Chapter 2 - THE DISMANTLING OF THE EMPPIRE
Daniel missed his meeting in Scotland. The fallout was immediate. By the time he touched down in London that evening, his phone was essentially unusable. His board was in an uproar; investors were questioning his sanity; the media was sniffing around, trying to figure out why the tech titan had vanished from the public eye during the most important merger of his career.
He didn't care.
He walked into his office, a sleek, glass-walled space overlooking the city, and found his chief advisor, Marcus, waiting.
"You've cost us a billion dollars in market cap, Daniel," Marcus said, his voice cold. "The board is convening an emergency session. They’re talking about a vote of no confidence. What were you doing in King’s Cross?"
"I was helping a family," Daniel said, hanging up his coat. "And I’m going to need you to authorize a private security extraction and a legal protection package for them. I want a new identity for the mother, a trust for the child, and a permanent security detail that reports only to me."
Marcus laughed, a dry, humorless sound. "You're going to lose your company, Daniel. All for a woman you met in a bathroom? This is career suicide."
"Then let it be," Daniel said, moving to his desk and opening his laptop. "I spent ten years building a fortress of code and capital, and yet, I was entirely helpless when a child asked for a seat at my table. If the board wants to fire me because I prioritized a human life over a dividend, then they’re not the people I want to be working for anyway."
He began to draft a public statement. He wasn't going to apologize for his absence. He was going to explain it.
He wrote about the fragility of life. He wrote about the silence of the station and the crying child. He wrote about the "predators in tailored suits" who operated under the radar of the law, much like the man stalking Sarah.
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"You're going to publish this?" Marcus asked, leaning over the desk.
"I'm going to leak it to every major outlet," Daniel replied. "I'm going to turn the spotlight on the very shadow-world that allows people like Sarah’s husband to thrive. If I’m going down, I’m going to drag every hidden, ugly truth I’ve seen in this city down with me."
