[Jake’s POV]

The drive back to Apex Tower was quiet in the wrong way.

Not peaceful. Not thoughtful. It was the kind of silence people held when everyone knew the first person to speak would make the problem real. Claire sat beside me with her tablet open, the glow cutting sharp lines across her face. Ethan sat opposite us, one hand pressed carefully against his ribs, eyes fixed on the city lights sliding past the window. Darius rode in front, still as a locked door.

Sofia’s digital signature had appeared thirty minutes ago.

That should have been impossible.

Sofia Aldridge did not authorize emergency board sessions through loose channels. She hated disorder. She hated rushed signatures. She hated men touching her company without permission even more than she hated being underestimated. Sofia could turn a boardroom into a courtroom with one raised eyebrow and make guilty men thank her for the sentence.

If her signature was real, then she was alive and acting under pressure.

If it was fake, then someone had reached deep enough into Aldridge Enterprises to wear her authority like a mask.

Neither answer was gentle.

Claire broke the silence first. "Nia is isolating the signature path. She says it passed three authentication gates."

"Three?"

"Yes. Legal, executive, and emergency continuity."

Ethan shifted slightly, then winced. "Can that be faked?"

Claire hesitated.

That hesitation said enough.

"It can," she said. "But not by an outsider. Whoever did this either had Sofia’s private keys, or had access to someone who could trigger them."

I looked out the window. "Inside Aldridge."

"Or close enough to her to touch something private."

That was worse.

The System appeared.

**[Ding!]**

**[Mission Updated!]**

**Mission: Find Sofia**

**Objective: Verify whether Sofia Aldridge’s emergency signature is genuine.]**

**Reward: Sofia Status Fragment.]**

**Penalty: Severe if ignored.]**

No joke. No insult. No stupid shoelace comment.

For once, the System sounded serious.

I almost wished it had mocked me.

Ethan leaned forward. "What happens if the board session goes through?"

Claire scrolled with her thumb. "Emergency vote. Temporary restructuring of executive authority until Sofia ’resumes full public duties.’ That is the exact phrase."

I laughed once.

It did not sound like me.

"Resumes full public duties," Ethan repeated. "So they want to admit she is absent without saying she is missing."

Claire nodded. "If the vote passes, control moves to a three-person executive committee."

"Names," I said.

"Elena Markham. Simon Vale. Lawrence Pike."

Ethan frowned. "We know two."

"Markham from Aldridge legal," Claire said. "Vale from Aether’s dormant account route. Pike is new."

I turned to her. "Who is he?"

"Old Aldridge man. Sixty-four. Corporate governance. Started under Sofia’s father, retired, came back as a quiet advisor after Sofia took control."

"Loyal?"

Claire’s mouth tightened. "That depends on what he thinks loyalty means."

The SUV turned into Apex Tower’s private entrance. By the time the doors opened, Nia was already waiting in the underground lobby with her laptop under one arm and fury written across her face.

"Before you ask," she said, "yes, it’s bad."

"Wonderful greeting."

"You like honesty now."

"Only when it hurts less."

"It won’t."

She turned and walked fast toward the elevator. We followed.

Apex Tower felt different at night. The lobby above might glow with wealth and glass, but the lower levels were all steel, sealed corridors, and access doors that opened only after the building decided it trusted your face. The place had become less like an office and more like a body learning how to protect its organs.

The operations room was alive when we entered.

Victoria stood at the main screen, jacket off, sleeves rolled, her face sharpened by exhaustion. Evelyn Cross was there too, older, composed, and severe in a charcoal dress that made her look less like a lawyer and more like a verdict wearing expensive shoes. Cassandra sat beside Nia’s station, swallowed by her oversized grey sweater, messy hair pinned badly with a pencil. Marianne was not there. Good. She had carried enough knives for one night.

Evelyn looked at me first. "Sofia’s board session is a trap."

"Good evening to you too."

"It is not good."

"No. But it is evening."

Her eyes narrowed. "Do not get charming with me, Jake. I am tired, and Richard Bellamy has been crying in a legal room for four hours."

Ethan lowered himself into a chair. "That sounds healing."

"For me," Evelyn said. "Not for him."

Nia dropped her laptop onto the table and threw the signature chain onto the wall screen. Lines of authentication data spread across the glass in ugly green and red.

"It’s not a normal fake," she said. "That’s the problem. The signature is clean enough to pass, but too clean for Sofia."

Victoria leaned in. "Explain."

"Sofia’s real signatures have habits. Timing delays. Device preferences. She reviews documents like they personally offended her before she signs. This one moved through three gates in forty-two seconds."

Forty-two seconds.

Sofia once spent twelve minutes arguing with a comma in a merger clause because, according to her, punctuation was how cowards hid liability.

"She did not sign that," I said.

"No," Claire said quietly. "She didn’t."

Cassandra lifted her hand slightly, then lowered it.

I looked at her. "Say it."

She swallowed. "The keys may still be real."

The room quieted.

Cassandra pulled her sleeves over her hands. "Sorry. I mean the behavior is wrong, but the authority behind it may not be copied. It looks like someone used a valid key in an invalid way."

"Stolen?" Ethan asked.

"Maybe. Or forced. Or taken from a device Sofia trusted."

Evelyn’s face hardened. "Then Sofia is either detained, compromised, or someone close to her is."

The word detained landed better than missing.

Still ugly.

But better.

Victoria touched the screen, pulling up the three committee names. "If this emergency vote passes, Isabella gets a clean path into Aldridge Enterprises. Not ownership, not yet, but access. Enough to poison Sofia’s command structure from the inside."

"Not control," I said.

Victoria looked at me.

"Access is not control."

"No," she said. "But access is how control begins."

