The moment the tape dropped, the world stopped spinning.
News sites crashed from traffic.
Trending hashtags exploded.
Talk shows ran emergency segments, whispering about impropriety, seduction, power, scandal.
> #WolfeAndTheHeiress
#EastinExposed
#PowerIsTheNewPorn
Yuna sat frozen on the edge of the bed in Wolfe Tower, the image of herself on-screen burned into her brain.
The way Alexander touched her.
The words she said.
"I'd burn the world for you."
She hadn't meant it for the world.
But now the world had it.
And it was already deciding what it meant.
Alexander didn't speak for a full hour.
He stood in front of the massive monitor in his war room, watching the leaked tape play on a loop with clenched fists and a jaw so tight it looked carved from steel.
"She said she'd burn the world," one newscaster declared. "The question is—for what? Revenge? Fame? Or something darker?"
"They're calling you a predator," Yuna whispered from the doorway.
He didn't look back. "And they're calling you a whore."
Silence.
Then he exhaled slow. "Sorry. That wasn't fair."
"No," Yuna said quietly. "But it's true."
She stepped closer, voice barely above a breath. "They've always needed me to fit in a box. Princess. Pawn. Seductress. Now they're finally seeing me, and they hate it."
Alexander finally turned.
His eyes were exhausted. Guarded. But still burning.
"I've been hated before," he said. "But not like this."
She nodded. "Not with desire painted as danger."
They stood in silence for a long moment.
Then he asked neither of them had dared voice yet.
"Was it real? What we said that night?"
Yuna swallowed hard.
"Yes," she whispered.
He didn't move.
Didn't breathe.
Just stared.
"And you?" she asked. "Was it just strategy for you?"
His jaw ticked.
"No."
That one word cracked the distance between them.
But not enough.
The board met that evening.
Emergency session.
Half were furious. Half were terrified. A few were both.
Alexander dialed in remotely, his face set like stone.
"Damage control isn't enough," one director snapped. "You've exposed the company to public disgrace, financial scrutiny—"
"Enough," Alexander cut in. "You think this is about PR? This is war. We're not losing money because of a scandal. We're losing it because someone is bleeding us from the inside."
Another director spoke up. "You think this is sabotage?"
"I know it is."
They demanded proof.
He promised it was coming.
When the call ended, he sat back in the shadows, alone.
Until Yuna entered with a tablet.
She tossed it onto the table.
"Here's your proof."
On screen: a breakdown of financial activity linking Austin's dummy shell company—Monarch Seven Holdings—to a dozen recent media leaks and board bribes.
Alexander scrolled through the numbers.
His breath caught.
This wasn't sabotage.
This was a coup.
"He's building a takeover," he whispered. "And using our scandals to fund it."
Yuna's voice shook. "If he succeeds, he won't just ruin us. He'll own us."
Back in her penthouse suite, Elsa watched the footage again.
The sex tape.
The press conference.
The boardroom leaks.
All of it was unraveling exactly as planned.
Until David entered the room, holding a file.
"You should see this."
She looked up.
"I already know what's happening."
"No," he said. "You don't."
He tossed the folder onto her lap.
Inside: a printout from a private military contract database.
A classified document labeled: Operation Hollow Crown.
Marked: ACTIVE.
Funded by: Monarch Seven Holdings.
Signed: Austin Daniel Monroe.
Elsa's face paled.
"You didn't know?" David said, half-smiling. "Seems our little handler isn't working for us anymore."
Austin stood in a glass-walled conference room deep beneath the city.
He didn't blink as the footage played—again.
Yuna and Alexander.
Love. Lust. Loyalty.
It didn't matter anymore.
Not to him.
He closed the laptop, took a phone call, and nodded once.
Then whispered:
Release phase five.
The inheritance clause goes live at midnight."
Back in Wolfe Tower, Yuna paced the living room like a caged flame.
"They're not just trying to humiliate us," she said. "They're trying to erase us."
Alexander leaned against the piano, arms folded. "Because they can't control what they can't predict."
She turned to him. "Then let's be unpredictable."
His eyes narrowed. "What do you mean?"
"Everyone thinks we're collapsing. Let's make them think we already have."
He frowned. "You want us to break up—publicly?"
"Not break up," she drawled. "Explode."
Her voice turned sharper. "Let the world think we're finished. Give them their climax."
Alexander exhaled. "You want to fake a public fallout."
"Yes. Then we vanish."
"For how long?"
"Just long enough to find Austin. And the truth."
He hesitated.
Then nodded.
"Let's burn the script."
At midnight, Alexander's personal legal server lit up with a red alert.
> CLAUSE ACTIVATED: INHERITANCE CONTINGENCY PROTOCOL
Per every sealed contract: If Alexander Wolfe is deemed unfit due to moral misconduct or mental instability, the next qualified heir inherits all family holdings.
Named successor: Austin Daniel Monroe.