Chapter 51 Internal Affairs
Darlene entered the storage room looking immaculate blouse pressed, heels precise, hair pinned into a perfect corporate coil. The same façade she always wore for Bernard.
He didn’t even look up from his phone.
“Door. Lock it. Then lie down.”
Her smile stayed sweet, polite… until the click of the lock.
As soon as she turned around
the innocence fell off her like discarded silk.
Her voice dropped, low and feral.
“So… you just let him talk to you like that?”
That cracked something vicious in him.
In two steps, he had her pinned to the shelving, the sharp rhythm of his anger echoing in every movement.
The sounds in the small room were sharp bodies hitting metal, breath colliding, the slap of frustration more than flesh.
Darlene’s mask snapped.
She leaned forward, voice like a burn.
‘Oh, he wanna talk big? Show him where to stick those cheap warnings.
Bernard’s breathing turned reckless, ego exploding at the sound of her newly unhinged voice.
He pulled his belt free in one swift motion
the leather whispering through the loops
looping it around his neck like a ritual he didn’t have to explain.
Her eyes widened, then darkened, as she dropped to her knees
not innocent anymore, not by a long stretch
offering him exactly the kind of control both of them were chasing.
He braced himself against the shelf, shuddering,
“Shut up, you”
The insult trailed into something guttural,
words meant to degrade, to release, to purge the humiliation Aalam had poured into him.
Her response was a sound
not gentle, not sweet
and whatever control Bernard had left snapped.
Everything after happened in a blur,
breath, belt, tension, surrender.
A rush so sharp it almost knocked them both out.
When it ended, they slid down opposite sides of the storage shelf,
two professionals pretending they hadn’t just ripped off their own masks.
Bernard straightened his tie with shaking fingers.
“I need you to start collecting write-ups on the third floor. Today.”
Darlene smoothed her skirt, face back to its angelic corporate mask
but her eyes glowed with new ambition.
“Of course,” she whispered.
“You get me into the right rooms, and I’ll get you everything you need.”
They exited separately.
Bathroom Stall Ashley’s POV
Ashley, earphones in, sat perched on a closed toilet seat.
On her phone?
The hidden camera feed from the storage room.
She quietly hit save.
Then backup.
Then secondary backup.
“Whew,” she whispered.
“Everybody in this company is insane… except me.”
She smoothed her hair, flushed the toilet for camouflage, and walked out humming
carrying a secret that could topple a career.
Back at Headquarters…(Aalam)
Aalam stepped into the elevator heading to the lobby, hands clasped behind his back, expression perfectly composed.
But once alone, the mask cracked for half a second.
Just half.
His brow lowered.
His jaw tightened.
His thoughts sharpened like knives.
Because what bothered him wasn’t just the delays.
Or the paperwork.
Or Bernard’s incompetence.
Or Cynthia’s pretend efficiency.
No…
It was the fact that two people
two outsiders ,
walked through his building with serenity while everyone else descended into chaos.
It made no sense.
Unless they knew something he didn’t.
Aalam hated not knowing.
The elevator dinged.
He smoothed his jacket.
Mask restored.
He stepped out into the lobby,
and immediately froze.
Lotus and Joy were still there.
And this time?
They weren’t calm.
They were smiling.
That same slow, dangerous smile that made half the senior leadership sweat.
Joy raised her coffee cup in a polite salute.
Lotus nodded with quiet confidence.
Aalam felt his pulse spike.
He didn’t show it.
But every cell in his body whispered:
They’re planning something.
Aalam walked past them without a word.
But his expression?
Just for a moment—
A flicker of unease.
You’re already losing control.
He ignored it.
And kept walking.
Olivia’s Marriage of Data & Deceit (Olivia)
Across town at Hoshina Ascend Technologies, in the main meeting room, Olivia sat at the head of a glass conference table, screens glowing behind her with code diagnostics and structural overviews of the new system for the House of Charuzu.
“Report,” she said.