That was true.

I hated true things tonight.

The System flickered.

**[Ding!]**

**[New Mission Generated!]**

**Mission: Stop the Empty Chair Vote**

**Objective: Prevent Aldridge emergency committee from gaining control.]**

**Reward: Sofia Status Fragment.]**

**Penalty: Aldridge Enterprises loses strategic autonomy.]**

An actual penalty.

No joke attached.

I looked at Pike’s profile on the screen. Gray hair. Heavy face. Old corporate smile. The kind of man who looked like he had been born beside a boardroom table and expected everyone else to ask permission before sitting down.

"Why Pike?" I asked.

Evelyn crossed her arms. "He is old guard. Loyal to the Aldridge name."

"Not Sofia."

"Not necessarily."

That mattered.

Sofia had always understood the danger of legacy men. She used to say they were the worst kind of loyal, because they did not protect people, they protected portraits on walls. They would betray a living woman to preserve a dead man’s version of a company and still sleep well afterward, convinced they had saved the family name.

I remembered her saying that in her office one night, standing barefoot by the window with a glass of wine in her hand, her hair loose over one shoulder. She had looked less like the untouchable Sofia Aldridge then, and more like a woman tired of carrying a dynasty built by men who never expected her to inherit it.

Pike belonged to that world.

If Isabella had reached him, she would not need to buy him.

She would only need to whisper that Sofia was no longer fit to protect the Aldridge name.

"Where is he?" I asked.

Nia answered, "Brooklyn Heights. No movement tonight. But his calendar shows breakfast tomorrow at the Mercer Hotel."

"With?"

"Elena Markham."

Ethan groaned. "Of course."

Claire leaned closer to the table. "If we get to Pike before Markham, maybe we shake him loose."

Evelyn shook her head. "Maybe. But that does not stop the vote by itself. We need evidence of fraud, Sofia herself, or a verified counter-signature."

"When is the session?"

"Forty-eight hours," Claire said.

Nia laughed without humor. "Because apparently sleep is for people with smaller enemies."

Silence followed.

No one wanted to say what came next.

Finding Sofia meant stepping toward the place Isabella clearly wanted me to look. Not finding her meant letting someone use her name to steal her company while we argued about procedure.

A trap did not stop being a trap because the bait mattered.

It just became harder to walk away.

Victoria studied me across the table. "You are not going alone."

"I know."

That surprised her.

It surprised me too.

Claire’s eyes flicked toward mine, cautious now.

I leaned both hands on the table and looked at the three names again. "We split the problem. Nia and Cassandra trace the key. Evelyn prepares the filings. Victoria locks Vanguard exposure. Claire builds the Pike approach. Ethan rests."

Ethan sat up. "Excuse me?"

"You heard me."

"I am part of the team."

"You are part of the injured section."

"I object."

"Denied."

Evelyn glanced at him. "For once, I agree with Jake."

Ethan looked betrayed. "That’s how I know things are bad."

Darius spoke from the door. "I go with Jake."

I nodded.

No argument.

Some nights taught humility faster than others.

Nia stared at me. "Did you just accept protection without being threatened?"

"I am growing."

My left shoelace untied itself.

Everyone looked down.

For one long second, nobody spoke.

Then Ethan whispered, "Again?" 𝕗𝐫𝚎𝗲𝘄𝐞𝕓𝐧𝕠𝘃𝕖𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝚖

I closed my eyes.

Claire turned away, but not fast enough to hide the smile.

Nia pointed at the shoe. "I want that in the medical report."

"It is a lace."

"It is a symptom."

"It is footwear betrayal."

Cassandra made a tiny sound that might have been laughter. Evelyn looked between us like she was deciding whether she had walked into a legal strategy meeting or a circus with better funding.

Victoria rubbed her forehead. "Focus."

Right.

Sofia.

The room settled again.

Claire enlarged Pike’s profile. "Breakfast at eight. Mercer Hotel. Public enough to avoid violence, private enough for pressure. We approach before Markham arrives."

"Not we," I said.

Claire looked at me.

"You and Evelyn prep the legal angle. I talk to Pike."

"Jake."

"He is old guard. If lawyers and security corner him, he hides behind procedure. If I talk to him like a younger man asking about legacy, he may try to teach me something."

Evelyn studied me. "That is annoyingly plausible."

"I cherish your praise."

"Do not."

Nia’s screen pinged.

Her expression changed.

"What?" I asked.

She turned slowly toward us. "The fake signature pinged a device archive."

"Where?"

"Old Aldridge private residence. Not the main estate. Smaller property outside the city."

Claire frowned. "Sofia’s father’s hunting lodge?"

Nia nodded. "Inactive for years."

The room went cold.

Victoria’s voice lowered. "Why would the key ping there?"

Cassandra answered softly. "Because something woke up."

Nia pulled the map onto the wall.

Aldridge Lodge.

Two hours outside the city.

Empty, supposedly.

I straightened.

"Darius."

He was already moving.

Claire grabbed my arm before I could turn.

Her grip was tight.

"You said split the problem."

"We are."

"You said you would not go alone."

"I won’t."

Her eyes searched mine.

There was fear there. Anger too. And something worse than both, the memory of waiting two years for a man who kept walking into traps and calling it necessity.

I covered her hand with mine for one second.

"I’ll come back," I said.

She did not let go.

"You always say that like it is a plan."

This time, I had no clever answer.

The System appeared one last time.

**[Mission Objective Updated!]**

**Objective: Investigate Aldridge Lodge.]**

**Reward: Sofia Status Fragment.]**

**Warning: High-risk location.]**

I looked at the map.

Somewhere out there, a dead house had just opened its eyes.

And Sofia’s name was inside.

I don’t r