Chapter 3 - The Corporate Assassin
Robert stared down at the silver USB drive as if it were a live, ticking grenade.
He demanded to know exactly what the little girl thought was hidden inside the encrypted files.
She looked directly into his soul and whispered the word "Aspen," causing the blood to instantly freeze in Robert's veins.
The devastating ski trip accident five years ago had supposedly been a tragic, unpredictable mechanical failure.
Robert slowly picked up the drive, plugged it into his secure phone, and bypassed the security firewall with his CEO credentials.
The screen illuminated with dozens of classified internal emails and a chilling, high-definition surveillance video.
The footage clearly showed Robert's own Vice President, Arthur Pendelton, bribing the Aspen resort mechanic to sever the ski lift cables.
Arthur had intentionally tried to murder Robert that day to trigger a hostile corporate takeover of the Sterling empire.
Because Robert had skipped the ski run to take a phone call, his innocent son had paid the permanent, paralyzing price instead.
A sickening wave of pure, violent rage washed over the billionaire as he realized he had been working alongside his son's attacker for years.
The girl stood up from the filthy mattress and gently placed her small, cold hand on Robert's shaking wrist.
She explained that she could only channel the energy to heal Ethan if Robert completely destroyed the empire built on Arthur's lies.
Publishing the drive would undoubtedly trigger a federal investigation, collapsing the company stock and erasing Robert's billions overnight.
Robert did not hesitate for a single microsecond to choose his son over his massive, blood-stained fortune.
He pressed the digital upload button, sending the damning evidence directly to every major news outlet and federal agency in the country.
Suddenly, the heavy steel door of the maintenance room was violently kicked entirely off its rusted hinges.
May you like
Arthur Pendelton walked into the candlelit room flanked by a dozen heavily armed private mercenaries.
Arthur smiled ruthlessly, holding up a live video feed on his tablet showing a sniper aiming directly at Ethan's bedroom window.
