Kylie POV As we approached the entrance of the hall, as usual, cars were trolling in one after the other after a proper check-in at the gate. It wasn't just an ordinary party, so proper checking needed to be done. Few of the cars were still before us so we had parked and waited till it was our turn. I glanced at everyone who seemed pretty focused on their phones before my eyes met with Jackson's. “Are you- I was going to say something when he glanced away. Words got stuck in my mouth as I wondered what just happened.Not only did he avoid me through the whole drive, but he also acted like a kid because I see no reason why he should be mad at me. I might have done something, but at least he is grown enough to understand what communication means. “Are you two fighting?” Just when I thought nobody was watching, I heard Mia's voice, whispering in my ear.“Nothing. Maybe he is that time of the month” I responded, trying to be funny. That way I wouldn't act like I was angry. “Don't be
Kylie POV “Hello everyone, this is the ball party!” the voice echoed in the hall, saving me from the tension with Henry J. Immediately I used that as an excuse to relieve myself from any more conversation.“Henry,let's catch up after the party” I said to him as I was able to end our conversation. The atmosphere became calm. We were all seated, waiting to begin and the only person who could open the ground floor was Madam Wilson. As the greatest woman in the whole of New York, she was the only one who had the power bestowed on her by the late Jade Wilson, the one who created the ball club. Practically we could say the ball club began ages ago. Just when I was settled, trying to fix myself, Madam Wilson walked into the hall. Everybody got up on a standing ovation out of respect for the most powerful woman of the club.“I welcome you all to this month's ball party” madam Wilson's feisty voice filled the room, holding with authority and power.Everybody slightly bowed their heads and
Austin's POV I wondered how I ended up in such messy and weakling situations. Things were taking a different turn, the one I couldn't even comprehend. I was beginning to lose myself, I mean how could an ordinary woman give order and everyone followed like a Zombie.I got up from the ground, using my hand to properly arrange my shirt. I couldn't believe I was thrown out of the party. I have never been humiliated this way all my life. I could feel the surge of anger passing through my veins as I stood outside, staring at everyone acting like nothing just happened.“How dare you Kylie!” I groaned. I wasn't going to give up, never! I was trained to be a fighter and I have just been trying so hard to avoid going down dirty with Kylie but with what she had just done, I was going to go dirtier, lower than she thought. I would show her two can also play the game.I got into my car and in the highest speedometer of the car engine, I drove out of the premises not giving any chance to the offic
Jackson’s POV I have never seen something more sanctifying than what Kylie did at that ball party. She handled the whole thing better than I expected. She deserves the position handed to her, nobody could handle such a position better. In a way I felt worried about the pressure that would be on her, nevertheless I was certain she would pull through. I was scared she would flutter when Austin arrived. I knew how much she has been trying not to make things out of proportion. I never thought Austin could be so clueless showing himself at the ball party after everything he put Kylie through.Well, I was glad Kylie had finally put him where he deserves. He had better learn his lesson or else he would be fighting with me next. I figured I have been so quiet all this while and I wasn't ready to keep that way anymore. I thought interfering in Kylie’s personal issues might jeopardize things but I realized I might end up regretting it if I continued that way.As we approached the giant build
Kylie’s POV “What is this? How did this get out there?” I flipped my phone on the table asking the obvious. “I am sorry ma'am. We are fixing it!” Lady oh voice shaking as she responded. “For how long will it take to fix a common leaked news on the Internet!” I snapped out. At this point I was beginning to act out character. “It not that easy but- “Not easy?!” I interrupted and continued. “No.. lady Oh, this shouldn't be coming from you. You of all people should know how this is going to affect the company” I placed my hand on my forehead. Nothing actually made sense. Only a few people knew I was once married to Austin and I have always been grateful our marriage was never in the spotlight else the divorce would cause a lot of havoc but now, my fear was about to come haunting me.“I am sorry Mrs Kylie” Lady Oh pleaded and in a way it felt annoying and unpleasant in my ear, not even in the middle of such a storm.“Can you just stop apologizing?!” I sneered, anger boiling through m
Emily's POV. I just couldn't express the joy my heart felt with the recent development. Things were going exactly the way I wanted. Austin does not have to worry about anything that way, we could have enough time to spend together. I knew he loved me. He did not have to tell me, I could tell how much he felt about me. “ You and your family treated him badly! Divorce him and then force him out of the ball party! Humiliating the man! What a drainage family! Austin Natalie needs to be protected at all costs!” The recent headline news slipped off my lips as I opened my phone. I leaned back the chair, a satisfactory smile occupied all over my face. My phone vibrated with the table. “This is great!” I said, still staring at the blogger gist headline. “I am glad you like this,” he responded. “Keep it coming, I am enjoying it” I smiled and ended the call. I have always known myself to be a problem solver. No matter how hard the situation might be, I would turn the table arou
