2025-08-07 22:26:16“Confirmed,” the voice in Adrian’s ear said. “That’s the last signature. The debt is yours.”
He didn’t respond. From the rooftop terrace of an anonymous office building downtown, Adrian stared down at the skyline. The city glowed beneath him—high-rise towers like chess pieces, every window a secret, every floor a move waiting to be made. His phone buzzed. The system pulsed to life. System Notification: Mission Complete – Covert Debt Acquisition Phase I Benson Group Internal Debt Acquired: 3 Shells x 2.4% ownership each Total Stake Now: 18% (Undisclosed) He slipped the phone back into his coat. From this height, the Benson Group building looked smaller. Fragile. Like it could break apart with a single gust of wind. And Adrian was almost ready to blow. Downstairs, in a dim-lit boardroom, Jessica tried to keep her voice steady. “What do you mean the investors backed out?” Her assistant fumbled with papers. “Two pulled this morning. One filed to sell their stake… to a new buyer.” Jessica’s chest tightened. “Who?” “They’re listed under shell corporations: Argent Holdings, Darrow Ltd, and SEI Capital.” She went still. Not familiar. Not public. Not safe. She yanked open her laptop and pulled up the shareholder log—her fingers trembling. The names were there, all right. Spread across ten percent of her father’s empire. Quiet. Steady. Growing. Someone was dismantling her from the inside. Adrian walked into Tasha’s loft that evening. She was waiting by the kitchen island, red wine in one hand, a hologram of company stocks spinning in the air beside her. “You’re late,” she said. “I don’t rush.” Tasha smirked. “You might want to.” She waved a hand, bringing up a glowing blueprint. It was a patent. A detailed, multi-layered structure coded with her late mother’s ID—Eleanor Cole. “Found it buried inside an unpublished filing. Your mother registered it four years before she died. Quantum behavior interface. Way ahead of its time.” Adrian stared at it. “She built the system around this,” he said quietly. Tasha nodded. “And Jessica’s company has been sitting on it—without even realizing.” He clenched his jaw. “They don’t deserve it.” “No,” she agreed. “But we do.” Meanwhile, Jessica sat alone in her father’s hospital room. Machines beeped steadily around her. His face was pale, lips cracked, eyes closed like he was floating in some place she couldn’t reach. She held his hand tighter than she needed to. “I’m trying, Dad,” she whispered. “I swear I’m trying.” A nurse entered to check vitals. Jessica stood up, barely holding it together. Then her phone buzzed again. Unknown Number: “You’re standing on borrowed time.” She looked around the room, heart pounding. “Who are you?” No reply. She turned back to her father—and for the first time since this all began, she cried. Across the city, Adrian sat with Tasha in silence. He leaned forward, elbows on his knees, voice low. “We push the patent story next. Leak a fake press release—make it seem like Benson Group’s tech arm is under audit. Watch how the market responds.” Tasha nodded. “You’ll start a firestorm.” “That’s the point.” “But Jessica will panic.” “I’m counting on it.” Tasha gave him a long look. “Still not over her?” Adrian didn’t answer. He didn’t need to. The next morning, news broke. “Benson Group Facing Tech Audit? Rumors Swirl Over Missing Patent Registrations” It spread like wildfire. Forums lit up. Stock forums speculated. Small investors started selling. By noon, Benson Group stock dropped 8.6%. Jessica’s board demanded answers. She stood at the front of the meeting room, hands shaking behind her back. “This is a smear campaign. There is no audit.” Her CFO leaned forward. “Then where’s the patent?” She blinked. “What patent?” Dead silence. Someone slid a copy across the table—a printed screenshot of Eleanor Cole’s signature and the tech schematic. Jessica stared at it. No one had told her about this. She didn’t even know Eleanor had been involved in their R&D. “This wasn’t… this wasn’t part of our registry.” Her voice cracked. The board members exchanged glances. Confidence was already bleeding out the walls. In a hidden server room beneath Tasha’s office, Adrian keyed in a line of code. System Access Request: Surveillance Override – Benson Group Internal Servers Authorization Key: Cole-MK-1 Granted. Screens flickered to life. Emails. Meeting recordings. Accounting reports. Real-time location tracking on Jessica, Michael, and the board. Adrian stood there as the system unfolded everything. New Mission: “Watch Her Break.” Duration: 48 Hours Reward: Emotional Metrics Upgrade + Bonus Stake Offer from SEI Partner He didn’t smile. He just stared. Jessica’s image appeared on the screen—walking fast, phone to her ear, clearly shaken. Then another screen: Michael in a hotel suite, pouring himself whiskey in the middle of the day. A third screen: the boardroom—tense, silent, anxious. Adrian leaned back. Everything was falling into place. Jessica sat at her desk later that night, laptop open, hands over her face. She hadn’t eaten. Hadn’t slept. Michael hadn’t shown up. He wasn’t answering her calls. She glanced at the framed photo on her desk—her, her father, Adrian. It used to make her feel safe. Now she just wanted to smash the glass. Her intercom buzzed. A delivery arrived—anonymous envelope. She opened it. Inside: a flash drive. No note. No label. She hesitated. Plugged it into her laptop. A video file auto-played. Security footage. Her and Michael. The night Adrian walked in on them. Except this time… there was audio. Michael: “She’ll throw you out, watch. Her dad’s money is all I need.” Jessica froze. The screen showed her laughing. She didn’t remember laughing. The words hit harder than they should have. She slammed the laptop shut, chest tight. Who sent this? Back in his dark apartment, Adrian stood in front of a mirror. He stared at himself—not the broken man she threw out, not the failure everyone saw. He adjusted the collar of his shirt. Then his phone buzzed again. System Update: Phase II in motion. Identity Erasure pending. Recommend digital rebirth within 72 hours. Adrian closed his eyes. The past was dying. And something colder was rising in its place.
