When I looked in the mirror and saw what had happened to my hair, I didn't scream.

While I took control of Carter Logistics, the fallout from Vanessa Brooks’s sudden disgrace sent shockwaves through the city's corporate social circles.

Stripped of her high-paying job, her luxury company car, and her penthouse apartment lease—which Carter Logistics officially cancelled within twenty-four hours—Vanessa found herself backed into a corner. Her arrogance had evaporated, replaced by a desperate, toxic need for revenge.

Three weeks after her termination, Vanessa sat inside a dim lounge in downtown's financial district, waiting for her guest.

The door opened, and a tall, polished man in his early fifties walked in, wearing an expensive bespoke charcoal suit. It was Victor Sterling—the older brother of Daniel’s lawyer, Richard Sterling, and the ruthless Managing Partner of Apex Hauling, the very company Carter Logistics had just acquired.

Victor slid into the booth across from Vanessa, eyeing her cheap clothes and anxious posture with mild amusement.

"Miss Brooks," Victor said, his voice deep and raspy. "My brother told me you were eager to talk. He said you have information regarding internal instability at Carter Logistics."

Vanessa leaned across the small table, her eyes burning with desperate intensity. "I don't just have information, Mr. Sterling. I have the keys to destroy Emily Carter."

Victor raised an eyebrow, taking a slow sip of his bourbon. "Go on."

"Emily thinks she’s untouchable now that she controls sixty percent of the stock," Vanessa whispered, pulling a small silver thumb drive from her purse and sliding it across the table. "She forced Daniel into a corner, but she made a fatal mistake during the emergency board meeting three weeks ago."

Victor picked up the thumb drive, inspecting it closely. "What kind of mistake?"

"To secure the vote from the minor shareholders, she signed an indemnification clause promising that Carter Logistics would personally absorb all liabilities from previous operational quarters," Vanessa explained, a cruel, bitter smile touching her lips. "She didn't know that three months ago, Daniel and I authorized an unregistered hazardous material shipment through our Midwest distribution corridor to meet quarterly margin targets."

Victor’s eyes widened slightly. "An illegal hazmat shipment?"

"Two hundred tons of uncertified industrial chemical waste," Vanessa confirmed quietly. "The shipping logs were altered, but the master manifest is stored on that thumb drive. If those documents are leaked to the Department of Environmental Protection, Carter Logistics will face fifty million dollars in federal fines, immediate suspension of their operating licenses, and a criminal indictment for the entire executive board—including Emily Carter."

Victor looked at the thumb drive in his hand, a slow, predatory smile spreading across his face.

"And what do you want in exchange for this, Miss Brooks?" Victor asked.

"I want ten percent of whatever you buy Carter Logistics for when their stock crashes to zero," Vanessa spat, her knuckles turning white as she clenched her glass. "And I want to watch Emily Carter walk out of that building in handcuffs."