Marcus Reid's POV
The video played on every screen in the office.
Marcus watched it for the seventh time, and each time it got better. Lily rushing through the emergency room doors with a child who had Ethan's exact face. The security footage in black and white and damning. The headline blasting across every news outlet like a bomb.
"Billionaire CEO's Secret Daughter Hidden for Years."
People around him were shocked. Scandalized. Gossiping about what this meant for the company. For Ethan's reputation. For everything.
Marcus was smiling.
He turned away from the screens and looked out his office window at the Manhattan skyline. Ethan was distracted. Bleeding. His perfect image shattered in front of the entire world. His focus was going to be on his daughter and that woman and managing the fallout.
Which meant his focus was not going to be on the money that Marcus had been moving for the last five years.
The money that was supposed to disappear quietly into offshore accounts. The money that Ethan was too busy with his empire to notice was gone.
Marcus had been patient. He'd built his career alongside Ethan. He'd helped create Blackwell Industries. He'd earned the title of COO. He'd earned the trust.
And for five years, he'd been siphoning funds. Small amounts. Nothing that would trigger immediate alerts. Nothing obvious. Just money moving slowly from expansion budgets to accounts in places that didn't ask questions.
Five years of stealing from his best friend.
But Ethan had been so focused on growth and success and conquering the market that he never noticed. The audits came back fine because Marcus controlled the audits. The quarterly reports looked perfect because Marcus wrote them.
Now though. Now Ethan had a daughter. Now he had a woman he clearly couldn't get over. Now his world was collapsing in a very public and very messy way.
And now Marcus could finally make his move.
He picked up his phone and dialed.
Veronica answered on the second ring like she'd been waiting for him to call.
"Tell me you saw it," she said immediately. Her voice was sharp. Bitter. Like she'd been chewing on nails.
"I saw it."
"He brought her to the penthouse. Can you believe that. He's living with her. With them. Like she didn't destroy everything he built."
Marcus almost laughed. Veronica's jealousy was useful. It made her predictable. It made her easy to manipulate.
"I need you to do something for me," Marcus said.
"What."
"Keep talking to the media. Keep feeding them stories about Lily. About the scandal. About whether Ethan really deserves to run a company when he's making such questionable decisions about his personal life."
There was a pause. He heard her breathing. He could practically see her mind working.
"You want me to destroy him," Veronica said slowly.
"I want you to make people question his leadership. That's all."
"Why would you do that. He's your business partner."
"He's distracted. He's vulnerable. And there are people in the company who think I could do a better job running things. But they need a reason to believe it."
Another pause. Then Veronica laughed. Her laugh was cold and sharp and beautiful.
"You're going to push him out," she said.
"I'm going to give the board a reason to look for an alternative. You're going to make sure they see you as part of the problem. A woman obsessed with him. A woman spreading lies. You're going to look unstable and petty and jealous."
"And why would I agree to that."
"Because in the end, Ethan is going to fall. The company is going to need new leadership. And you're going to move on to someone more powerful than him."
Veronica's laugh grew louder.
"I like the way you think," she said. "What do you need me to do."
Marcus told her. Keep calling reporters. Keep mentioning financial irregularities she'd heard about. Keep planting seeds of doubt. Make it sound like she was a spurned lover trying to do the right thing. Make people believe she was concerned about the company's future, not just angry about being left.
She agreed easily. Too easily. It was almost sad how willing she was to destroy someone just because they wouldn't love her back.
After he hung up, Marcus opened his computer.
The files were already prepared. Documents that looked like they'd come from Ethan's own accounts. Transaction records showing money moving to offshore accounts. Authorization forms with Ethan's signature forged so perfectly that even experts would have trouble proving they were fake.
Years of work. Years of planning. Years of waiting for the right moment.
And now the moment had arrived.
Marcus had set up fake offshore accounts tied to Ethan's name. He'd created a paper trail that would take investigators months to untangle. By then, the damage would be done. The board would lose confidence. The shareholders would panic. The company's reputation would be destroyed.
And Marcus would be positioned as the stable one. The one who cared about the company's integrity. The one who'd seen the irregularities and tried to bring them forward even though it meant going against his friend.
The hero.
He opened a folder and scanned through the documents again. Bank statements. Wire transfers. Offshore account confirmations. All perfect. All deadly.
His computer screen glowed in the darkness of his office. The documents looked at him like they were real because they were real enough. The accounts existed. The money had really been moved. The only thing that wasn't real was that Ethan had authorized any of it.
Marcus pulled up his email and started typing to a few board members. Not obviously. Not all at once. Just casual mentions. Just wondering if anyone else had noticed the irregularities in the Q3 reports. Just asking if Ethan seemed distracted lately.
Planting seeds.
By the time he was done, the board would be asking questions. By the time the investigators arrived, there would be enough suspicion around Ethan to make people believe he was guilty.
And Marcus would be the one who brought the evidence forward.
Marcus would be the one who saved the company from its corrupted leader.
He opened a new file and stared at the forged documents one more time. Each one a lie. Each one a weapon.
On the screen, Ethan's signature appeared again and again. Real signatures that Marcus had stolen from legitimate documents and copied onto fraudulent ones. A man's entire identity turned into ammunition against him.
It was brilliant.
It was ruthless.
It was exactly what Marcus needed to finally take what he deserved.
He'd spent years building this company alongside Ethan. Years of working late. Years of strategy meetings. Years of being second-in-command while Ethan got all the credit. All the respect. All the power.
Not anymore.
Marcus smiled at his computer screen. At the evidence that would destroy his best friend. At the fake documents that looked so real that they might as well be true.
In the reflection of the screen, his own face stared back at him. Cold. Calculating. Hungry.
The smile widened.
By the time Ethan figured out what was happening, it would be too late. The board would have already voted. The investigators would already be involved. The media would already be running stories about financial fraud at Blackwell Industries.
And Marcus Reid would be exactly where he'd always belonged.
At the top.