Chapter 2 - Echoes in the Dark
The dinner concluded past midnight. The guests trickled out, leaving only the sprawling silence of the penthouse. Victoria claimed she had a migraine and retired to the guest suite, leaving Sebastian and Oliver alone in the massive living room.
"She’s playing a part, Bash," Oliver whispered, pouring them both a glass of twenty-year-old scotch. "She asked me about the Cayman offshore accounts. She framed it as a joke, asking if billionaires really hide gold on islands, but her eyes... they were dead serious."
Sebastian took the glass. "I know. I saw her sizing up the room."
"So confront her. End it."
"No," Sebastian said softly. "If she’s a gold digger, she'll leave when she realizes I have nothing to offer. But if she’s something worse, I need to know who sent her."
Sebastian set his drink down and walked down the long, shadowed hallway toward the guest suite to check on her. As he reached for the brass handle, he heard a muffled voice bleeding through the heavy oak door. Victoria was on a call.
Sebastian pressed his ear against the wood.
"I told you, it's under control," Victoria hissed, her voice stripped of its usual honeyed warmth. It was sharp, calculating, and ruthless. "The baker is completely oblivious. He thinks I’m picking out china patterns."
A pause.
May you like
"I don't care what the timeline is, Elias. You get the malware ready. Oliver keeps his personal laptop in his private study. I saw him enter the code tonight. Once I get the master encryption key, the Obsidian assets will be yours, and you can gut this company by Monday morning."
Sebastian stepped back, his blood running ice-cold. Elias. Elias Vance—the CEO of Vanguard Holdings, Obsidian's most vicious rival. Victoria wasn't a gold digger. She was a corporate assassin, planted to orchestrate the greatest hostile takeover in Wall Street history.
