hapter 12: Collateral Damage
hapter 12: Collateral Damage
While Preston sat rotting in a high-security holding cell, the terrifying shockwaves of his arrest rippled through the black market. The loan shark, Victor, realizing that the stolen tech designs on the flash drive were now flagged under active federal investigation and completely worthless, decided to violently cut his losses.
Fearing that the feds were closing in on his own operations, Victor anonymously leaked the entire communications cache to investigative journalists. The documents exposed a ring of corrupt corporate executives still hiding within Hayes Global who had secretly assisted Preston in his industrial espionage schemes.
Emily didn't panic. She seized the chaotic public scandal as an opportunity to perform radical surgery on the corporation. Within forty-eight hours, she swept out the final remnants of Preston's toxic influence, replacing them with a brand-new board of young, fiercely loyal, and fiercely ethical innovators. Hayes Global emerged from the fire cleaner, stronger, and more transparent than ever before.
