At Lucent Trade Corp's headquarters on the 13th floor, she spotted a hidden security camera tucked under a panel with a security light. After retrieving seven months of footage, her heart began to race as she started watching the recordings.
One clip showed a heated argument between Selina and Alpha.
Selina, visibly upset, said, "This is not what I wanted."
Alpha, cold as ice, replied, "You wanted me. You got me."
She shot back, frustration in her voice, "I wanted your love, not this madness."
With an icy tone, he shot back, "Love doesn't keep empires alive, Selina. Fear does."
Then, out of nowhere, he grabbed her by the waist and pulled her in for a kiss. Surprisingly, she didn't push him away; instead, a whirlwind of emotions took over her, leaving her momentarily breathless.
Lunel was totally wiped out after watching that shocking video and hearing all the crazy stuff. It was way too much to handle at that moment. Selina seemed to be going with the flow, not saying much or resisting at all, as if she were in a trance while he guided her hands.
By the time the video ended, Lunel felt sick to her stomach over what she had just seen.
After three grueling days of sifting through piles of files, she finally found the last piece of evidence that could tie everything together. It felt like a breakthrough in the middle of all the chaos.
She managed to crack into an encrypted backup of a laptop from Alpha's suite, which was famous for hiding secrets. As she waded through the tangled mess of hexadecimal code, her heart raced when she found something surprising: an audio journal that hinted at some seriously dark truths.
As she settled into her cozy apartment, Lunel hit play on the old recording, her heart pounding with curiosity. Alpha's voice came through smooth and deep, wrapping around her like a cold breeze. It sent chills down her spine, leaving her both captivated and uneasy.
"Selina was the first girl I broke," Alpha's voice drifted from the speakers, laced with a chilling confidence. "She was so fragile, easy to manipulate, like clay I could shape as I pleased. Now, she's out there doing my dirty work, breaking others for me, like a twisted reflection of my influence. Isn't it wild how someone's pain can turn into this odd kind of loyalty?"
Lunel felt a knot in her stomach as his words sank in. To everyone else in the city, he was just this devoted family guy, someone who seemed genuine and caring, but behind that facade lay something dark and dangerous.
"But once the sun sets," he went on, his tone deepening, "every king needs a different kind of crown, one that craves power just as much as love."
As Lunel listened, she couldn't shake the feeling that Alpha was more than just your average psychopath; he was a complex guy hiding out in the open. While everyone else saw him as a nice guy, he was really pulling strings behind the scenes, manipulating situations from the shadows.
Under the project called BLACKLOTUS, she put together some key pieces that shed light on Alpha's shady operations:
Sectors System: This was a detailed index that kept track of various trafficking activities and trends, giving a clear picture of what was going on in different areas.
Gilded Cage: This was a live auction platform where people could bid on rare and illegal items in real-time. It turned the serious world of trafficking into an exciting competition, making it almost like a sporting event for bidders.
VARGAS NOIRE: This part focused on the global trade of controlled substances and other risky goods, making it easier for transactions to cross borders, no matter the legal hurdles.
Lucent Trade: A series of trials tested out synthetic drugs to see how they worked and if they had the potential to break into the market.
VIP Clients: This included a network of influential people in politics, biotech, and diplomacy, which gave Alpha valuable connections for profitable deals.
Emotional Bond: This project showcased Selina, a character shaped by real experiences of trauma, highlighting how emotional factors can affect business relationships.
At the end of her findings, she made a daring statement that really captured the complexity of these issues.
"ALPHA DARK = SYSTEMATIC EVIL."
As she dug deeper into what Alpha Dark was up to, she started to realize something huge. The footage she had looked at before wasn't the end of it; there was way more going on. He wasn't just some trafficker; he was a traitor, turning his back on everyone close to him. The stuff he was into was much darker than anyone would have thought, and it involved some seriously shady deals with people and groups that were wrapped up in all kinds of trouble.
He owned the Serena Girls' Hostel, which seemed pretty normal at first glance, but it was hiding a terrible secret linked to his trafficking operations. Lunel couldn't believe what she was finding out; it sounded way too awful to be true, but the reality turned out to be even worse than she imagined. This guy wasn't just trafficking the girls; he was taking advantage of them every night, with buyers showing up at the hostel daily. Parents sent their daughters there to study and live in what they thought was a safe place, completely unaware that this monster was exploiting them.
What really made it disturbing was that many of the girls felt trapped in this nightmare. They were being blackmailed since most came from middle-class families that had taken out loans just to get them into the hostel. This pressure kept them from speaking up. Some had lost their parents and were left to fend for themselves, while others came from wealthy families but were still caught up with the traffickers. Many had been in relationships that ended up with pregnancies, which they had to terminate in secret. The traffickers used evidence of these situations to keep the girls silent and controlled.
Some of the girls had responsibilities and came to the hostel to live and work nearby, hoping to support their families. But day after day, they felt like they were slowly losing themselves. They didn't have the courage to stand up for their own freedom and dignity, feeling trapped in a never-ending struggle.