The footage played in cold silence.
Charlotte stood at the head of the conference room, arms folded, eyes hard as the video looped on the screen behind her. A hallway camera, timestamped two nights ago. A figure in a pale coat paused near a locked archive door, tapped something into a hidden panel, and slipped inside.
Vivian leaned forward. Her breath caught in her throat.
"It's her," she said quietly. "Cara."
Liam said nothing, but his jaw clenched. The betrayal echoed too deeply. Cara had been with them for years. He'd trusted her with personal details, private schedules even Daniel, once.
Charlotte spoke, calm but clipped. "She accessed confidential communications and wiped the server logs. Only reason we caught this was because of a backup relay security wasn't supposed to know about."
"She covered her tracks," Liam muttered. "But not well enough."
Vivian turned toward him, her voice trembling with restrained anger. "What do we do?"
"We confront her."
---
Cara didn't deny it.
She sat across from them in the smaller boardroom, pale and shaking but defiant. "I didn't mean for it to go this far."
"Then what exactly did you mean to do?" Liam asked coldly. "Hand Evelyn a blueprint for our collapse?"
"She said... she said she'd protect the company," Cara whispered. "That you were losing control. That Daniel would ruin everything."
Vivian flinched. "You used my child to justify this?"
"She promised" Cara broke off. "She said you wouldn't last. That your marriage was a cover-up. She gave me a choice: help clean the mess, or be swept away with it."
Charlotte's eyes narrowed. "So you took her money."
Cara didn't deny it. "I thought I was doing the right thing. For the company."
"For the company?" Liam's voice was low, deadly calm. "You betrayed us for a lie. You sold your loyalty for nothing but a power grab."
Cara's voice cracked. "I didn't think it would hurt him Daniel. I never wanted that."
"You don't get to want anything now," Vivian said, her voice sharp as glass. "You made your choice."
Charlotte stepped forward. "We'll let legal handle the rest. Quietly. But she's done here."
As security led Cara out, silence fell again. And then came the second blow.
---
Later that afternoon, Vivian found a plain envelope on her desk. No markings. No postage.
Inside was a single photograph of Daniel, playing outside his school gate.
Scrawled on the back:
"You can't protect everyone forever."
She stared at it, the breath knocked from her lungs.
Her hand trembled as she reached for her phone.
"Liam... you need to come. Now."
---
Ten minutes later, he was there, the photo clenched in his fist.
"Security detail is being doubled. No one comes near him," he said. His voice was clipped, but beneath it simmered a rage she hadn't seen in a long time. "If Evelyn is behind this..."
"I don't think she is," Vivian interrupted, her voice thin. "This isn't her style. She likes games, control. But this… this is a threat. A direct one."
Liam exhaled slowly. "Then someone else is involved. Someone worse."
Vivian sat on the couch, shaking now. "I'm scared, Liam. Not for me. For Daniel. What if we can't keep him safe?"
He crossed the room and sank to one knee in front of her.
"You're not alone in this," he said softly. "You never were."
Her eyes met his weary, wounded, but still fighting.
"Then hold the line with me," she whispered.
"I will."
---
That night, Ashford Tower flickered with tension.
While Vivian stayed with Daniel under tight protection, Liam and Charlotte reviewed the financials Evelyn had manipulated and found the latest blow.
"She's released a doctored earnings report," Charlotte said, flinging a folder on the desk. "Slight enough to spark rumors. Damaging enough to tank investor trust."
"She's burning down the company just to prove she can," Liam said bitterly.
"No," Charlotte corrected. "She's bleeding it slowly. So she can swoop in with a 'rescue plan' and claim the throne."
Liam paced, fists clenched. "Then we change the script. We go public with the truth not just the sabotage, but everything. The forged documents. The moles. Cara. Even Evelyn's tactics."
Charlotte raised a brow. "That means a war. Real war."
He looked her dead in the eye. "She wanted one. Let's give it to her."
Charlotte didn't flinch. "Then we go on the offensive. I'll draft a timeline. We leak before she can."
Liam nodded. "Targeted release. Controlled. We don't want panic we want clarity. Proof. Every step she's taken to destabilize this company, we show it."
"And Cara?"
"Her confession is on record. Redact the personal parts, but let her be a cautionary tale. The face of Evelyn's manipulation."
Charlotte tapped her pen against the desk, thoughtful. "We'll need allies. Quiet ones. Not everyone on the board is in Evelyn's pocket. If we can win even two over, the tide shifts."
"Start there," Liam said. "No warning shots. No more waiting."
---
Downstairs, the Ashford media room came alive with motion.
Vivian sat at the center of the storm, watching Charlotte's team assemble press packets and upload video snippets of Cara's betrayal. Everything carefully edited no panic, just precision. For every leak Evelyn had manufactured, they now had a truth to counter it.
Daniel was in the next room, tucked safely in bed under the watch of two trusted guards and a nanny from Vivian's childhood. Vivian still hadn't shaken the image of that photograph the innocence of her son caught in the crosshairs of a war he never asked for.
But as she stared at the screen showing Cara's image and the words: Internal breach confirmed. Investigation ongoing something in her settled. Not peace. Not yet. But purpose.
She rose and headed upstairs.
---
In Liam's private office, Charlotte was laying out new talking points for a press rebuttal when Vivian entered.
"Update?" Liam asked.
She looked between them, eyes clear. "We don't just defend Daniel. We use him."
Liam frowned. "Vivian"
"Hear me out." She came to stand across from him, folding her arms. "The world already knows he exists. They've seen the whispers, the headlines, the photos. But they haven't heard from us. Let them see who he really is. What kind of parents we are."
"You want to bring him into this publicly?" Charlotte asked, cautious.
"Not in a tabloid way. A controlled family interview. One piece. Nothing invasive. Just us, calm, united. A statement of stability. Of truth."
Liam hesitated. He hated the idea of Daniel becoming a pawn. But he also knew the tide they faced. And Vivian, Vivian looked ready to burn the world down for their son.
He nodded slowly. "If we do this, it's on our terms."
Vivian's mouth twitched. "Of course."
Charlotte scribbled something in her notepad. "I'll line up a journalist. No mainstream sharks. Someone reputable. With integrity."
"Good," Liam said. "And while they're distracted by the human angle, we work the board. Quietly."
---
That night, Evelyn stood on the penthouse balcony, watching the skyline glitter like it was unaware of the empire unraveling beneath it. Her phone rang.
"They've countered," the voice on the line said. "Press statements. Internal leak exposure. Cara's name is trending."
Evelyn sipped her wine. "Let them scramble."
"They're not scrambling. They're marching. Together."
A pause.
"Ma'am… I think they're preparing to strike back."
Evelyn smiled, sharp and cold.
"Then let them try."
She turned from the view, her heels clicking against the marble like war drums.
---
Back at Ashford Tower, Liam stood at the window again, just as he had the day after the press conference. But now, the city looked different. Still threatening. Still uncertain. But not unbeatable.
Vivian came to stand beside him. She didn't say anything at first. Just rested her hand against the glass.
"I used to think silence was the enemy," she murmured. "That stillness meant defeat."
He glanced at her, brow raised.
"But it doesn't," she continued. "Sometimes silence is the breath you take before the roar."
Liam smiled faintly. "We're about to roar, aren't we?"
She met his eyes. "Louder than they're ready for."
He reached for her hand. And this time, she let him hold it.
Together, they stood in the quiet not broken, not scared.
Waiting for the morning.
Waiting to strike.