My Milf Conqueror System novel Chapter 51

Chapter 51: Kingmaker

Friday, 9:00 AM.

The black town car was waiting for me at the corner of 4th and Main, just as Victoria had promised. The windows were tinted dark enough to swallow the morning light. I opened the door and slid into the back seat.

Victoria Sterling was already there, scrolling through her phone. She didn’t look up.

"You’re late," she said.

"I had to be careful," I replied, placing a thick manila envelope on the leather seat between us. "Thorne has eyes everywhere."

Victoria finally looked at me. Her eyes flicked to the envelope, then back to my face. "Is that it?"

"The procurement logs," I said. "The shipping manifests. The change orders signed by Thorne himself. He swapped the Grade-A structural steel for Grade-C scrap from a shell company in Eastern Europe. He saved four million dollars, but he built a death trap."

Victoria picked up the envelope. She didn’t open it. She just held it, feeling the weight of it.

"Grade-C," she murmured. "If that roof collapses under a heavy snow load..."

"It kills everyone in the atrium," I finished. "Students. Faculty. Donors."

She looked out the window, her expression unreadable. "He didn’t just steal money, Jake. He mortgaged the university’s future to save his own skin."

"It’s a kill switch," I said, echoing her words from yesterday. "You wanted leverage, this... this is a nuke."

Victoria turned back to me. A slow, cold smile spread across her face. It was the smile of a predator who had just cornered its prey.

"My father is flying in for the meeting," she said. "He thinks he’s coming to celebrate the groundbreaking. He doesn’t know about the steel."

"He needs to know," I said. "Before Thorne takes the stage."

"No," Victoria said sharply. "If we tell him now, he’ll cancel the meeting. He’ll handle it quietly. Thorne will be fired, yes, but he’ll slip away with his golden parachute."

She leaned forward, her blue eyes locking onto mine.

"I want him destroyed, Jake. Publicly. Irrevocably. I want the Board to see him for what he is. I want the shareholders of Vanguard to see it."

"You want a spectacle," I realized.

"I want a hostile takeover," she corrected. "When this news breaks, Vanguard’s stock will crash. The Board will panic. And the Sterling Foundation will be there to pick up the pieces."

She tapped the envelope.

"Bring this to the meeting. When Thorne starts talking about ’innovation’ and ’safety,’ you interrupt him. You hand this to the Board."

"And you?"

"I’ll be right there," she said. "To catch the pieces."

[System Notification]

Quest Updated: The Kingmaker

Objective: Expose Marcus Thorne at the Board Meeting.

Reward: Sterling Alliance (Tier 1).

Failure Consequence: Expulsion. Prison.

The blue text hovered in my vision, invisible to Victoria. I blinked it away, nodding as I reached for the door handle.

"Jake," Victoria said.

I paused.

"Don’t miss."

11:00 AM. The Bunker.

The mood in the basement lab was tense. Darius was pacing, his massive frame filling the small room. Nia was hunched over her keyboard, scrubbing our digital footprints for the tenth time. Ethan was staring at the hard copies of the evidence, his face pale.

"This is insane," Ethan muttered. "We’re not just taking down anyone. We’re taking down a CEO, A billionaire."

"Former," I corrected, adjusting my tie. I was wearing the [Shadow Tuxedo] again, disguised as a high-end suit. It gave me a +15 to Charisma and a passive aura of Authority. I needed every point.

"If this goes wrong," Nia said, not looking up, "we go to jail. Hacking a contractor’s database is a federal crime."

"That’s why we’re using paper," I said. "No digital trail. Just physical evidence dropped on a table. They can’t trace paper back to an IP address."

Darius stopped pacing. He looked at me. "You trust this Victoria?"

"I trust her greed," I said. "She wants Vanguard. She needs us to deliver the kill shot. As long as we’re useful, we’re safe."

"And after?" Darius asked.

I didn’t answer. I didn’t know the answer.

"Let’s move," I said. "We have a board meeting to crash."

1:00 PM. The University Boardroom.

The room was impressive—mahogany walls, plush carpet, and a view of the campus that cost more than my tuition. The Board of Trustees sat around a massive oval table. Arthur Sterling sat at the head, looking frail but imposing. Victoria sat to his right, looking like an ice sculpture.

Marcus Thorne stood at the podium, a laser pointer in his hand. He was projecting a 3D render of the Science Center onto the screen.

"...and this atrium," Thorne was saying, his voice booming with confidence, "will be the jewel of the campus. A testament to our commitment to transparency and light."

I stood at the back of the room, near the catering table. I wasn’t supposed to be here, but Victoria had added me to the guest list as a "student representative."

Thorne smiled at the Board. "We are on schedule and under budget. The Sterling Science Center will open next fall."

Victoria cleared her throat. It was a small sound, but it cut through the room like a knife.

"Marcus," she said. "A question about the budget."

Thorne’s smile faltered for a microsecond. "Of course, Victoria."

"You mentioned you’re under budget," she said, standing up. "Is that why you switched the structural steel supplier three months ago?"

The room went silent. Thorne froze.

"I... I’m not sure what you mean," he stammered. "We have many suppliers..."

"Grade-A steel," Victoria said, her voice hardening. "That was the spec. But the steel currently holding up that atrium frame is Grade-C. Sourced from a scrapyard in Eastern Europe."

Arthur Sterling turned his head slowly to look at his daughter. "Victoria? What are you saying?"

"I’m saying he built a death trap, Daddy," Victoria said. "To save four million dollars."

VERIFYCAPTCHA_LABELVerify