CHAPTER 51Levi
Levi
The bright, cloudless sky over Joia City shimmered against glittering rooftops and the still, mirror-like waters of the lagoons. The world moved on, oblivious to the fact that, for Levi, everything had come to a full stop.
He stood motionless at the floor-to-ceiling windows of his office, his gaze fixed somewhere beyond the skyline, unblinking. As if the world outside might offer answers he couldn’t find within. It was all muted now, bland and tinged with gray.
Coming in today was a mistake.
Saturday morning, before Aurelia was discharged, he had done exactly as she asked and moved everything out of her house. He cleaned, organized, and virtually restored the place to how it was before he ever stepped inside her world.
It was the very least he could do after the way he had destroyed her trust.
He had tried to reach her again and again. He left messages and voicemails, but was met with silence. Levi would have gotten down on his knees and begged if she would let him. He didn’t care about pride. He only wanted the chance to apologize…and to see with his own eyes that she was okay.
But the silence spoke volumes.
As of an hour ago, his real estate agent had listed his mansion for sale. He couldn’t set foot in that house again. Not after knowing what a real home felt like.
He had crashed at Isaac’s place last night, but the luxurious guest suite was just a plush holding cell. Grace tried to be kind, her empathy tempered by loyalty to Aurelia. She had offered a few soft words and a disappointed look that hit harder than a fist to the jaw would have.
Ivy, on the other hand, had made her stance crystal clear. She hadn’t spoken to him unless it was work-related. He had never experienced the short, frigid, and calculated side of her directly. Not that he could blame her either…it just hurt more than he expected.
Today wasn’t going to be productive. He had known it the moment he walked through the door. He was about to call it a day when the office doors burst open with the force of a battering ram.
Ivy barreled in, breathless and wild-eyed. The look on her face sent him instantly on alert, every muscle tensed.
“What’s wrong?” he barked, his body already moving before his mind caught up. “Are you hurt?”
“No,” she gasped, still catching her breath. “The Boardcalled an emergency meeting. They’re gathering in the conference room right now—and Levi—it’s really bad. You need to see the news reports now.”
A hole of dread opened in his gut.
She hesitated through her panting. “Photos of Aurelia…from that hotel room…someone leaked them. The media’s all over it. They’re—”
Before she could finish, Isaac and Owen came skidding into the office, Owen nearly tripping over his own feet in the rush.
Isaac looked like he hadn’t slept. His hair was a disaster, his shirt wrinkled, and his expression was one of total devastation. Owen was seething, practically vibrating with rage.
Isaac was the first to speak, his voice heavy with alarm. “It’s everywhere, even on national news. A massive customer data breach was leaked by an anonymous tip. Grace is trying to put out the fire, but it’s chaos.”
“It was Martin Strasburg who found it,” Owen added, his jaw tight. “Came straight to me. Said Wilkerson built a backdoor into the system before we terminated him. The bastard’s been inside our network this whole time.”
“Months,” Isaac said, horrified. “It was buried, layered so deep no one saw it. But now the leak’s public and—”
“And Aurelia’s private trauma has been blasted across the internet,” Owen finished bitterly.
Levi sank into his chair. His head spun with everything they lobbed at him.
Wilkerson’s code. The public breach.
Sexually explicit photos of Aurelia were plastered on newsfeeds and social media.
It wasn’t a coincidence. It was a full-scale ambush.
A coup.
And he had been too broken, too distracted, too blind to see it coming.
He lifted his eyes to his team—his family—every one of them waiting for direction. Waiting for their leader.
He knew what the emergency Board meeting was for.
Taking him down.
He swallowed hard, bracing himself. Then, with slow precision, he rose to his full height in his chair, the calm, calculating mask of a CEO slipping into place like armor.
“Go to your offices,” he said firmly. “Start packing up your things.”
The silence was instant and complete. Isaac blinked. Owen stared. Ivy’s mouth dropped open.
“What?” Isaac finally whispered.
“Tell Grace to do the same,” Levi said, his voice stronger now. “This was Tyler’s endgame all along—take control of the company. And I think…” He paused, a breath hitching in his chest. “I think he succeeded.”
They didn’t move. Couldn’t. The weight of his words paralyzed them.
“When I walk into that meeting,” Levi said, tone flat, “it’ll likely be for the last time.”
He stood then, unhurried and steady, straightening his blazer in anticipation of the battle looming on the horizon.
