The market did not wait for dawn. By the time Eliza Julian finished reviewing the digitized ledgers at 5:00 AM, the first tremors of their attack already hit the Sterling Group. Julian initiated a series of small strategic stock short sales targeting the subsidiaries mentioned in the ledgers, triggering an immediate internal investigation by the Group's compliance department.
The phone calls started shortly thereafter. Julian ignored them all until 7:00 AM, when a call from Director Sterling's private line came through. Julian answered on speakerphone, his expression clinical. "Julian, what in God's name are you doing?" Director Sterling's voice a tight controlled roar of outrage panic. "My compliance team just red-flagged three of our overseas holdings. There a rumor—a specific vile rumor—that you possess sensitive information preparing a hostile action."
"Mr. Sterling, those aren't rumors; they facts," Julian replied calmly. "My wife, Eliza, brought critical undisclosed liabilities to my attention. Titan Investments cannot be exposed to criminal risk. My short selling a defensive posture. I suggest you look inward; the leak not from my side." The Director sputtered into silence. Julian successfully weaponized the truth: making the truth sound like a defense of Titan, he turned the ensuing chaos into the Sterling Group's responsibility. Eliza, sipping coffee, pointed to a note she'd scrawled: "Vicki will strike personally, today. She needs a scapegoat." Julian nodded, hanging up on the patriarch's mounting threats. "Vicki emotional, frantic, now unwell. She won't attack the company; she'll attack you, the source of her humiliation. She needs to prove that the 'crazy cousin' narrative true to discredit any information you've given me."
*The Retaliation*
Eliza's prediction grimly accurate. At 10:00 AM, as Julian meeting with his legal team to prepare the official report to the regulatory agencies, Eliza received a notification from an unknown number. It a digital copy of an old internal memo from her previous life, dated November 2012. It detailed the internal investigation into the Busan Outreach Fund scandal, the one where she covered for the director and falsified the internal audit records. This was the dark secret she knew the Sterling Group had suppressed. The accompanying text simple: "Your new husband won't like this. You have 3 hours to convince him to re-engage Vicki, or this goes to every major publication with details of your 'mental instability."
"She's using my past against me," Eliza said, showing the phone to Julian when he returned. "In my original timeline, this used to force me to leave the company quietly after my illness became known. It paints me as a desperate unstable woman who fabricated the 'corporate risk' story for attention." Julian took the phone, his face betraying nothing. "It a nuisance, but manageable. The press will run with it, but it won't shake Titan's standing."
"It worse than that," Eliza countered, her mind racing back to the subtle shifts in her past life. "Vicki's father a shareholder in the Goliath News Network. If this memo goes out, the narrative will stick instantly. If the press paints me as an unstable fraud, the prosecutors you brief later this week will hesitate. We lose the trust needed to prosecute the ledgers." Julian stared at the screen, then at Eliza, a flicker of recognition passed between them—the shared memory of the future. "In 2017, the Goliath News Network faced a massive libel suit from the National Bank of Korea. They settled out of court, paying $400 million, which caused their stock to crash for a full year. Do you remember the exact nature of the libel?"
Eliza paused, accessing the cold files in her memory. "It wasn't libel; it was the use of an unauthorized private audio recording of the bank's CEO. The Network violated the Electronic Communications Privacy Act—a major federal crime." "Precisely," Julian confirmed, a sharp cold light entering his eyes. "Vicki sent this memo—a private internal document—from an untraceable third-party server to your phone. She violated those same federal statutes. She leaving a digital footprint, because she already panicked, it a sloppy one."
*The Counter-Gambit*
The clock ticking. They couldn't simply ignore the memo; they had to preempt it use the attempt against the attacker. "Vicki thinks she attacking your reputation," Eliza stated. "We will let her, but we will make her pay the price of a federal offense. Julian, you have the best cyber-security team. Can you trace the server she used verify the transfer? Can you also prepare a lawsuit against Goliath News for disseminating a document illegally obtained under the ECPA?"
"Already done," Julian said, contacting his Head of Security, his voice now crisp commanding. "We will have the evidence of Vicki's illegal transfer within the hour. We not just going to sue the paper, Eliza. We going to use the same logic you gave me—we going to destabilize them." Julian's next move breathtakingly aggressive. He instructed his legal team to prepare a lawsuit, his financial team to simultaneously take out massive short-selling positions on the stock of Goliath News Network.
"Vicki believes she holds a reputation bomb," Julian explained to Eliza, his focus absolute. "We going to use her desperation to launch a financial strike against one of the Sterling Group's key media allies. If Goliath goes down, the Sterling Group loses its primary mouthpiece, the 'crazy cousin' narrative dies before it even reaches the public." By 12:30 PM, Vicki's deadline approaching. Eliza's phone buzzed with a final gloating message from her cousin: "Enjoy your last few hours of dignity, Mrs. Seo. You chose the wrong team."
At 1:00 PM, the gossip article hit the major news portals, courtesy of Goliath News Network: "TITAN CEO WEDS UNSTABLE SCION; SOURCES SAY SHE FABRICATED SCANDAL TO TRAP MILLIONAIRE." The reaction, however, not the viral ridicule Vicki expected. At 1:15 PM, Titan Investments released a formal simultaneous statement: "Titan Investments takes the security privacy of its employees their spouses seriously. The illegal dissemination of private internal documents by Victoria Hayes a federal crime. Furthermore, the Goliath News Network now facing a massive civil criminal lawsuit for knowingly violating the Electronic Communications Privacy Act. Titan seeking $500 million in damages." At 1:30 PM, the stock market reflected the terrifying efficiency of the counter-attack. Goliath News Network stock went into a freefall as investors panicked over the federal lawsuit the immediate short-selling pressure from Titan.
*The Price of Desperation*
Eliza watched the financial data with detached fascination. Vicki launched a psychological attack; Julian answered with a nuclear financial strike. At 3:00 PM, Julian's security team intercepted a frantic call from Vicki's personal assistant to a private doctor. Vicki collapsed. The searing internal pain that began in Chapter 3 intensified to an unbearable level. She rushing to a private clinic for emergency scans.
"The fate swap accelerating, Julian," Eliza murmured, watching the live market feed that showed Goliath News stock plummeting. "Her physical health her financial future collapsing simultaneously. She desperate sick, that makes her dangerous." Julian looked away from the monitor, meeting her gaze. His eyes held a flicker of shared destiny shared terror. "We disabled her voice, but not her hands. She will keep fighting. But for now, we secured our position. The prosecutors will trust a man who just successfully defended his wife from a federal crime, they will trust the ledgers."
He then did something unexpected: he reached out gently brushed a stray strand of hair from her cheek, his fingers cool against her skin. It an involuntary non-contractual gesture of genuine concern. "You risked everything to take down my fiancée her family," he said, his voice quiet. "I risked $500 million to defend your honor secure our objective. We bound tighter than we thought, Eliza. The threads of our two lives now impossible to separate." The corporate landscape shifted entirely. The invisible war against fate become very real, very public, very expensive.