Her lead programmer shifted. “System architecture is mostly stable, but some backend sectors are still showing weaknesses. A couple of glitches popped up that Security would’ve flagged right after the Board Meeting if they had been paying attention.”
Olivia’s expression barely moved. “Show me.”
They pulled up the flagged areas, minor fractures, but unacceptable by Olivia’s standards. This project was the first in years that dared to resist her immaculate precision.
“We’re still working on fixes,” another manager said quickly. “The problem areas are improving, just… stubborn.”
“They won’t stay stubborn,” Olivia replied. “Kaori joins soon. And the tech world won’t shut up about her modular predictive coding piece. Let’s use it.”
A murmur of relief went around the table.
When the meeting ended, Olivia dismissed the broader team but motioned for one person to stay. A young man stepped forward, quiet, observant, always a few steps ahead.
Her assistant.
Her eyes.
Her embedded spy.
The moment the glass door sealed, he handed her a slim drive.
“It’s all here,” he whispered. “Everything you asked for.”
Olivia plugged the drive into the main screen. Images flickered, her husband’s encrypted messages, midnight meetings, his mother’s typed instructions, investor lists… and a folder labeled Internal Infiltration – Charuzu.
She opened it.
A single photo expanded across the screen:
Kevin.
Upper-class polish. Forgettable. A man who blended in so well, no one ever questioned how he managed to float between departments.
Her assistant spoke quietly behind her.
“Kevin is the plant inside the House of Charuzu. Your husband placed him there months ago. His mother pulled strings to get him hired onto the 5th floor. Cynthia had no idea, she’s loyal to a fault, even if she’s ambitious. She’d never betray Charuzu. But Kevin? He was placed to access your system and pull prototype data before the launch.”
Olivia’s jaw tightened.
Another file auto-opened a grainy hallway video of Kevin slipping a flash drive to a shadowed figure outside the executive wing.
“And,” her assistant continued, “your mother-in-law is still pushing the maids to drug your drinks. They want you pregnant to secure their own bloodline. She’s also courting investors using a stolen version of your project. And your husband has been busy taking his new lover to the operas.”
Olivia stared at the evidence without blinking.
“It’s never the mistress,” she murmured. “It’s the interference. He touched my work.”
She powered off the screen with a soft click.
“Good,” she said, rising slowly. “Now that we know Kevin is the spy… we pull every thread until the whole thing unravels on them.”
She stepped out of her office and stopped beside her assistant’s desk.
“Set up a meeting request I will be at my office at the House Charuzu,” Olivia instructed, voice calm but edged with purpose. “Make it look urgent and official.”
Her assistant nodded. “With who?”
“Kevin,” she replied, smoothing her sleeve with a deliberate precision. “A fake meeting. High priority. Make sure he can’t ignore it.”
The assistant swallowed and immediately began typing.
Olivia watched the screen for a beat, satisfied.
“If he thinks he can move in the shadows,” she murmured, “then let’s show him what happens when the lights come on.”
Her assistant bowed.
“Yes, ma’am.”
Kevin’s Interrogation (Olivia)
Kevin stepped into the small glass conference room and froze.
This… wasn’t right.
The meeting invite clearly said HR — Mandatory Review, so he expected a stern-faced rep with too many folders and not enough empathy.
Instead, he found Mrs. Olivia Takeda-Hoshina
Sitting alone.
Calm.
Perfectly composed.
Like she’d been waiting for him.
Kevin blinked, confused. He even checked the room number on the door again, then the invite on his phone… then Olivia, who absolutely should not have been there.
Nothing about this matched what he was expecting.
“Kevin,” Olivia said, voice warm enough to make the moment even stranger. “Please. Sit.”
His confusion only deepened.
Why her?
Where was HR?
Why did it feel like he had just stepped into something he couldn’t walk back out of?
But Olivia only smiled, soft, controlled, dangerous.
“You’re in the right place,” she added quietly. “Go on.”
And Kevin, thoroughly thrown off balance, obeyed.