“But we’re not going to give them the satisfaction of watching us fall apart. No panic. No scrambling. We walk out of here calmly. Cool. Lethal.” His voice hardened, each word sharpened to a blade’s edge.
“They want a spectacle? Give them swagger. Channel your inner asshole. Make it a goddamn performance. Pack like you knew this was coming—because deep down, we always did.”
Something shifted in the air. They drew themselves upright, eyes blazing with the promise of a fight.
And then Ivy smirked, her eyes blazing fiercely. It wasn’t a nice smile. It was feral, sharp, vicious, and promised to draw blood. “Let’s go raise some hell,” she said.
Levi’s grin mirrored hers as they lined up ready to march into the storm…unbroken, unbowed, and ready for battle.
Levi moved through his office with swift, efficient accuracy, methodically packing every personal item that mattered into his backpack. Anything that wasn’t essential was left behind.
He cast one ultimate, lingering glance around the office space. This was the place where he had built his empire, made impossible decisions, and dreamed bigger than anyone thought possible.
And then, like a man documenting the last moments before a battle was lost, he pulled out his phone and started snapping photos from every angle. One final memory preserved as evidence and proof of what remained. A testament before the end.
Across the hall, Ivy sat at her desk like she had all the time in the world, legs casually propped up, her tote bag already packed at her feet. She lounged in her chair, perfectly at ease, snapping selfies like this was another normal day at the office.
Levi couldn’t help but let out a low laugh. Even in the face of disaster, Ivy could make defiance look effortless. Then an idea struck him.
“Hey, Ivy,” he called. “Take a picture of us. Right now.”
Her eyebrows shot up. “You want a selfie with me while your company burns down?”
“Not just a selfie,” he clarified, a glint of mischief returning to his eyes. “I want a shot of me standing in the doorway to my office and one as you are with your feet up, looking completely unbothered. Then send it to me. Immediately .”
Her grin was wicked as she grabbed her phone and snapped some photos.
The moment his phone buzzed with the incoming message, Levi pulled it up and began tapping furiously, thumbs flying across the screen. Then, without missing a beat, he lifted the phone and started speaking rapid text commands into it.
When he was done, he turned the screen toward Ivy, that dangerous, familiar spark back in his eyes.
She read it once—twice—and then threw her head back with a sharp, barking laugh. The first real laugh from her after the weekend’s traumatic events.
“You’re insane,” she wheezed. “And I love it.”
Levi slung his backpack over his shoulder and shot her a devil-may-care smile as he headed for the door.
“Spread the word,” he called back. “I’ll see you on the other side.”
With the confidence he was known for, he strolled out, every step oozing the smug calm of a man who knew the storm was his to unleash.
The fall might be inevitable. But he sure as hell wasn’t going quietly.
It took every ounce of Levi’s restraint not to march across the conference room and wipe that smug grin right off that self-serving demon Tyler’s face with his fist. He was kicking himself for missing the obvious signs of what Tyler had been working towards these past months.
But that wasn’t the weapon he had chosen today.
No, he was going to bury Tyler with his own arrogance.
Levi sauntered into the room like he owned it, even as his empire crumbled beneath his feet. Exactly as expected, Tyler had staged the scene perfectly with two reporters stationed near the end of the table, their pens already poised like vultures ready to tear apart the carcass of his career.
Right on cue.
He flashed them a brilliant, easy smile as he strolled by, catching the not-so-subtle exchange of knowing glances between them.
Good. Let them watch.
Two large, unfamiliar men stood near the walls. He snorted at the fact that Tyler hired private security for this. Levi offered them a pleasant nod as he ambled to the far end of the table, to the seat that was still, technically, his…for now.
He settled in easily, setting his backpack on the floor, his body loose and unbothered. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw it —that glorious moment when Tyler’s smug confidence flickered with disappointment.
And right beneath that…fear.
Levi smirked. You wanted outrage and humiliation, Tyler? Sorry. Not today.
Tyler opened his mouth to speak, but Levi casually lifted a finger, cutting him off with the simplest, most dismissive gesture imaginable.
Wait your turn.
He casually took out his phone, swiped open the camera app, and adjusted the angle until every single person in the room was in view.
“Gentlemen,” he addressed the security guards smoothly, “Would you mind stepping a little to the left? I want to make sure we get everyone on camera before I start recording.”