Chapter 4 - Corporate Warfare
The next morning, the gates of the Bennett mansion were besieged by paparazzi and investigative journalists. The headlines were savage: “Millionaire Executive Accused of Domestic Terror: Wife Flees Shared Mansion.”
Rachel had played her card perfectly. By striking first in the media, she shifted the public narrative. She appeared on a morning talk show, looking tearful and vulnerable, claiming she had left the house to protect herself from Michael’s volatile temper. She claimed that the injuries on Lily’s back were from a fall that Michael had blamed on her.
Michael sat in his private study, watching the broadcast. Beside him stood Arthur Pendelton, the top family law litigator in the state, alongside his corporate crisis management team.
"The board is panicking, Michael," Arthur said, laying out a stack of financial reports. "Marcus Vance is moving to trigger a morality clause in your corporate charter. If the public backlash doesn't stop, the board will vote to strip you of your CEO title by Friday afternoon to salvage the public offering."
"Let them try," Michael said, his voice entirely devoid of fear. "What Rachel and Marcus don't realize is that I don't care about the company anymore. I care about my daughter's justice."
May you like
Michael knew that Rachel couldn't have pulled off a sophisticated legal and media blitz overnight on her own. She was being funded and guided by someone inside his own company. He authorized his private intelligence team to conduct a deep forensic audit of Rachel’s personal bank accounts and phone records over the past six months.
By Thursday afternoon, the breakthrough arrived. Rachel had received multiple large, untraceable wire transfers from a shell corporation owned by none other than Marcus Vance. Marcus was using Rachel to orchestrate a corporate coup, intending to tank the company's value, force Michael out, and buy up the controlling shares for pennies on the dollar.