He sat.
Barely.
Olivia didn’t begin with accusations.
She started with something far more precise and cutting..
“Do you enjoy working here?” she asked softly.
He swallowed. “Y-yes, Ms. Olivia.”
She smiled like velvet hiding a blade
“Good. Then you’ll understand why I’m concerned. Because when someone tries to sabotage my projects, my department, or this company…” She leaned back with predatory relaxation. “Their entire family name becomes a liability.”
Kevin froze.
Olivia’s voice remained gentle.
“Your mother’s bridge club? Your father’s small consulting firm? Your uncle’s tiny investment portfolio under the family trust?” She tilted her head. “Do you want to know how fast I could bury all of it? Not illegally. Just… administratively.”
Kevin’s breath stopped.
“Your family prides itself on appearing respectable. Solid. Clean.” Her smile sharpened. “Imagine the stain on that reputation when the House of Charuzu uncovers a fifth-floor mole and has to release a statement.”
His knees touched under the table.
Olivia folded her hands, expression serene.
“So I’ll ask you again, Kevin.”
Her eyes lifted, calm as a winter blade.
“Do you like working here?”
Kevin blinked. “Uh yes. Yes, ma’am.”
“Do you feel appreciated?”
“Yes.”
“Do you feel trusted?”
His eyes flickered.
She caught it instantly.
“Good,” Olivia said, leaning forward. “Because trust is a beautiful thing, Kevin. Fragile. Precious. And once broken…”
She tapped her nails lightly on the glass table.
“…it can never be restored.”
He swallowed hard.
“Director, I…I’m not sure what you mean”
Olivia slid a thin folder toward him.
Inside were screenshots of every unauthorized login.
Access logs.
Printer history.
A blurry photo of him entering the server room he wasn’t cleared for.
Kevin’s entire soul left his body.
“You’ve been very careful,” Olivia murmured. “Not careful enough.”
He opened his mouth to deny
She didn’t let him.
“Riku sent you. Didn’t he?”
Kevin froze.
Shock.
Fear.
Recognition.
That was all she needed.
Olivia leaned back, voice smooth as polished steel.
“You will not speak to him. You will not warn him. You will not deviate from your normal routine.”
“Director, please—”
“You’ll continue feeding him information,” she said calmly. “But from now on, it will be information I choose.”
Kevin’s breath stuttered. “You want to—use me?”
“Correct. And you will cooperate. Because if you don’t…”
Her eyes darkened a shade.
“…I can erase you from the industry by lunchtime.”
Kevin’s head dropped in surrender.
“I’ll do whatever you say.”
“Good,” Olivia said with a smile. “Let’s begin.”
That night, after the building emptied, Olivia stayed behind.
Her office was dim, only the glow of two monitors lighting her face.
She drafted a carefully engineered “leak”:
A partial code segment (harmless but impressive)
A false timeline update
A fabricated internal conflict suggesting the prototype was “unstable”
A buried clue pointing to the real traitor inside Charuzu, only Cadeyrn would recognize it
Then she masked the digital fingerprints triple reroutes, encrypted metadata, altered key signatures so nothing could be traced back to her or her team.
This leak would accomplish two things:
Expose Riku and Hana when they acted on the false intel
Warn Cadeyrn that someone close to the empire was feeding Riku information
But Cadeyrn could never know the warning came from her.
She packaged the file in an innocuous internal format.
Then she sent it—not directly.
Not foolishly.
She embedded it inside a low-level system flag, one that would activate only after tomorrow’s board meeting, right when Cadeyrn performed his routine security check.
If anyone found it, it would register as nothing more than an internal glitch.
A harmless blip.
A coincidence.
Exactly what she needed.
She hit execute.
The code seeped into the network like slow poison, settling into place, waiting for its cue.
Only one person needed to find it.
Cadeyrn.
This was the cleanest way.
The safest.
The least traceable.
Olivia locked her computer, exhaled once, and walked out of the lab without looking back.