Chapter 2 - The Perfect Scapegoat
Evelyn frantically scrolled through the terrifying pages of the elimination protocol, her mind racing to comprehend the sheer scale of Julian’s betrayal.
The documents revealed that Julian had been siphoning billions from the corporate accounts and routing them into offshore shell companies.
Every single one of those fraudulent shell companies was registered under Evelyn's forged signature.
Julian was meticulously setting her up to take the fall for the biggest corporate embezzlement scheme in modern history.
Once she was found dead by an apparent suicide, the federal investigation would close, and Julian would walk away with the money completely unscathed.
She needed to act immediately before his security teams realized she had accessed the restricted mainframe.
She swiftly deleted her biometric data and search history from the building's server log to cover her digital tracks.
Evelyn changed out of her catering uniform into dark civilian clothes and left the Blackwood Tower through an unmonitored service exit.
She avoided the main streets, staying in the shadows as she headed toward a secluded apartment she had rented under a fake alias.
She realized she could not fight a multi-billion dollar corporation completely alone.
She needed a powerful ally who understood the Blackwood Corporation's vulnerabilities even better than she did.
Lucas Vance was the only man in the city who fit that description flawlessly.
He was a brilliant former executive who had been framed, ruined, and discarded by Julian two years prior.
Evelyn reached her apartment building and climbed the dimly lit stairs, planning exactly how she would track Lucas down.
She pulled her keys from her pocket and unlocked the deadbolt, craving the temporary safety of her hidden sanctuary.
She pushed the door open, but the heavy silence inside immediately warned her that something was horribly wrong.
The living room had been completely ransacked, with furniture overturned and her personal files scattered across the floor.
She froze in the doorway as a tall, imposing figure stood up from the shadows of her armchair.
The man stepped into the pale moonlight filtering through the window, revealing himself to be Lucas Vance.
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He raised a silenced pistol, aiming it directly at her chest as a grim, unforgiving smile touched his lips.
"You are a very difficult woman to find, Evelyn, but you are already a dead woman walking," Lucas whispered into the darkness.
