My Milf Conqueror System novel Chapter 56

Chapter 56: Recording

Nia met me in the lab at midnight. The hum of the server racks was the only sound in the room. She looked tired, her hair pulled back in a messy bun, but her eyes were sharp behind her glasses.

"This is way outside the scope of my grant, Jake," she said, typing furiously. "The DoD pays me to build encryption algorithms, not break into private equity firms."

"We’re saving the department," I said, leaning over her shoulder. "If Richard Sterling wins this power struggle, he’ll gut the university’s funding. He’ll kill the Sterling Tech Center before the VR lab even opens. Your grant goes away with it."

"Blue Heron Holdings," she muttered, ignoring my speech but keeping her hands on the keyboard. "Okay, I’m in. But the encryption on this is military grade. Ironically, it looks a lot like the stuff I’m supposed to be designing."

While Nia worked, I paced. My mind was still reeling from the docks. Richard had humiliated me. He had shown me exactly how small I was.

My phone buzzed. A text from Brad.

Library. Now. Or the Dean gets the recording.

I frowned. The recording? The one I had made of him?

It didn’t make sense. Unless...

I left Nia in the lab and ran across campus. The library was closed, but the side door was propped open.

I walked in. The lights were off, the only illumination coming from the streetlamps outside.

Brad was waiting for me in the main reading room. But he wasn’t alone. Roger was there, along with two other guys from the lacrosse team holding baseball bats.

"You think you’re smart, Hart," Brad said, stepping out from the shadows. He looked different. Less like a bully, more like a soldier. His eyes were hard. "You think you can blackmail me?"

"I think you’re making a mistake," I said, my voice calm. The System’s [Combat Mode] was already humming in my veins.

"No," Brad said. "I’m following orders."

He nodded to the guys with the bats. "Break his legs. But leave his hands. He needs to be able to sign the confession."

They moved in.

It wasn’t a fight. It was a massacre.

The first guy swung the bat. I saw it coming a mile away. The System slowed time, highlighting the trajectory in red. I stepped inside his guard, grabbed his wrist, and twisted. The bone snapped. He screamed and dropped the bat.

The second guy hesitated. That was his mistake. I kicked him in the knee, shattering the joint. He went down.

Roger turned and ran.

Brad stood there, his face pale. He looked at his fallen friends. He looked at me.

"Who are you?" he whispered.

I walked up to him. I didn’t hit him. I just grabbed him by the collar and slammed him against a bookshelf.

"Who gave the order, Brad?" I asked.

"I... I don’t know," he stammered. "My dad... he said I had to do it. He said if I didn’t, we’d lose everything."

"Your dad," I repeated. Arthur Davis. The hedge fund manager.

"He said... he said Mr. Sterling was watching," Brad sobbed. "He said you were a threat. That you were digging where you shouldn’t."

I let him go. He slid to the floor, weeping.

Richard Sterling.

He hadn’t just used Brad as a pawn. He had weaponized him. He had threatened a father to make his son commit violence.

It confirmed everything. Blue Heron Holdings wasn’t just a shell company. It was the leverage. It was how Richard controlled people like Arthur Davis.

I ran back to the lab.

Nia looked up as I burst in. "I got it," she said. "I used the DoD decryption key. Don’t ask me how."

She turned the screen toward me.

It wasn’t a list of real estate. It was a list of names. Arthur Davis. The CFO of Aldridge Enterprises. Three members of the Vanguard board.

And next to each name was a file number.

"Blackmail," I whispered. "He’s not building a coalition. He’s building a prison. He has dirt on everyone."

"That’s why he’s so confident," Nia said. "He doesn’t need to win their loyalty. He owns them."

I scanned the list. And then I saw it.

The last file wasn’t a name. It was a title.

The Consultant.

My blood ran cold.

"Open it," I said.

Nia clicked the file.

Photos filled the screen.

Me and Sofia at the Pierre. Me and Victoria at the Club. Me leaving Elena’s apartment at 2 AM.

And transcripts. Transcripts of my calls. My texts.

"He knows," I whispered.

He knew I was sleeping with Sofia. He knew I was working for Victoria. He knew about Elena.

My phone buzzed.

Richard Sterling: Check.

I stared at the screen.

He wasn’t just blackmailing the board. He was blackmailing me.

If this got out, Victoria would destroy me for sleeping with her rival. Sofia would destroy me for working for Victoria. And Elena... Elena would be heartbroken.

I was checkmated.

"Jake?" Nia asked, looking at my pale face. "What is it?"

"It’s over," I said. "He won."

Chapter 55: The Counter-Gambit

I sat on a bench in the freezing cold, staring at the dark windows of the Vanguard tower.

Richard Sterling had played a perfect game. He had let me run around, let me think I was the hunter, all while he was gathering the evidence to hang me.

He didn’t need to kill me. He just needed to threaten to expose me.

If I moved against him, he would release the photos. I would lose the grant, the money, the women, and probably my life once Victoria was done with me.

I was paralyzed.

"You look like you lost a war," a voice said.

I looked up. Elena. She was wrapped in a thick scarf, her breath misting in the air.

"I did," I said. "I lost everything."

She sat down next to me. She didn’t ask questions. She just leaned her head on my shoulder.

"Is everyone okay?" she asked. "Physically?"

"Yeah," I said. "But... I’m trapped, Elena. He has leverage. He has secrets."

"Secrets only have power if you’re afraid of them," she said softly.

"These secrets would ruin me."

"Then change the secret," she said. "Or change the game."

I looked at her. "What do you mean?"

"You’re playing his game, Jake. You’re trying to hide things. But Richard... he’s hiding things too, isn’t he? He’s blackmailing people. That’s illegal."

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