Chapter 10
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Julian released Alexander, shoving him away with deep disgust, and walked out of the villa without another word. The flight back to New York was entirely consumed by frantic, high-level tactical planning. When the private jet finally touched down, the morning sun was just beginning to break over the horizon.
He returned to the Southampton estate to find Elena and Rosa waiting for him in the kitchen, a pot of strong black coffee sitting between them on the marble island.
"Who is Alexander Sterling?" Elena asked immediately, having already accessed Julian's encrypted notes from the flight.
"He is a ghost," Julian sighed, taking a cup of coffee from Rosa and running a hand over his exhausted face. "A venture capitalist who operates exclusively through offshore shadow syndicates. He thrives on distressed assets and hostile takeovers. My pivot to ethical manufacturing severely damaged his portfolio, and now he is using Victoria's legacy codes to seek revenge."
"He threatened Clara," Elena stated, her voice dropping into a cold, terrifying register.
Julian looked at his wife. He had expected her to be frightened, but Elena’s eyes were burning with the exact same lethal, protective fury that resided in his own heart.
"He made a passing comment," Julian said carefully. "But yes. He wants to dismantle everything we have built."
"Then we strike first," Rosa interjected, pulling up a digital map of corporate holdings on her tablet. "I spent the night digging into Obsidian Holdings. If Sterling is using Victoria’s codes, he is arrogant. He left a trail. I found three subsidiary companies Sterling uses to launder his short-sell profits."
"Can we freeze them?" Julian asked, leaning over the tablet.
"Not legally," Elena said, her brilliant mind already assembling the architecture of their counter-attack. "If we go to the federal regulators, the ensuing investigation will tank our stock price anyway, which is exactly what Sterling wants. We have to fight him in the shadows."
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"I am going to drain his liquidity," Julian decided, a dark, familiar ruthlessness settling back into his bones. "Rosa, initiate the Black Swan protocol on the Vanguard-Vance servers. Move all our vulnerable assets into encrypted cold storage. Elena, I need you to hold the public front. Do not let the board members panic."
"They won't," Elena promised, kissing Julian’s cheek fiercely. "We are going to war."