Austin POV I used to think Emily was the better choice but Nah, she would constantly prove to me that I had made the wrong choice. If not anything, I hate being in the spotlight and if at all I found myself in one, it should be Something worthy. I should be achieving and signing deals which other competitive companies couldn't attain.Seeking the people pity words?! That bullshit. I'm not some weakling who needs validation from people or some sort of pity party in my life. “You better fix it!” I sneered at her. Anger passing through my veins.“That must be a joke, right?” She chulked dryly. I wonder how I suddenly became a joke to Emily. In a way, she stil think she could order me around like she used to do. I have her already and all of that have to stop. I am the man who should make the orders and not the other way round.I closed the gap between us. Raised her jaw up, staring deep into her eyes as I responded.“Don't dare me!” I could see my face in her eyes, burning red.“Oh
Austin's POV My eyes popped out as I stared at the Economy chat on the television screen. My company stock was dropping right in front of my eyes. Not just that, the red notification at the side corner of the screen kept beeping. It always meant one thing with the red notification, investors are withdrawing their shares. I folded my hands firmly together, I could feel myself burning from the inside. Anger was all that passed through my veins.“Emily! Emily! Emily!” I groaned under my teeth. Everything went wrong the moment she intervened. Maybe I should have handled things my way. At this point, I felt so regretful for relying on Emily trying to protect my company and now I caused my company to drown.“This isn't the time to blame things on Emily,” Francis suddenly said. I glanced at him wondering if he understood what he had just said. It was the company we were talking about. It was obvious everything happened because of Emily's stupid idea of protecting me.“What?!” I murmured o
Jackson’s POVI sat at my workstation in our high-security operations room, staring at a series of fragmented data points on the screen. Hours earlier, I’d received a message from our whistleblower—a former competitor turned informant—detailing a hidden network of shell companies. His information had been cryptic at first, but now I had my own intercepted data to cross-reference. I could feel the intensity of what was unfolding. This was the moment we had been waiting for.I opened up our encryption software and loaded the whistleblower’s dossier alongside our collection of intercepted messages. The screens filled with numbers, transaction logs, and coded references. I murmured to myself, “Let’s see if the pieces align.”Almost immediately, a familiar code, “BX-47,” started to reappear alongside new strings. My pulse quickened as I recognized that the shell company names and money transfers mentioned in the whistleblower’s file were showing up in our intercepted data too. I turned to
James's POVI came back to headquarters with racing heart and a folder of fresh information clutched tightly in my hand. The trip had been long, but I knew I couldn't let go of any lead. Today, I was meeting an unexpected surprise—a former competitor turned informant. His name had been unfamiliar to me for months, and now this meeting could be the one to unleash even deeper depths of the conspiracy.I made my way to a secure, nameless meeting room set up at a distant location outside the city. I had been told discretion was essential, so I had chosen a middle ground where words would not be overheard. I sat in a small, round table, fingers drumming softly as I waited for my contact. My phone buzzed with a secure text: "I'm here. Name's Victor.". Find me in the blue jacket."The door had opened quietly a minute after that. A man in a blue jacket came in. His eyes were etched with experience and his face a combination of cautious resolve. He sat down opposite me."James, I'm Victor," he
Kylie's POVI lingered late last night in the dimly lit conference room, my inner circle of people gathered around the long table. The atmosphere was heavy with fatigue and concern—each of us weighed down by recent double-crosses and the increasing unease of an enemy whose power seemed to seep into every facet of our lives. I looked at the sheets of paper laid out on the table, the confidential reports, coded messages, and in-house memos that talked of a grand conspiracy.I swallowed hard and began, "Thanks for coming on such short notice. We all understand what has brought us here." I paused to meet the eye of each trusted counsel as I fought to hold back the storm of emotions. "We stand at a crossroads. Our most recent intelligence has given us a glimpse at the enemy's strength, and now we must decide what to do.".My chief security officer, Mark, was the one to break the silence. "Kylie, it appears that the case is mounting. But there's still much that we don't understand. I think
