2025-12-13 19:07:52
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THE NIGHT WATCH
Elias found her exactly where he knew she'd be.The light from Sera's home office spilled into the hallway as he climbed the stairs, his footsteps heavy with exhaustion. He'd left the office ninety minutes ago, after seven straight hours of emergency meetings trying to contain the damage from Dorian's latest attack—a coordinated assault that had seen three major creditors simultaneously call their loans, triggering a liquidity crisis that had nearly collapsed the company in a single afternoon.Nearly. But not quite.He paused in the doorway, taking in the scene. Sera sat at her desk, still dressed in the same clothes she'd worn yesterday morning, her reading glasses sliding down her nose as she pored over a spreadsheet. Financial documents covered every surface—the desk, the side table, two chairs, even parts of the floor. Legal files were stacked in precarious towers. Handwritten notes on yellow legal pads formed a trail that mapped her thinking across the room like breadcrumbs throu
WARTIME FOOTING
The memo went out to all Shaw Realty employees at 9:00 AM sharp, marked urgent and requiring acknowledgment of receipt. Marcus had drafted it. Sera had edited it. Elias had signed it. Now, standing in the main conference room with his entire management team assembled, Elias was about to explain what it meant."Thank you all for coming on short notice," he began, looking at the faces around the table—department heads, property managers, senior staff who'd been with the company anywhere from three years to twenty-five. "I'm going to be direct because we don't have time for anything else. As of this morning, Shaw Realty is operating under what we're calling wartime management protocol. Everything about how we do business is changing, effective immediately."He pulled up a slide on the screen behind him. The title read: SURVIVAL PRIORITIES."For forty years, this company has focused on growth. Acquiring new properties, developing new projects, expanding our market share, maximizing profit
FORTRESS PROTOCOL
The war room—what used to be Shaw Realty's secondary conference room—looked like a military command center by 6:00 AM Friday morning. Whiteboards covered three walls, mapping out their properties, assets, vulnerabilities, and defensive strategies. Marcus Chen stood at one board, marker in hand, while Sera worked through financial models on her laptop. Elias paced, phone pressed to his ear, speaking with their legal team."Understood. File the motions this morning. I want every property title secured before noon." He ended the call and turned to the room. "Legal is moving on the asset protection trust. Even if Shaw Realty goes into bankruptcy, the trust structure will shield our key properties from immediate liquidation.""Meridian, Harborview, and Preston?" Marcus asked."And the Riverside Commons development, once it's complete," Elias confirmed. "They'll be held in a separate legal entity that's technically independent of Shaw Realty's corporate structure. It's not foolproof, but it
WHAT REMAINS
That evening, after Marcus had gone home and the office had emptied, Sera and Elias sat in the living room which had little light. They'd barely spoken during the drive home, both lost in their own thoughts about what the next twenty-four hours would bring.Sera held a glass of wine she hadn't touched, watching the city lights through their floor-to-ceiling windows. Elias sat beside her on the couch, his tie loosened, his jacket discarded somewhere between the car and the house."Tell me what you're thinking," he said quietly.She took a breath, considering her words carefully. When she spoke, her voice was steady, measured—the tone she used when analyzing financial projections, not when discussing the destruction of everything they'd built together."In three days, we went from defending what we have to accepting that we might lose it all." She turned to look at him. "And that was cool."Elias studied her face, searching for doubt or regret. "Are you really?""I don't know if 'okay'
THE REFUSAL
The three days felt like seventy-two days.Elias had spent them in constant motion—meetings with lawyers, conference calls with the board, strategy sessions with Marcus and Sera that stretched past midnight. Catherine Aldridge had provided additional resources, her team working around the clock to document every connection between Dorian's network and the attacks on Shaw Realty. The federal prosecutor had reviewed their evidence and, while stopping short of promising immediate action, had indicated that what they'd compiled was "compelling and actionable."Now, at 8:47 AM on Thursday morning; thirteen minutes before Dorian's deadline, Elias sat in his office with Sera and Marcus, staring at the letter he'd written by hand on Shaw Realty letterhead. Old-fashioned, perhaps, but this deserved the weight of ink on paper."Last chance to change your mind," Marcus said, though his tone suggested he already knew the answer.Elias picked up the letter and read it one final time.Dorian,I rec
THE FINAL OFFER
The envelope arrived by courier at 9:00 AM on a Thursday morning, three months to the day after the first attack had begun. Elias stared at it across his desk—heavy cream stock, his name written in elegant calligraphy, sealed with actual wax embossed with an ornate "D."Dorian's signature.Elias had lost weight since this started. His hands trembled slightly when he was tired, which was always now. The reflection he'd caught in the bathroom mirror that morning showed a man who'd aged a decade in ninety days—gray creeping through his hair, lines carved deep around his eyes, a hollowness in his cheeks that spoke of too many missed meals and sleepless nights.He picked up the envelope with steady fingers—a small victory of will over body—and broke the seal.Inside was a single sheet of paper, the message typed in the same elegant font as the envelope:Mr. Vance,By now, you understand the full scope of your situation. Shaw Realty's market capitalization has decreased from $2.8 billion to
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