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 “Found it buried inside an unpublished filing.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 99: Holding Life
The world had gone still.For the first time in months, there was no noise, no reporters, no system pings, no storm hammering against glass. Just the faint hum of hospital lights and the soft, steady breathing of two people who had almost lost each other forever.Adrian sat at the edge of the hospital bed, drenched clothes replaced with plain scrubs the nurse had given him. His sleeves were rolled up, forearms still faintly marked by rain. But he didn’t care.All his focus was on the small weight resting against his chest… warm, fragile, alive.His daughter.Her fingers twitched every now and then, clutching faintly at his shirt like she already knew what she wanted to hold on to. Her breathing came in short, soft hitches, the faintest sound he’d ever heard and the most grounding.Adrian swallowed hard, tracing a thumb across the infant’s tiny wrist.“Hey, little one,” he whispered, voice unsteady. “You came into the world kicking, huh?”The baby made a quiet noise, almost like a s
Chapter 98: When The Water Broke
The rain started soft—like a warning the world whispered before it broke. Jessica put her hand on her lower belly. Her breathing wasn’t steady, her phone screen lit up soft against the dark tinted window of the car.“David?” she called out to the driver. No answer.The car was parked somewhere in between the apartment building and the hospital. Her contractions hit her quicker than she figured they would, they came sharp. “David!” she tried again, panic rising as she shifted forward. The front seat was empty. The keys dangled, engine off. The rain thudded against the roof like a thousand tiny drums.He was gone.For a heartbeat, she didn’t believe it. She leaned forward, blinking hard, gripping her belly as another wave of pain tore through her.Her driver—gone?Jessica fumbled for her phone, tapping the emergency contact. The screen flickered. No signal. The storm had swallowed everything.“Come on,” she whispered, her voice breaking.She tried to steady her breathing the way the
Chapter 97: Protecting Her
The city had barely woken when Jessica’s phone started vibrating on the nightstand.She reached for it, half-asleep, the screen glaring against the dim morning light. Her assistant’s name flashed repeatedly.Mia: You need to come in now.Jessica: What happened?Mia: It’s bad. Someone broke into the warehouse.Jessica sat up so fast the sheet slipped to her lap. Her heartbeat thundered in her chest. “No… no, please not today,” she whispered, dragging herself out of bed.The brand’s first big shipment…. newborn blankets embroidered with Hope—was supposed to go out tomorrow. The warehouse was everything she’d built with borrowed faith.She didn’t even change out of her sweater. And she was gone.The streets were still wet from dawn rain when she pulled up outside the small industrial building. Police tape fluttered across the front gate. Her stomach dropped.Crates were overturned. Fabric soaked in muddy water. Broken glass glittered in the puddles.Mia ran up, face pale. “They smashed
Chapter 96: Baby Shower
The hall glowed like a dream.Soft music floated through the air, warm laughter filled the space, and white balloons drifted under a ceiling of hanging lights. Cameras clicked. The smell of vanilla cake and roses hung in the air.Jessica stood in the middle of it all, a soft blue dress hugging her figure, her hands resting gently on her round belly. Her cheeks glowed, not from makeup but from the strange calm she’d learned to live with.“Jess, you look amazing!” one of her friends squealed, snapping another picture.“Your baby’s going to be so spoiled,” another teased.Jessica smiled, polite and practiced. She’d learned to smile even when her heart tugged in two directions…. forward, toward her child’s future… and backward, toward the man who taught her how to stand alone.But today wasn’t about heartbreak.Today was about hope.At the doors, murmurs rose suddenly. Cameras shifted.The atmosphere thickened, curious whispers breaking through the chatter.“He’s here.”“Wait— that’s him
Chapter 95: System Final Mission Begins
Night fell quiet over the city.The kind of quiet that wasn’t peaceful but expectant.Adrian stood alone in his penthouse, the skyline stretching endlessly before him. Below, the world buzzed with noise and light, but up here, it was just him, the hum of machines, and the faint reflection of his own tired eyes.The system had been silent for days.Too silent.He’d gotten used to its presence over time, the mechanical voice that once barked commands now something he almost trusted. It had pushed him through rebuilding his empire, through his pain, through every wall he put between himself and Jessica.But lately, even the system seemed to hesitate around him.He poured himself a glass of water and turned toward the desk.The screen blinked to life, blue light spilling across his face.[SYSTEM NOTIFICATION: FINAL MISSION AVAILABLE]Adrian’s pulse slowed. He set the glass down carefully, almost reverently. “Final… mission?”“Yes.”The voice was softer now. Almost… human.“Final Emotional
Chapter 94: The Silent Support
The storm finally passed.But silence carried its own kind of noise.For three days straight, Jessica’s name had been everywhere—linked, twisted, reshaped by headlines that didn’t care about truth. When it finally died down, all she felt was… exhaustion.Not victory. Not relief. Just the quiet ache of surviving another public trial she never asked for.Now, her focus had to shift.She was eight months pregnant and running on caffeine, stubbornness, and soft music that barely covered the hum of her sewing machine. Her apartment had transformed into something between a nursery and a startup. Fabric samples covered the couch, notes littered the coffee table, and mood boards leaned against the wall.Her new dream—her baby brand, Hope & Haven—was finally ready to launch.Or so she thought.Her phone rang.“Jessica, I’m sorry, but after recent media noise, our investors decided to pull out,” her project manager said over the call, his voice brittle with corporate apology.Jessica held the p
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