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Chapter 13: Backroom Deals
The man at the table kept glancing at the door, sweat collecting at his temples despite the café’s air conditioning.He looked like someone used to making money in silence—gray-haired, expensive watch, the kind of polished arrogance that came from never being caught.Until today.A sealed envelope slid across the table toward him.He didn’t see who left it.Only a brief shadow. The smell of espresso and cigarette smoke. A chill, though no one had opened a door.He opened it.And found himself staring at his own signature.Dozens of bank transactions.Dates. Sums. Side deals.All tied directly to the Benson Group’s pension fund.There was one more thing inside the envelope—a handwritten note.“You resign by noon. Or this goes public.”He turned pale.And nodded to no one.By the time Jessica entered the office that morning, her phone was vibrating nonstop.She blinked at her screen: [Breaking News]Benson Group Board Member Resigns Over Fraud AllegationsHer heel faltered on the polish
Chapter 12: slipping Grip
Jessica gripped the edge of the conference table like it could hold her together.“Michael,” she said, struggling to keep her voice level, “we can’t keep this up. If we lose another board member—”“We won’t.” Michael Kane leaned back in her father’s chair like it belonged to him. “You still have my vote.”Her jaw clenched. “You’re not on the board.”“I could be.” He shrugged. “If you want to keep your title, you need my help.”Silence stretched between them. Jessica’s eyes flicked to the door, half-hoping someone—anyone—would interrupt. No one did.Michael stood and walked slowly to her side of the table, his voice lowering.“Let’s be honest, Jess. You’re not CEO material. Never were. You inherited a legacy your father built brick by brick. And now it’s crumbling. What you need is someone who understands the market. Someone who knows how to move in backchannels.”“Someone like you?” she snapped.He smiled, fake and smooth. “Exactly. You keep your title. I’ll handle the money. Full con
Chapter 11: Anonymous Ally
Adrian sat in the dim glow of his apartment, no larger than a storage unit, yet quiet. Clean. Still. A cup of untouched black coffee sat beside his laptop.The screen flickered with digital windows—dummy accounts, encrypted banking protocols, layered ownerships tied to foreign names and silent shells. All feeding into one thing.25% of Benson Group.Owned entirely by him. But not as Adrian Cole.The system’s voice rang in his mind, cold yet calm.“Mission complete: Asset Acquisition. New Task: Remain unknown for 7 consecutive days. Reward: Identity Cloak Protocol.”He exhaled slowly, folding his hands in front of him.No celebration. No smile.Jessica had spent the last two weeks fighting to keep the company afloat—publicly sobbing at press conferences, spiraling on livestreams. And not once did she realize the man sinking her ship was the one she once called husband.Adrian didn’t want revenge.He wanted silence.Powerful silence.He clicked to open a livestream from Benson Group HQ.
Chapter 10: The Buy-In
The boardroom was too quiet.Jessica sat at the head of the oval table, surrounded by stone-faced board members who avoided her gaze. The envelope from the anonymous investor still sat unopened beside her.She hadn’t told anyone what it said.Not yet.The line kept echoing in her head:“How does it feel to lose everything in silence?”She swallowed hard.Someone was taunting her—and they were winning.“Let’s begin,” said Alan Cross, the senior board advisor. His tone was clipped, formal. “We’ve been called here due to a major stake acquisition. Twenty-five percent of Benson Group has been bought out in under forty-eight hours.”Jessica tried to steady her voice. “Do we know who the buyer is?”Alan gave her a long look. “The buyer wishes to remain silent. For now.”A younger board member leaned forward. “That’s a quarter of the company. If they decide to push a vote of no confidence, we could lose control.”Jessica’s heart skipped. “They won’t.”The doors opened.A lawyer stepped in an
Chapter 9: Sinking Ship
Jessica sat in the conference room, but she didn’t hear a word her legal team was saying.Her fingers tapped anxiously on the glossy table, a soft rhythm that betrayed the storm in her chest. Screens flickered across the wall—stock prices, news headlines, social media trends. All of it spelling one thing:Benson Group was in freefall.“…Ma’am,” her assistant whispered beside her. “We’ve just confirmed—three more investors pulled out this morning.”Jessica didn’t blink. “Who?”“Eastshore Partners, Platinum Ridge, and… Cayden Group.”She exhaled slowly. “All in one day.”The legal head cleared his throat. “There’s also been movement in the debt market. Someone’s buying up your corporate liabilities.”Jessica’s eyes snapped toward him.“What do you mean ‘someone’?”“They’re using multiple shell companies. Hidden identities. But it’s coordinated. Very strategic.”Her mouth went dry. She knew what this was.Not a hostile takeover.A silent war.And she was losing.Adrian sat in a high-rise
Chapter 8: Power In Silence
Jessica tugged at her blazer sleeve, pretending her hands shaking.The press conference was supposed to be a reset—a confident front to reassure stakeholders and the media. But under the gloss, her world was cracking like cheap glass.Across the stage, the Benson Group’s legal counsel flipped through prepared statements. No one spoke. The murmurs from the journalists sounded like ocean waves threatening to swallow her whole.She glanced at the doors.He wasn’t here.Michael.Not even a message.“Of course,” she whispered under her breath.He always vanished when the pressure hit.Behind a one-way mirror in a side room adjacent to the conference hall, Adrian watched.No one knew he was there.Dressed in charcoal black, arms crossed, his expression unreadable. Beside him, Tasha stood quietly, holding a tablet, monitoring real-time engagement metrics.“She’s about to crack,” Tasha said. “Do we pull the trigger?”Adrian didn’t answer. His gaze was fixed on Jessica.The system whispered i
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