”Celine added, “And now Quinn is panicking.”John reached the grand doors leading outside. Two guards stepped forward instinctively, unsure whether to block or bow. John passed between them without pausing. They stepped aside instantly.Night a

The boardroom felt heavier than stone. Every member sat perfectly still as if afraid even their breathing might echo too loudly. John remained at the centre of the storm he had just created. Quinn Carter stood at the head of the table, gripping the back of his chair so tightly his knuckles turned pale.The silence stretched.Tension coiled.Power shifted.Morgan stood behind John with the smug confidence of a soldier who knew his leader had just flipped the entire battlefield. Celine observed the room with razor-sharp attention, studying every face, every twitch, every flicker of guilt or fear.John let the silence settle longer.He wanted them to sit in it.He wanted them to feel it.Then he spoke.His voice was calm, but it carried the weight of generations.“You called this meeting to question my judgment. You called it without my presence. You called it because you believed my actions placed the Crest in danger.”He paused, eyes sweeping across the table.“Now I am here. So let us