Victoria Kane sat in her favorite armchair by the window of her estate''s study, afternoon sunlight streaming across the financial documents spread on herp. Three days out of the hospital, she still moved carefully, her body reminding her with every breath how close the stress had brought her toplete copse. The cancer treatments had weakened her physically, but her mind remained sharp as a de.


    Camille watched from the doorway, relief and worry warring in her chest. Victoria looked fragile in the oversized chair, her usuallymanding presence diminished by the loose cardigan draped over her shoulders and the reading sses perched on her nose. But her eyes burned with the same intellectual fire that had built Kane Industries from nothing.


    "You should be resting," Camille said softly, entering the study with a cup of herbal tea.


    "I''ve been resting for three days. My body might be weak, but my brain is fine." Victoria epted the tea gratefully, her hands trembling slightly as she lifted the cup. "Besides, someone has been trying to destroy everything we''ve built. I''m not going to recover while lying in bed ignoring the threat."


    Stefan and Hannah sat at therge oak desk across the room, theirptops disying financial records that painted aplex picture of corporate maniption spanning fifteen years. The past week of investigation had brought them closer to the truth, but also revealed how sophisticated their enemy really


    was.


    "Show me what you''ve found," Victoria said, gesturing for them to bring their materials closer.


    Hannah carried herptop over first, settling cross-legged on the floor beside Victoria''s chair. The informal seating arrangement would have shocked Kane Industries employees who knew Victoria as an intimidating boardroom presence, but illness had stripped away some of her corporate armor.


    "The financial transfers we traced all lead back to shellpanies," Hannah exined, her screen showing a web of offshore ounts and dummy corporations. "But Stefan found something interesting about the timing patterns." Stefan joined them, carrying a stack of printed documents. His jaw still showed a faint bruise from Alexander''s punch, but his focus remained entirely on the investigation. "Every suspicious transaction happened within seventy-two hours of Richard Pierce receiving specific pieces of information about Kane Industries."


    "What kind of information?" Victoria asked.


    "Internal memos about safety protocols. Financial projections for the industrial sector. Details about Kane Industries'' bidding strategies." Stefan spread the documents on the side table. "Someone was feeding Richard Pierce inside knowledge about yourpany''s operations."


    Victoria studied the timeline Stefan had created, her expression growing darker with each connection. "This proves Richard wasn''t making independent business decisions. Someone was guiding his choices, probably encouraging him to take shortcuts that would make his bids morepetitive."


    "And when those shortcuts led to the factory explosion," Camille said quietly, "the same person made sure Richard med you instead of examining his own choices."


    Hannah pulled up another screen on herptop. "But here''s the really interesting part. The person feeding information to Richard Pierce had ess to Kane Industries internal systems fifteen years ago."


    Victoria went very still. "Internal ess? You mean someone inside mypany was working with Richard?"


    "Or someone with legitimate ess who was secretly working against you." Stefan leaned forward, his voice intense with discovery. "Victoria, we need to know who had high-level ess to Kane Industries financial and strategic information fifteen years ago."


    Victoria set down her tea cup, her hands now steady as her mind shifted into analytical mode. "Fifteen years ago, Kane Industries was much smaller. High-level ess was limited to maybe twenty people. Board members, senior executives, key department heads."


    "Anyone who might have had a grudge against you?" Camille asked.


    "Half the business world had grudges against me. I didn''t build thispany by making friends." Victoria''s smile was rueful. "But internal betrayal... that would have required someone I trustedpletely."


    Hannah scrolled through more financial records. "The shellpanies that received the stolen funds all trace back to a single point of origin. A managementpany called Whitfield Holdings."


    Victoria''s face went white. "Whitfield?"


    "You recognize the name?" Stefan asked urgently.


    "James Whitfield." Victoria''s voice was barely a whisper. "He was Richard Pierce''s business partner before Meridian Technologies was founded. They started theirpany together, but James sold his share to Richard about six months before the factory project began."


    Camille felt ice in her veins. "He sold his share six months before the explosion?"


    "I remember because James came to me after the sale. He said he was concerned about the direction Richard was taking thepany, that Richard was cutting costs in ways thatpromised safety." Victoria''s hands were shaking again, but this time from memory rather than illness. "I thought he was just bitter about being bought out."


    Stefan was already typing on hisptop, searching for more information about James Whitfield. "Victoria, if James knew about the safety problems but sold his shares before the explosion, he protected himself financially while letting seventeen people die."


    "And then he manipted Richard into ming me for the disaster he helped create." Victoria''s voice carried the weight of fifteen years of guilt lifting from her shoulders. "James knew about the defective equipment because he was part of the decision to use it. When people died, he made sure Richard focused his anger on Kane Industries instead of examining their own choices."


