Richard, Jason, and Sarah walked into the Miller Tech building with Jason's chest puffed out like a proud peacock. He wore a sharp suit, and a huge, ugly grin covered his face. Right beside him was Sarah, holding his arm tightly. She wore high heels that clicked loudly against the floor, her chin raised high in the air as if she owned the world. Right behind them was Richard Miller, walking slowly and steadily, clutching a leather briefcase with a greedy, triumphant smile on his wrinkled face.The room went quiet almost instantly. Several workers stopped in their tracks. Security guards turned their heads, their eyebrows pulling together in deep confusion. Everyone in the building knew that Jason and Richard had been kicked out of Miller Tech. They were supposed to be broke, disgraced, and powerless."Look at them staring," Sarah whispered into Jason’s ear, giggling softly. "They have no idea what is coming.""Let them stare," Jason sneered, his loud voice echoing through the whole lo

Mr. Vance cleared his dry throat and took a slow, deep breath. He looked down at the white paper sitting in front of Richard’s leather briefcase. The big black words at the top of the page read: VOLUNTARY TRANSFER OF CEO POWER TO JASON MILLER."Well?" Jason barked, taking a sharp step forward and leaning his arms on the table. His eyes were wide, red, and bloodshot. "What are you waiting for, old man? Pick up the pen and sign your name! Once you sign, the rest of these scared sheep will follow your lead, and we can all go out and drink champagne!"Mr. Vance looked up, his trembling hands gripping the edge of the glass table. "No, Jason. I will not sign this paper."Jason’s grin vanished in a second. "What did you just say?""I said no!" Mr. Vance replied, his voice growing stronger as he spoke. "You bring us a piece of paper you printed yourself. You shout at us and show us rumors on social media. But where is the real proof? Where is the official statement from the police department?

Jason stumbled backward until his legs hit the edge of the glass table. His hands shot out to catch himself, and he knocked the black pen onto the floor. He did not bend down to pick it up. He only stared at Chloe with his mouth open, as if he were looking at a ghost who had walked out of the grave to speak to him. "This can't be real," Jason whispered. His voice was thin and cracked. "You were dead. They sent me the pictures. I saw you lying on the floor with my own eyes." "Pictures?" Chloe asked. She walked to the head of the table and rested her hand on the back of her chair. "Which pictures, Jason? Please tell the board. I would like everyone here to hear it." Jason shut his mouth. He understood too late what he had just said. He looked at Richard, but Richard had sunk into the sofa with a face as pale as paper, and he was no help at all. Alex stepped into the room behind Chloe. He walked slowly, like a man who had nowhere else to be. He looked at the broken phone on the floor

For a while, nobody in the boardroom spoke. Richard sat with his head down, Sarah cried quietly into her hands, and the board members waited for the officers with their eyes on the door. Jason was the only one who could not sit still. He walked in a small circle near the table, breathing hard through his nose. His eyes kept going back to the phone that still lay on the glass, and then to Alex, who stood near the window as calm as if he were waiting for a bus. Jason thought of everything he had lost. He thought of the penthouse, the silver car, and the fifty million dollars he had made his father give away only hours before. He thought of the picture he had seen on his phone, the one with Alex lying cold on the floor, and how happy it had made him. All of it had been a lie fabricated by that bitch, Raven, and the man in the picture was standing in front of him, alive and smiling a little. The more Jason thought about it, the more his head felt hot, as if something inside it was about t

The heavy silence inside the Miller Tech boardroom was broken only by the faint, muffled sound of police sirens echoing from several blocks away. The high-pitched wails cut through the thick glass windows, growing louder with every passing second.To the board members, that sound represented the arrival of order and justice. But to Richard Miller, Jason Miller, and Sarah Jenkins, each rising tone sounded like the tolling of a funeral bell.The reality of their situation finally crashed down upon them. There was no inheritance to claim. There was no boardroom takeover. There was only a digital recording that had captured every single word of their threats, ten prominent witnesses willing to testify in open court, and the impending arrival of the authorities...Conspiracy to commit corporate extortion, felony destruction of property, blackmail, and terroristic threats carrying the promise of murder—these charges were not minor offenses that could be washed away by a stern warning or a s