Jackson's POVI was back at my desk at headquarters in Bhutan, the hum of computers and soft pecks of keyboards sounding almost hypnotic. The trail of our recent operations placed me on high alert. Every intercepted message, every new anomaly in the electronic trail, made me more confident that our opponent was active. I realized we had to act fast; time was crucial.I opened the monitoring program and issued commands, cranking up our online watchfulness on all things offshore and in-house messages. "Come on, give me something," I muttered as I waded through a maze of jumbled logs and financial data. My fingers danced across the keyboard as I applied filters that would flag any out-of-pattern activity.My phone buzzed with a secure text from Mia: "Jackson, increased activity noted on channel B-21. Suspect hostile maneuver. Please consult." I scowled. This could be the cue I'd been waiting for.I quickly grabbed the secure conference button and called Marcus, our lead on financial surv
James's POVI leaned back in the busy corner of the exclusive meeting room at the conference, going out of my way to keep up my cover. The room was dark, lighted only by the gentle glint of a few strategically-placed lamps. Top investors and business giants moved in quiet clusters around me. I'd been undercover here nearly two days now, and what I'd heard was now shaping up to be so much hotter than I could ever have imagined.I had introduced myself as a consultant seeking general market strategy, an experienced individual to advise on corporate mergers. During the last day, my subtle conversation with some of the participants had already begun to say something ominous. During one of the discussions with an illustrious investment strategist—I shall refer to him as Mr. S—I had discovered that the consortium was gearing up to make its ultimate push: a concomitant bid to acquire control of leading companies across various industries. And Bhutan was among them.My heart pounded inside me
Kylie's POVI was in my office late one afternoon, working, when the tip arrived—a secret message from one of our external sources. I nearly spilled my coffee cup as I read the message: an international investors' secret summit was being called. The summit was not another industry conference; it was secret, open to only a very select few. There were rumors that these investors were the masterminds behind those groups that undermined the stability of Bhutan. I shivered.I called my Chief of Strategy, Elena. "Elena, I need a meeting now in my office. It's about an underground meeting of international investors."In minutes, Elena was in my office, her eyes narrowed. "Kylie, what's wrong? You're tense.".I leaned forward, not in the least reluctant. "I've just received word of a summit that no one's publicly listed. It's by invitation only, for the crème de la crème of foreign investors, and I believe they're being courted by our enemies—by the other consortium to undermine us from the i
Jackson’s POVI sat in my quiet office at headquarters, the only light coming from the softly humming server rack and my computer screen. I had been tracking a series of suspicious wire transfers for days now, and something told me that the true financial backbone of the conspiracy was waiting to be uncovered. My focus was absolute; every transfer, every account, was a potential clue.I opened the secure database and began my investigation. “Let’s see where these threads lead,” I murmured, rubbing my temples. The screen displayed a series of offshore accounts, interlinked through a maze of corporate shell companies. One account, in particular, caught my eye—a conduit that seemed to relay funds from a well-known foreign country. I typed in a series of commands to pull up the transaction history.Almost immediately, a list of large transfers appeared. The amounts were astronomical, each transfer carefully time-stamped and routed through multiple intermediaries. I leaned forward, eyes na
James's POVI journeyed to Frankfurt with a purpose.a quest to dig deeper into the money center that had become the hub of rumor and off-the-record talk. Movement thrummed in the atmosphere at the central station, and I strode with purposeful resolve. Our opponent was not acting alone, I was sure. Rumor had led me thus far, and I was determined to uncover secret links between movers and shakers and consortium members.I checked into a modest hotel on the edge of the financial district, and then I set off with my locked phone. I had one definite strategy: attempt to blend in, stay on the beaten path, and pick up any on-the-record interview cautiously. I had arranged a sit-down with one of my reliable sources, a low-key journalist by the name of Lars who wrote about financial scandal. There were whispers of clandestine meetings between high-ups and consortium officials, Lars told me. I may be able to dig up these secret links if I could get closer.Lars met me in a dingy, backstreet caf
Kylie's POVI sat in my private meeting room, a hidden space in our headquarters, and watched as the scrambled video connection reached out to worldwide partners from around the world. Today was do or die—I had arranged a covert meeting with our most trusted global partners to form an integrated alliance against the rival consortium. My heart pounded, but I knew this was one move to help save Bhutan.I coughed and went on, "Good morning, all. Thank you for coming at short notice. I know we are all under tremendous pressure, but our cooperation is more crucial than ever. We meet today to build a world union against an extremely real menace."The people on my screen were of diverse cultures and jurisprudence. There was Ingrid in Frankfurt, Alessandro in Milan, Mei Ling in Singapore, and Rajiv in Mumbai. They all had their own accent, own sets of laws, and different viewpoints—and each one was a pillar in the battle against the consortium.Ingrid was the first to speak, her tone calm and