Chapter 23 - The Media Storm
The digital shockwave hit Chicago before sunrise. By 7:00 AM, our corporate PR hotline was jammed, and major news networks were camped outside the lobby of the Apex-Montgomery glass monolith.
Marcus rushed into my penthouse office before I had even finished my morning coffee, his tablet flashing red with breaking news alerts.
"Maya, look at this! The Julian Reed exposé is trending globally. It's picking up traction across every major financial syndicate in New York and London. They're claiming our initial corporate takeover and the trust fund validation were based on fabricated federal documents."
I calmly set my coffee cup down on the marble counter. I didn't panic. Panic was a luxury for people who didn't know how to survive a storm. I walked over to my desk, opened a secure digital folder, and pulled up the exact metadata of the documents in question.
"Julian Reed," I muttered, reading his author bio. "A young investigative reporter looking for a fast track to a Pulitzer, backed by Zurich funding. It has Viktor Vance's fingerprints all over it."
"Should we issue a standard legal denial?" Marcus asked, his jaw clenched.
"No," I replied, my gray eyes hardening with absolute resolve. "A denial looks like defense. We don't defend. We counter-attack with overwhelming, undeniable force."
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I turned to my computer terminal and authorized an immediate, simultaneous broadcast across every major news network and digital platform we owned.
"Release the complete, unredacted federal court transcripts, the unassailable biometric DNA verifications, and the complete audit trail of the debt acquisition," I instructed sharply. "And simultaneously, file a multi-million-dollar defamation lawsuit against Julian Reed and every syndication network publishing unverified libel—starting with Viktor Vance's Swiss holding firm."
