THE HIDDEN HEIR'S VENGEANCE

CHAPTER 12 - Executive Scandal, Lane Corp Falls

The next day,

Rain slammed violently against the floor-to-ceiling windows, creating a bleak backdrop for the drama unfolding inside. Robert Watson, the former CEO who now served as Chairman of the Board, sat at the head of the long mahogany table. His face was flushed with fury.

“This Monolith Project is insane!” Watson shouted. “You want to drain our cash reserves to buy server farms in New Jersey and quantum algorithms? Viviane, control your husband!”

Carol Lane, seated beside Watson, turned to her daughter with visible disappointment. “Viviane, Uncle Robert is right. Matthew will bankrupt your father’s legacy,” Carol interjected anxiously.

Viviane clenched the pen in her hand, then glanced toward Matthew. He stood beside the projector screen, his expression unnervingly calm amid the storm. Yet Viviane could see the dark circles beneath his eyes, deeper than ever.

“Enough,” Matthew said coldly. His voice was not loud, but it cut through the argument like a scalpel. He pressed a key on his laptop. The projector screen lit up, displaying complex streams of financial data.

“Mr. Robert Watson,” Matthew began as he slowly circled the table. His steps were heavy, each one sending pain through joints weakened by System Overload. “Let’s talk about Apex Consulting. A consulting firm you have paid five million dollars a year for the past decade.”

Watson’s face drained from red to chalk white. “That… that is a trusted vendor,” he stammered.

“It is a shell company,” Matthew cut in flatly. “Its address is a post office box in a rundown strip mall in Queens… and the owner is your mistress.”

The boardroom erupted into murmurs as directors exchanged shocked glances. Carol Lane covered her mouth, her eyes wide as she stared at Robert, the man she had trusted without question.

“You must have fabricated this!” Watson shouted, jumping to his feet and slamming his hand on the table, pointing a trembling finger at Matthew.

[SYSTEM ACTIVE: “Truth Revelation Protocol. ”]

[COST: Permanent Empathy Reduction minus 2 percent. A bone-deep chill.]

Matthew’s eyes gleamed with icy clarity. He felt no anger, no pity. Watson was nothing more than an error in the code, one that needed to be deleted.

“I have recordings of your conversations with bankers in the Cayman Islands, Robert, and proof of the transfer for the Upper East Side apartment you purchased last month using company funds. Viviane?” Matthew said, turning to his wife.

Viviane stood at once. Her heart shattered at the betrayal of Robert Watson, her mother’s younger brother, the man who had once carried her in his arms as a child. But seeing Matthew standing firm against them all gave her strength.

“Uncle Robert, you are terminated,” Viviane said, her voice trembling but resolute. “Security will escort you out. If you resist, this evidence will be on the District Attorney’s desk within the hour.”

Watson collapsed back into his chair. He looked at Carol Lane, silently begging for support, but Carol turned away in disgust.

As Watson was dragged out by security, the room fell into absolute silence. No whispers remained, only the sound of rain and thunder roaring outside.

[MISSION COMPLETE: Boardroom Purge.]

[REWARD: Full Control of Lane Corp. Viviane’s loyalty plus 20 percent.]

[PENALTY: Compassion Emotion Decreased. Heart feels hollow.]

Matthew stared at his reflection in the darkened window. He had won, yet somehow he felt farther from being human.

***

Two days later, inside the newly built private server room at the Lane Corp penthouse, Matthew sat surrounded by six massive monitors. His face was washed in the blue glow of cascading lines of code.

His target was Blue Steel, the metal conglomerate owned by Roland Vance, cousin of Julian Vance and a member of the same extended family as Matthew through his late father, Hugo Vance. They were blocking the supply of specialized steel required for Monolith’s foundation.

“They rejected your offer again, Matt,” Viviane said as she entered the server room carrying a cup of coffee. She set it gently on the desk. “Drink this while it’s still warm,” she added, studying her husband’s sleepless appearance, the hollows beneath his eyes unmistakable. “Roland Vance said he would rather burn his factories to the ground than sell them to you.”

Matthew did not look up. His fingers continued to dance across the mechanical keyboard at an inhuman speed. “He doesn’t need to sell,” he replied flatly, devoid of emotion. “He’ll beg me to take it.”

[SYSTEM ACTIVE: “Market Manipulation, Commodity Blitzkrieg.”]

[COST: Uncontrollable hand tremors for six hours. Minor nerve damage.]

[TARGET: Blue Steel Currency Reserves.]

“Activate arbitrage,” Matthew murmured to the ARC system floating across his retina.

On the screens, global nickel and steel price charts began to convulse. With access to one trillion dollars in frozen liquidity, the ARC system executed thousands of microtransactions per second. Matthew was not buying Blue Steel shares. He was attacking the currency reserves they relied on for daily operations.

“What are you doing?” Viviane asked in horror as she watched the red graphs plunge on the monitors.

“Roland holds eighty percent of his liquid assets in commodity bonds,” Matthew explained. “I just flooded the market with identical bonds at a lower price. His are now worthless.” His hands began to shake violently, the coffee cup on the desk trembling in response.

Across the city, at Blue Steel headquarters, Roland Vance was shouting into his phone. “How can it be worth zero?! Two hundred million dollars vanished in ten minutes! Who is short selling like a madman?!”

His office phone rang again, this time showing a private number. Roland answered with trembling hands.

“Good evening, Mr. Roland Vance,” Matthew’s voice came through calmly, a stark contrast to the chaos on the other end. “It’s me. Matthew.”

“You… you devil!” Roland screamed. “What did you do to my company?!”

“Just a market correction, sir,” Matthew replied evenly. “At this moment, Blue Steel does not have enough cash to pay employee salaries next month. Creditors will seize your assets within twenty four hours, unless…”

He deliberately let the sentence hang, allowing the man on the other end to panic. Viviane, seated on the sofa, remained silent, listening intently to her husband’s conversation.

“Unless what?!” Roland shouted.

“Unless you sell fifty one percent of Blue Steel’s controlling shares to me right now for one dollar per share,” Matthew said casually, glancing at his hands as they began to tremble again.

“That’s robbery!” Roland roared.

“It’s a rescue, Roland,” Matthew replied calmly. “Your choice is bankruptcy and prison for defaulting on debt, or losing the company while remaining wealthy from the personal assets I will not touch. You have sixty seconds.”

Matthew’s hands began to spasm. Pain surged from his fingertips up to his shoulders. The system demanded a physical price for manipulating economic reality.

Silence settled over the line. Then came the sound of restrained sobbing from a fifty year old man on the other end of the phone.

“Fine… fine! Take it all! Take everything, and damn you, Matthew Vance Thomas!”

“Pleasure doing business with you, Roland Vance,” Matthew replied with a satisfied grin before ending the call.

[MISSION COMPLETE: Blue Steel Acquisition.]

[REWARD: Monolith Supply Chain Secured 100%.]

Suddenly, Matthew slumped forward in his chair. The tremors in his hands were so severe he could not lift his coffee cup. Viviane jumped to her feet and rushed to his side, gripping his violently shaking hands.

“Matt! Your hands!” Viviane cried in panic.

“Just… typing fatigue,” Matthew lied, his breathing ragged. “But we have the steel, Vie. Monolith can be built.” His eyes gleamed with feverish triumph.

Viviane looked at her husband with tears pooling in her eyes. She saw sacrifices she could not fully understand. This man was destroying the world for her, yet destroying himself in the process.