A pale morning light washed the polished table in the boardroom as Valentina entered, her shoulders squared, though a tremor quaked in her chest. She slid into a seat near the centre of the room, aware that executives lined up around her were sizing her up. Soren sat at the head,appearing calm despite the slight twitch of his brow-the tension beneath the surface. Caspian braced against the other side, eyes set in grim determination.

After clearing her throat, Valentina mustered the courage to say something."I have remained silent far too long," she said, voice low but heard above the hush. A couple of the board members exchanged baffled looks. Next to her, Talia watched with rapt attention, prepared to back up her mom if Soren exploded. “Soren has... misappropriated company funds in ways the board never approved." Her voice faltered, but she pressed on, pulse-pounding.“He's supported an affair-and paid for it-with questionable withdrawals.”

A collective gasp reverberated across the table. Soren's posture went rigid.He returned Valentina's glare with icy rage, a silent warning that promised vengeance if she pressed on. She pressed on nonetheless. “I love this family. I used to think Soren's actions kept us safe. But I won't sit quietly and watch as Caspian is ridiculed for so-called mental instability while Soren plays puppetmaster."

A silver-haired, stern-faced male board member leaned in. “Can you prove these allegations? There was a quiver of uncertainty in his voice.Valentina swallowed. "I have bits and pieces of statements and screenshots from personal accounts." She picked up a thin folder and pushed it across. Sound greeted this man, and another murmur rippled as he read the documents, the eyes widening.

Yet Soren refused to crumble. “This is a smear personal," he hissed, his lips twisting in a sneering smile. “My wife was understandably distraught.turning speculation into a whole witch hunt. If these claims were true, we'd have more than half-baked evidence." He waved away the folder with a gesture of dismissal. Other board members nodded uncertainly, aware that what Valentina showed was not fully baked.

By the door, Sterling Price stood in shadow, silently watching the commotion. He wore a sly smile: there was a bigger game afoot. And as the anger boiled, he sidled up to Soren, mumbling in a voice low enough that others couldn't pick it up. Although Valentina was unable to hear the precise words, she picked out the sly light in Sterling's eyes. After a beat,Soren locked eyes with her again, training the renewed arrogance back in his posture. She had sensed that Sterling was making him some Faustian bargain-one that would either tighten Soren's grip on power or drag them all into ruin.

By the afternoon of that day, Caspian was pacing a narrow corridor just outside a private suite at Hayes Enterprises, pent-up tension radiating from every angle of his form. He reeked of burnt coffee and stale air.Celeste hovered nearby, lips pursed as though to soothe the frantic thrum of her heart. Just before, she had caught a glimpse of Sterling Price in quiet conference with Soren, their subdued tones thick with collusion.

Caspian raked a hand through his hair, remembering the board's shocked faces when they were shown Valentina's partial evidence. “They're working in concert,” he muttered, his voice grim. “Sterling's been working both sides: nursing Soren's demise but also an accomplice in his destruction. If they tie together, they'll rip this company apart.”

Celeste placed a soft hand on his arm. "We've still got allies-Talia,Roman, maybe some of the board members who are feeling a little

unsettled. They'll stand by your side if we show them Soren's guilt." She even thought of the hurt in Caspian's eyes when Soren threatened to kick him out. She felt that ache too, the passing memory of their house almost lost. "We cannot allow fear to paralyze us."

Though she reassured him, he wrestled with a feeling of gnawing betrayal."I have always been suspicious of Sterling's guile, but if he and Soren join forces,we could lose everything in two fertility cycles." He paused,glancing at her. “A part of me wants to shut everyone out and deal with it alone. But that only ever pushed me further and further into insomnia,further and further into isolation.”

She remembered nights when he had almost fallen on his face, tired. “You're not alone," she maintained. "We stand or fall together." There was both empathy and ironclad determination in her voice. He realized just how far she had come from the frightened woman who had been forced to leave him years ago.

All of a sudden, footsteps scattered from way down the hallway. Roman showed up with a laptop, his pupils dilated with adrenaline.“I discovered the secret ledger," he gasped, waving a tiny flash drive.“But the details of Soren's offshore dealings are totally incriminating. This is the missing piece.”

A trembling relief passed over Caspian's face. "This may be sufficient to prove his corruption to the board," he murmured, voice shaking as he bore the weight of this last-ditch effort. Celeste's eyes darted between them,reading the fragility of the evidence. "Then we use it," she said.“Before Soren and Sterling tighten their grip."

They sped away, formulating a strategy to confront Soren at the next session. But amid the surge of hope, Caspian's mind whirled, shadowed

by his father's smug grin and Sterling's measured quiet. With victory within grasp. or so they had dared to believe, the line between victory and ruination had never felt thinner.

Members streamed into the boardroom, chattering to a whisper, each member tense from the day. Soren stood at the head of the long table, lips twisted in a cool, victorious smirk. The predatory gleam in his eyes melded with his grey suit. At the opposite end, Caspian leaned against the edge of the table, chest constricted, bracing for the eventual impact of the no-confidence ballot. Celeste and Roman waited in the doorway,everything they had just discovered locked in Roman's clasp.

Talia sidled over to Caspian, voice low.“He knows the board will back him,"she whispered, with fear in her voice. “I heard some of the members muttering about how you're unstable. You need to strike fast.” Caspian nodded,fighting not to betray his racing pulse.

Once everyone got settled, Soren started with an easy confidence: “Ladies and gentlemen, I'm sorry it's come to this, but for Hayes Enterprises to succeed and thrive, we must deal with Caspian's poor decisions and emotional unfitness. The board exchanged a faint murmur.Some averted their eyes. Others went along, persuaded by hearsay and counterfeit paper.

Caspian moved forward and coughed. "You want stability? Follow Soren's history of secret deals," he replied, voice tight but steady. He nodded brusquely to Celeste and Roman, who moved up next to him. Roman placed a thick binder on the table, and every page was carefully flagged."These documents are evidence that Soren diverted money to offshore accounts and that he was behind sabotage in multiple divisions,"he declared, his voice literally shaking with urgency.

The room buzzed with shock and outrage. Soren's eyes clouded,but he

raised his chin as if courageously. “Surely you don't believe this fiction,”he said with a scoff. “I've loyally served Hayes Enterprises for decades.He motioned to a pile of doctored reports next to him.“Whereas Caspian struggles with such bad insomnía he can't tell what's real and what's paranoia."

And then the double doors burst open. Two stern security officers strode in. their authoritative presence bringing the conversation to a halt. Soren locked eyes with the lead officer who held up an official document. “We have an arrest warrant that has been issued for Soren Montague on allegations of financial fraud and embezzlement," he said. Gasps split the taut silence around the table. Caspian was stunned, a whirlpool of vindication and shock ricocheting through him.

Soren's face went from smug confidence to rage, disbelief. As he retreated with tense shoulders, security officers moved toward him. All eyes on him,the board collectively holding its breath. That action flipped a switch, a massive power shift, and in that moment, the future of Hayes Enterprises,and the entire Montague legacy, hung in the balance of irrevocable change.