Anna's POV
I settled into the chair behind Sean's desk, crossing my legs and leaning back with a deliberate calm that belied the storm I felt brewing around us. The office, sleek and modern, bore the lingering tension of recent events. The shadows from the overhead lighting cast sharp lines across the desk, matching the sharp edge in my mood.
Sean hovered near the edge of the room, uncertain. His posture was tense shoulders drawn up slightly, arms awkward at his sides. He looked like a man carrying weight too heavy for his frame. I didn't miss the tightness in his jaw, the way his eyes flicked to the floor before daring to meet mine.
"Ms. Shaw, I want to apolo—"
"Don't," I cut him off before the sentence could settle in the air.
My voice was sharper than I intended, but I didn't soften it. I lifted my gaze from the folder in front of me and met his eyes directly. "If you're about to apologize for Jack Simpson's behavior, save it. His actions reflect on him not you."
Sean's mouth opened, closed again. He looked like a man preparing to drown.
"I never meant to bring trouble to the project," he said quietly. His voice was barely more than a whisper.
I set the folder down with care, letting the moment breathe before I spoke again. "Sean, I placed you here because you earned it. You don't need to apologize for existing. You're not responsible for the insecurities of men who fear losing control."
He blinked.
"I know it's not easy," I continued. "But the best way to silence men like Jack is with results. You don't argue with them. You don't defend yourself. You outclass them until they have no ground to stand on."
There was a long pause. Then, something shifted in Sean small but unmistakable. His shoulders squared slightly. His chin lifted.
"I'm not afraid," he said. "I just… I worry about the mess this creates for you."
I allowed a hint of softness to break through. "You let me worry about that. You worry about being brilliant."
He gave a small nod, then moved toward the opposite chair. The moment his laptop opened, something familiar returned his focus. Professional. Sharp. Efficient.
"I reviewed the leaked data again," he began, turning the screen toward me. "What we thought were stolen proprietary files from Trevor's team? They're not what they seem."
I leaned forward, interested.
Sean clicked a few keys, pulling up a folder. "They're identical to a batch of calibration test results that were marked VOID more than a month ago. They weren't confidential they were failures."
I frowned. "So someone stole garbage?"
"Exactly," Sean said. "Tests Trevor's team already dismissed. They were never logged as usable. Whoever took them either didn't know what they were doing, or they wanted to create the illusion of a serious breach."
My fingers tapped a slow rhythm against the polished desk. "You're telling me this entire scandal is built on worthless data?"
Sean nodded. "There's nothing in those files that a competitor could use. They're outdated, deprecated. If someone tried to sell them, they wouldn't get anything meaningful unless the goal wasn't money."
"Optics," I muttered. "They wanted to make it look like we had a real breach."
Sean hesitated. "That's my assumption. Someone wanted to discredit us, maybe even sabotage Phoenix from the inside."
Just then, Rachel stepped in, tablet in hand. "We've narrowed the suspects, but no hard proof yet. However, there's activity on one terminal that doesn't match our employee logs. We think whoever it is used a ghost credential."
I nodded. "Keep pressing. Find the mole, fast. And Sean…" I looked at him directly. "You're doing exactly what I need from you."
He straightened at that.
As the meeting wrapped, I left the building by the east entrance. The day was slipping into twilight, the sky streaked with the copper hues of a dying sun. I barely took a few steps before a familiar voice echoed from the lot.
"Anna!"
I turned to see Lucy approaching with her usual feline grace, Jack trailing beside her like a disgruntled shadow.
"What a coincidence," she said, her smile tight and rehearsed. "We were just heading out. How about dinner?"
I stared at her for a long moment, amused by the audacity.
"I have plans," I replied coolly, then turned on my heel and slid into the backseat of the waiting sedan. The door shut with a definitive click, sealing off whatever performance Lucy had planned.
Lucy's POV
From across the parking lot, I watched the black sedan pull away, Anna's silhouette shrinking behind tinted glass. Her rejection was clean, sharp. Dismissive.
Beside me, Jack seethed.
It was still fresh for him the way Anna had dismissed his authority, his importance, his name, in front of a room full of people.
"She didn't even pretend to care," he muttered. "Didn't hesitate. Just walked away."
I slipped into the passenger seat of his car, adjusting my coat with care. "She wants you off balance," I said softly. "That's how she wins."
Jack grunted but said nothing, eyes locked on the road ahead, though the engine hadn't started. I noticed the death grip he had on the steering wheel, knuckles drained of color.
"Sean's position is precarious," I said after a beat. "Everyone in this industry knows where he came from. And if people start talking if they start connecting the Olympus Club to Phoenix it won't be just Anna's credibility on the line. It'll be yours."
That got his attention.
"You're suggesting we leak it?"
"No," I said quickly. "Not yet. But if Anna insists on protecting someone who doesn't belong here, then she's creating a vulnerability for all of us."
He turned to look at me, eyes sharp. "What's your angle?"
"She won't remove him. Not voluntarily," I said. "But if the choice is between the project or the boy, she'll bend."
"She doesn't bend."
"She will," I said calmly. "All it takes is pressure in the right place. Not a threat. A consequence."
Jack sat back, jaw grinding. "You know she'll frame it as me trying to control her."
"She already thinks that," I replied. "This isn't about perception. It's about survival. If we don't act, she'll take this entire ship down with her pride."
Jack was silent for a long time, then finally asked, "What do you suggest?"
I smiled and patted his hand. "We start with the press. Quiet whispers. Concerns about hiring protocol. About security. We make the board nervous. We make Phoenix look unstable."
He stared at me, considering.
"If Anna still protects Sean after that," I added, "then we introduce internal pressure. Leaked reports. Anonymous board memos. We create enough smoke that the fire becomes inevitable."
He gave a slow nod. "And if she pushes back?"
"Then we force her hand. We make it so that keeping Sean looks like favoritism. Like negligence."
A slow, dangerous smile tugged at Jack's lips.
"You're vicious," he said.
"I'm efficient," I corrected smoothly. "Anna wants to play hardball. Let's see how she handles being the one on defense."
He finally turned the key in the ignition, and the engine hummed to life.
"Just looking out for our interests," I said sweetly, settling back into my seat as we pulled into the street. "After all, we're in this together."