Melanie Donaldson returned to the office with a new kind of power. She and Rhys Kallen were united, not just romantically, but strategically. They needed a public, undeniable success to establish their combined force and silence any further whispers about Melanie's absence or authority.
Rhys called an emergency strategy session with only Melanie.
"We have a window on Kratos Holdings," Rhys stated, projecting a complex financial model onto the screen. "A European holding company that controls key infrastructure across three sectors. They are undervalued, but protected by a rigid, decades-old internal structure. A hostile takeover is impossible, but a strategic, surgical acquisition is not."
"Kratos is pure risk," Melanie replied instantly, her mind already calculating the variables. "Political exposure, antitrust issues, and a Board that hates external influence. No single firm can manage that kind of institutional resistance."
"Exactly," Rhys said, a rare, excited grin on his face. "This acquisition requires a Double Helix Strategy—a two-pronged attack. I will handle the financial architecture and the political pressure in Europe. You will handle the internal risk assessment and the complete restructuring plan. We will be inseparable on this project. Our success will prove that Kallen Capital is stronger as a unified front."
This was the perfect test: a high-stakes, public project where their collaboration, not just their individual brilliance, determined the outcome.
While Rhys and Melanie were immersed in the Kratos strategy, Chloe Vance, smarting from her public defeat, initiated her scheme. She knew she couldn't attack Melanie professionally again; Melanie had the CEO's complete operational backing. She had to attack the bond itself.
Chloe remembered Rhys's possessiveness and Melanie's unyielding commitment to her professional integrity. She decided to exploit the only vulnerability left: Rhys's fear of losing control over Melanie's mind.
Chloe knew the Kratos deal required a delicate balance of aggressive posturing and precise, ethical internal assessment (Melanie's domain). She chose a financial metric called the Debt-to-Equity Swap Ratio, a technically opaque but ethically sensitive element of the Kratos restructuring.
Chloe contacted a minor, ethically flexible associate within the Kratos legal team, a contact she had retained from her previous, looser days. She sent an anonymous, untraceable email to this associate, planting a false data point regarding the Swap Ratio, making it appear intentionally low-balled to benefit Kallen Capital at the expense of Kratos's minor stakeholders. Chloe then generated an internal memo, seemingly a routine summary of the Kratos legal filings, and discreetly attached the falsified Swap Ratio data point, ensuring it passed through Melanie's digital review queue without attracting immediate attention.
Chloe's true target wasn't the data; it was Rhys's perception. She wanted Rhys to eventually find this piece of "evidence," which would make it look like Melanie had deliberately overlooked or tacitly approved an ethically questionable, aggressive valuation maneuver, the exact type of corruption she was hired to eliminate.
"Rhys gave her everything, thinking he earned her loyalty. But he fears vulnerability more than anything. If he thinks she's become corrupted, if he thinks she's using her power and his name to play his dirty games, he'll see her as a liability he created, not the conscience he hired," Chloe thought,a smirk appearing at the corner of a her lips.
The seed was planted. It was only a matter of time before the data point, buried deep in Kratos's voluminous documentation, was uncovered by Rhys's team, ready to create an agonizing rift between them.