    Hannah was pulling up more financial records, her fingers flying across the keyboard. "If James Whitfield was behind the original maniption, he might still be active. The Guardian that Alexander has been working with could be..."


    "James." Victoria finished the thought, her voice full of cold fury. "After fifteen years, he''s still trying to destroy me."


    Camille sank into the chair opposite Victoria, processing the implications. "Alexander has been working with the man who actually killed his uncle."


    "Not directly killed," Stefan corrected grimly. "But James created the conditions that led to Richard''s suicide. He stole the safety funds, encouraged the cost- cutting, then made sure Richard med Victoria when everything fell apart."


    Victoria stood up slowly, her movements careful but determined. "I need to see everything you have on James Whitfield. Financial records, current address, business associations. If he''s the Guardian, if he''s been manipting Alexander to finish what he started fifteen years ago..."


    "What?" Camille asked.


    "Then he''s not going to stop with destroying my reputation. He''s going to try to destroy everyone I care about." Victoria''s eyes zed with protective fury. "Including you."


    Hannah pulled up more search results on her screen. "James Whitfield currently operates several businesses through holdingpanies. Real estate, consulting, private investment. He has offices in Manhattan and Boston."


    "Manhattan," Stefan said grimly. "That matches the location we traced for the Guardian''smunications."


    Victoria walked to her private safe, entering thebination with steady fingers. Inside were documents she had hoped never to need again - files on every person who had ever posed a threat to Kane Industries over the years.


    "I kept records on James after the Meridian copse," Victoria said, pulling out a


    thick folder. "I suspected he was involved in the sabotage, but I could never prove


    it. The evidence was always just circumstantial."


    She opened the folder, revealing


    photographs, financial records, and detailed notes spanning fifteen years. "James Whitfield med me for destroying his partnership with Richard, even though he''s the one who sold his shares before the explosion. He''s spent fifteen years building resources and nning revenge."


    Camille studied a photograph of James Whitfield taken at a corporate event years ago. He looked ordinary, unremarkable - exactly the kind of person who could manipte events from the shadows without drawing attention.


    "He''s been patient," she said quietly. "Fifteen years of nning for the perfect moment to strike."


    "The perfect moment being when I was weakened by cancer and distracted by family issues," Victoria said bitterly. "He used Alexander''s grief as a weapon, turned my daughter''s husband against me, nearly killed me with stress."


    Stefan was reading through


    Victoria''s files on James, his


    expression growing darker with each page. "Victoria, ording to this, James Whitfield has connections to military contractors, intelligence consulting firms, people with ess to sophisticated surveince and cyber warfare tools."


    "Which exins how he''s been able to orchestrate such aplex operation," Hannah added. "False documents, encryptedmunications, financial maniption - he has professional-level resources."


    Victoria closed the folder and looked at each of them with grim determination. "James Whitfield destroyed Richard Pierce''s life fifteen years ago, then convinced Alexander that I was responsible. He''s been using both men as weapons against me while staying safely in the shadows."


    "What do we do?" Camille asked.


    "We expose him. We prove that James Whitfield is the Guardian, that he''s been manipting Alexander, that he''s responsible for


    everything Alexander mes me for."Victoria''s voice carried steel despite her physical weakness. "And then we make sure he faces consequences for what he''s done."


    Stefan looked up from hisptop, his face pale with new discovery. "Victoria,


    there''s something else. James Whitfield has been tracking all of us. Our phones, our locations, our daily routines. He knows everything about our investigation."


    The room fell silent as the implications sank in.


    "He knows we''re close to exposing him," Camille whispered. Victoria nodded grimly. "Which means he''s going to escte. If James can''t destroy us with lies and maniption, he''ll try more direct methods." Hannah''sptop chimed with an urgent alert. She looked at the screen and her face went white. "Someone just essed the Kane Industries server remotely. They''re downloading everything - financial records, employee information, internal


    "James," Victoria said simply.


    "I can''t stop the d******d," Hannah said frantically, typingmands. "Whoever is doing this has administrator-level ess."


    Victoria walked to the window, looking out at the grounds of her estate where she had hoped to recover in peace. Instead, she was facing the final battle in a fifteen-


    year war she hadn''t even known she was fighting.


    "Let him d******d everything," she said quietly.


    "What?" Camille asked, shocked.


    "Let James Whitfield take our files. Because now we know who he is, and we''re


    going to take his."


    Victoria turned back to face them, her expression carrying the dangerous calm that had made her feared in boardrooms across the world.


    "It''s time to stop ying defense. James Whitfield wants a war? Then he''s going to get one."