Chapter 526:

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“Your heart rate is elevated,” Dr. Miles observed, carefully unwrapping the bandages. The wound was a raw, angry gash in the muscle of his upper arm. “Rage is not conducive to healing.”

Adam ignored him. His fingers flew across the keyboard, pulling up the live impact report of PROJECT CHIMERA.

He scrolled through the now-viral findings: the forged transcripts from a community college, receipts for extensive plastic surgery in South Korea, the annulled marriage in Las Vegas, and a string of unpaid casino debts. The public was devouring Tammy-Lynn’s past, but Adam’s expression remained cold.

“It’s too clean,” Adam murmured. “This is the dirt we’ve already fed to the press. I want the dirt she’s forgotten.”

𝘛𝗁𝗲 𝗯еs𝘁 𝗋еa𝘥𝘪ոg е𝗑р𝘦𝗿іe𝗇ce 𝗼𝗇 𝘨𝗮𝗅𝗇𝗈𝘃e𝗹ѕ.𝘤𝗈𝗺

He activated his internal comms. “Juan. I need you back in Nevada. The surface-level leaks aren’t enough to bury her for good. Find out what happened in the two years between her high school graduation and her first appearance at Penn. The ‘gap years.’ Use any resource necessary.”

The most damning secrets were always buried in the gaps, in the years people tried to erase.

His gaze drifted back to the video of Allison. He had put her in this position. His world, his enemies, had made her a target. The guilt was a physical weight. He would not allow it to happen again.

He picked up his secure phone and dialed his chief of staff.

“Ethan. Contact the editors-in-chief at The Wall Street Journal and Forbes. I’m buying out their entire online front-page ad inventory for tomorrow. All of it.”

A stunned silence on the other end. “Sir? The content?”

Adam’s eyes were fixed on Allison’s defiant face on the screen. “The content is a single sentence. MK Holdings announces a formal strategic investment evaluation into the Montgomery Group. Lead assessor on the project: Allison Montgomery.”

The command was the financial equivalent of launching a nuclear missile, a public coronation, a declaration of war to anyone who dared touch her. It screamed to the entire world: She is mine. An attack on her is an attack on my empire.

Dr. Miles finished wrapping the fresh bandage. He looked at Adam’s unyielding profile, the storm raging in his eyes mirroring the one outside. “You’re leveraging your entire empire,” the doctor said quietly, “to shield one woman.”

Adam rose and walked to the floor-to-ceiling window. A bolt of lightning split the sky, illuminating the churning waves.

“My empire is meaningless,” Adam said, his voice as calm and terrible as the storm, “if it cannot protect her.”

Across the water, in a penthouse apartment in Manhattan, Finn Kensington stared at his phone, a sick feeling churning in his stomach. The first wave of Cheyanne’s sordid past was breaking online, and he was being dragged down with her.

His phone rang. MOTHER.

He answered with dread.

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