chapter 19

The headlines hit before Emilia even returned to her office.

"Emilia Stone Declares War Inside Her Own Empire."

"Stone heiress cleans house. Is it bold leadership or reckless vengeance?"

Her assistant, Tasha, met her at the elevator with a look of half-panic, half-awe. "Calls from three investors, two board members, and—" she lowered her voice—"someone from the Department of Corporate Affairs. They want a statement."

"Schedule nothing," Emilia said, brushing past her. "Let them wait."

Inside her office, she shut the door and leaned against it. Her hands trembled—just slightly. Not from fear, but from the aftershock of standing her ground so firmly. She allowed herself ten seconds, then walked straight to her desk and pulled up the live financial dashboards.

To her surprise, the stock hadn't plunged.

Yet.

The door opened again, uninvited. Charles Whitmore stepped in, no longer composed. His tie was loose, jaw clenched.

"You've created a media circus," he said, voice low but furious. "Do you understand the chaos you've triggered?"

She didn't even flinch. "Chaos was already here, Charles. I just turned on the lights."

"Gerard's threatening legal action. Isla's already speaking to a reporter from The Beacon. And half the board thinks you've lost control."

Emilia stood, meeting him eye to eye. "Good. Let them. I'd rather lead with clarity than coddle a nest of liars."

He narrowed his eyes. "They'll come for you. This industry, this board, the media—they'll dig. They'll twist everything they can."

"I've already lived under a microscope," she said. "Let them dig. There's nothing left to bury."

Charles shook his head. "You think being strong means burning everything down?"

"No," Emilia replied. "I think it means knowing what's worth saving."

With a final glare, he turned and walked out.

Moments later, a message pinged on her screen.

> From: S.Lores

You looked powerful up there.

They won't forget today. Neither will I.

A small smile tugged at her lips.

But just as quickly, another alert followed.

> From: Internal Audit

URGENT: New financial inconsistencies detected — flagged as possibly linked to someone close to the late Mr. Stone. Full report incoming.

Her blood went cold.

She sat down slowly, eyes locked on the screen.

The fallout had only just begun.

.....

The internal audit report landed in Emilia's inbox at 6:13 p.m.

It was thick—sixty-four pages of dense analysis, attached files, and flagged entries. She read in silence, the hum of her office faint against the storm building in her head.

The discrepancies weren't small.

Someone had been funneling money from fringe subsidiaries. Not in wild sums, but in deliberate, regular patterns—just small enough to avoid attention but large enough to build a shadow ledger.

And the transactions didn't start recently.

They dated back almost two years. Months before her father's sudden death.

Her pulse quickened as she clicked through names. One in particular kept reappearing: Victoria Hale. Her father's former personal attorney. Trusted. Always present, but never too loud.

And still on retainer.

Emilia leaned back in her chair, the weight of the revelation heavy on her chest. "Why would he keep her that close?" she whispered. "What did he miss—or choose to ignore?"

Tacha knocked lightly, poking her head in. "It's almost seven, Ms. Stone. I can move your remaining calls to tomorrow."

"No," Emilia said without looking up. "Hold them."

She dialed directly to the internal audit lead.

"Tell me you've already started surveillance on Hale," she said when he answered.

"Discreetly, yes. But—Emilia, there's more."

Her spine stiffened. "What more?"

"We pulled archival footage of Hale's visits to your father's estate and cross-referenced with recent digital authorizations... She used his access codes six months after he died. And someone approved the system override manually."

Emilia stood slowly, blood draining from her face. "You're saying someone inside helped her?"

"Yes. And from the sequence, they had administrative-level clearance."

Emilia's grip tightened around her phone.

She'd known corruption was rotting her family's legacy from the inside. But she hadn't known it reached this deep—or this close.

"Get me everything on who had override access during that window," she said coldly. "And tighten our security protocols. I want surveillance logs and communications swept. If anyone even breathes the wrong way—I want to know."

She ended the call and stared at the city skyline through her office windows.

One betrayal already felt like too much.

Now, it was starting to feel like her entire foundation had been built on lies.

And somewhere behind it all—someone was still pulling strings.