CHAPTER 2: THE FALL
Damian refused to leave.
Long after the boardroom had emptied, he remained standing beside the conference table, staring at the phone in his trembling hand.
Every notification carried another loss.
Account frozen.
Property under review.
Corporate authority revoked.
His assistant quietly gathered the few belongings that were still considered company property.
"Sir..."
Damian looked up.
"The board has asked me to escort you out."
He laughed bitterly.
"Escort me?"
"I built this company."
The assistant lowered his eyes.
"No, sir."
"You managed it."
A painful silence followed.
Security officers appeared at the doorway.
Not aggressively.
Not triumphantly.
Simply following orders.
Damian picked up his expensive jacket, but no one reached to help him.
The same employees who had once rushed to open doors now avoided his gaze.
The elevator ride to the lobby lasted less than a minute.
It felt like the longest minute of his life.
Outside, reporters had already gathered.
Camera flashes exploded the moment he stepped through the revolving doors.
"Mr. Lawson!"
"Is it true you've been removed?"
"Did Elena Voss personally authorize the liquidation?"
"Have you committed financial fraud?"
He said nothing.
For the first time, silence was his only defense.
Across the street, on the top floor of Voss Global Holdings, Elena watched everything through the glass wall of her office.
She didn't smile.
She didn't celebrate.
The victory felt strangely empty.
The CEO entered quietly.
"He's finished."
Elena nodded.
"No."
She continued watching Damian disappear into the crowd.
"He's only meeting the consequences."
She turned away from the window.
"There is still one thing left."
The CEO frowned.
"The audit?"
Elena slowly opened another folder.
Inside were documents no one else had ever seen.
Years of forged reports.
Illegal transfers.
Bribed regulators.
Missing pension funds.
Someone had been stealing from the company for nearly a decade.
May you like
And Damian...
was only one piece of a much larger game.
