The markets opened like any other Monday.
Calm.
Routine.
Predictable.
But by 9:47 a.m., chaos had begun to ripple through the veins of Nova Dominion's elite trading floors.
🧨 Havencrest Bank's stocks were plummeting.
It started with a simple leak.
A whistleblower dossier uploaded anonymously to the global financial oversight council.
Dozens of shell corporations.
Wire transfers traced to Silas Kade's private holdings.
Suspicious offshore accounts linked to political bribery.
And one chilling headline on every financial news station:
"IS NOVA DOMINION'S GOLDEN HEIR LAUNDERING THROUGH SHADOW NETWORKS?"
Inside his penthouse suite, Silas stared at the newsfeed in disbelief.
His assistant barged in, pale-faced.
"The PR team wants a statement."
Silas slammed his glass against the wall. "There is nothing to confess. This is fabricated."
His legal counsel appeared on another screen. "Silas, this is surgical. Whoever leaked this had access to secure internal logs. This isn't a smear campaign. It's… revenge."
Silas's eyes narrowed.
"Chess Golding," he growled under his breath.
But there was no proof.No trace.Just destruction.
Elsewhere, at Elaris Luxe...
Elsa sat in her office as the alert came through.
She read the article in silence.
Vera leaned in. "That's Silas. This is huge."
Elsa didn't answer immediately. Then finally said:
"He said he wanted to sit on the throne."
Vera smirked. "Someone just kicked the legs out from under it."
But deep inside... Elsa felt the chill of something greater.
Someone had planned this.
With precision.
And patience.
And it wasn't Silas.
In an underground data sanctuary, far from the glitz of Nova Dominion, Lance stood before Chess, holding a tablet.
"Executed flawlessly," he said. "And we routed everything through three burn servers. Kade's team won't find a shadow."
Chess studied the market crash.
Already, other banks were distancing themselves from Havencrest.
Silas's allies were going silent. The scent of blood was in the water.
"This was never about money," Chess said calmly."It was about positioning."
Lance nodded. "And what comes next?"
Chess looked up.
"Phase two."
That evening, every major channel covered the collapse of trust in Havencrest Bank. Investigations were launched. Silas went quiet.
And Kieran?
Kieran Wolfe posted a single image on his social media: A chessboard with one piece tipped over.
The king.
Back in her private suite, Elsa opened her drawer. Inside was the wedding band Chess had left her. She'd stopped wearing it long ago.
But tonight...
She stared at it long and hard.
There was something happening behind the curtain of Nova Dominion.
Something powerful. And dangerously familiar.
She whispered to herself:
"Where are you, Chess?"
At that same moment, in a shadowed high-rise that didn't officially exist on any map, Chess Golding walked into a sealed server room.
The monitors lit up.
One word glowed in the center:
"Wolfsbane."