Chapter 9 - THE WAR ROOMThe board members stared at Ethan in stunned silence. They had never seen their chairman look like this—not during market crashes, not during federal investigations. He looked like a man who had just been handed a death sentence and decided he was going to take the executioner down with him.
"Cancel all meetings," Ethan ordered, his voice echoing with absolute, terrifying authority through the boardroom.
"Ethan, what did Vance want?" Daniel asked, stepping forward.
"He wants the company," Ethan said, sliding his tailored suit jacket off and tossing it over the back of his chair, rolling up his sleeves to reveal the hard, corded muscle beneath. "He wants Crestline. He thinks by threatening Maya and Noah, he can force me to hand over the keys to the kingdom."
"You can't give it to him," Daniel argued. "If Vance takes over, he'll strip the company and leave us all ruined."
"I'm not giving him the company," Ethan said, his dark, hooded eyes flashing with a dangerous, lethal brilliance. "And I'm not letting him touch my family. Daniel, call the federal prosecutor handling white-collar financial crimes in the Pacific Northwest division. Tell him I have unredacted proof that Jonathan Vance has been funneling illegal foreign capital through shell companies to manipulate public infrastructure bids."
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Daniel blinked, stunned. "You have that?"
"I've had it for six months," Ethan said coldly, pulling a secure encrypted flash drive from his pocket and setting it on the table. "I was waiting for the right moment to crush him legally. But Vance just accelerated the timeline."
