Chapter 51: The Video!!

The morning sun filtered through the tinted windows of Miles’s car as he drove through the quiet streets. The city was just waking up—coffee carts, early joggers, street vendors rolling open their stalls—but his mind was already ahead of the curve.

The sleek vehicle pulled up at The Cinder Square, Miles entered a towering glass-and-steel structure that pierced the skyline like a monument to ambition. Without pause, Miles stepped out, his polished shoes clicking against the marble floor of the lobby as he made his way inside.

He didn’t need directions.

He tapped his ID on the scanner, and the elevator doors slid open with a soft chime.

30th floor.

As the elevator ascended, he glanced at his reflection in the polished metal—calm, sharp, unreadable.

Ding.

The doors parted to reveal a completely different energy.

Once silent and hollow, the 30th floor was now home to Sterling Media and alive with movement. Employees bustled between studio rooms and glass-walled conference halls. Screens broadcast live news tickers, and camera crews hurried to set up the next shoot. Phones rang. Voices echoed.

And yet, the moment Miles stepped in, the floor paused.

A beat of silence.

Then, one by one, the staff turned and greeted him.

“Good morning, Chairman Miles.”

“Sir.”

“Chairman.”

He offered a polite smile, nodding as he walked forward.”Morning, everyone. Carry on.”

They did—but not without a glance or two over their shoulders. The man was more than a name here. He was a myth, now walking among them.

Miles entered the next elevator and pressed 32.

Two floors above Sterling Media, the 31st and 32nd floors were the command center of Sterling Enterprises itself. Investments. Tech. Strategy. Expansion. The backbone of an empire.

As he stepped out on the top floor, the vibe shifted again—calm, cold, efficient. Each step brought him closer to a door that recognized him before he even touched it.

His cabin.

The door slid open with a quiet hiss.

Inside, the room was as commanding as the man himself—minimalist design with a dominating presence. A massive wall screen glowed at the front, cycling through real-time graphs, media performance analytics, and projections. Right now, the data focused solely on Sterling Media, and the trend was clear.

Upward. Fast.

Miles walked in slowly, scanning the numbers with little surprise.

“Just a few days in, and we’re already seeing returns…” he muttered to himself, hands slipping into his pockets. His gaze lingered on the board, expression unreadable.

But inside, he already knew why.

June.

Trained by Monica herself—his most trusted shadow, and the mind behind countless successful operations—June was proving herself capable. Calculated. Focused.

If Monica could run a war, June could run a media company.

He allowed himself the smallest of smirks.

Then—

Knock. Knock.

A gentle rapping on the door.

Miles adjusted the cuffs of his shirt as the door opened.

“Come in.” His voice was calm.

The door slid aside, and June stepped in with composed enthusiasm, a bouquet of fresh lilies and whites in hand.

“Good morning, boss. Congratulations on your graduation.” she said with a bright smile.

Miles blinked, a little surprised, then took the bouquet with a light chuckle.

“Heh, thanks… Good morning, June.”

She stepped toward the screen, already tapping her tablet.

“Boss, there’s something you really need to look at. It came in this morning.”

Miles’s brow lifted slightly. “Go ahead.”

June didn’t waste time. She took control of the large screen, her fingers dancing across the controls as she pulled up a folder under the newly acquired Merlin Media database.

The screen flickered—lines of data, filenames, timestamps—until a dark folder appeared titled: “Confidential: Internal Ops Archive”

“We acquired Merlin Media overnight. During a sweep of their cloud storage, we found a hidden partition—password locked, encrypted. Took some effort, but we broke through.”

She opened the folder. Dozens of files spilled out—documents, emails, surveillance clips, and more.

“The head of operations was corrupt, boss. He ran a blackmail ring through the company—threatening people with exposure, extorting money, ruining businesses.” June’s voice turned sharp. “And he kept everything.”

Miles stared at the display as file names slid by—corporate secrets, NDA violations, hidden bribe logs.

“Looks like we hit a jackpot,” he said under his breath, eyes narrowing.

“There’s something specific you should look at.” June clicked again, and a report appeared on the screen.

The title read: “Sterling Enterprises: Collapse, Cover-up & Discredit Strategy – Confidential”

Miles stepped forward, a quiet tension gripping his chest.

His voice lowered. “That’s… the report about the downfall of my father’s company. The scandal that ruined our name.”

June silently scrolled.

The screen shifted again—A picture surfaced. A family photo: Edward Sterling. Elena. A toddler between them—Miles, barely a year old.

Miles’s heart stopped. His breath caught in his throat.

“Stop.” His voice was sharp. “That man… who is he?” he pointed at a figure standing at the edge of the frame in the background.

June paused, then zoomed in.

A serious-looking man, dressed in a grey coat. Silver in his hair. A hard gaze.

“That’s Marshall Sterling, your grandfather, boss.”

Miles stared in disbelief.

“He disappeared just after I was born. They said he left the country. No one ever heard from him again…”

A long silence.

Then June said softly, “Boss… there’s a video attached to the report.”

Without waiting, she tapped it open.

The lights dimmed slightly as the massive screen came to life with static, then slowly cleared.

A grainy video recording played.

The footage was old. A hidden camera angle, possibly in an office. Edward Sterling sat at a table across from two other men—his expression calm, but visibly cornered. Papers were being shoved at him. Voices argued. A deal refused. Then—the flash of a camera. A planted document. A signature forced. The betrayal happened before the camera lens.

Miles stood frozen.

His jaw clenched as he watched the younger version of his father being threatened, manipulated, framed—and eventually walking out alone into the darkness.

Then came the final frames: the same two men shaking hands with a familiar corporate executive, someone tied to the rival group that swallowed Sterling’s empire whole.

The video ended.

A long silence filled the room.

Miles stood still, fists slowly curling at his sides.

“This…” His voice cracked, barely audible. “This is the proof of my dad’s innocence…”

He stepped closer to the screen, eyes locked on the frozen image.

“They set him up. They destroyed his legacy… and his life.”

June remained quiet, respectful of the storm building behind his eyes.

Miles turned slightly, his voice steady now, ice beneath fire.

“We just need to find out who pulled the strings.”

The war had always been behind curtains, but now?

Now the curtain had lifted.

And Miles Sterling was done being silent.

The screen still flickered with the last frame of the video—Edward Sterling, walking alone through a corridor of shadows.

Miles didn’t speak for a moment. The air around him felt heavier, colder, like the past had reached out through the screen and wrapped itself around his throat.

He took a single step forward.

His voice was low, almost too calm.

“Do we have any ID on these two men?”

June didn’t hesitate.

She tapped again. The software auto-locked on the two faces—clean enhancement, clean results. Information boxes appeared beside each image, detailing their names, positions, and affiliations.

“Yes, boss.” she said quietly.

She gestured to the first man—the one in the black suit with a vulture-like smile.

“This is Gibson Winstone. Current Chairman of Stone Enterprises. He owns 57% of the company’s shares and has full voting control. Public image is spotless—philanthropist, investor, clean as glass. But he’s the one in the footage—leading the charge against your father.”

Miles’s eyes narrowed.

His jaw clenched so tightly a vein pulsed at his temple.

June continued, pointing at the second man—the one in the grey suit with eyes like steel.

“This is Elfric Willise. He holds 30% of Stone Enterprises shares, but no formal designation. No interviews. No public presence. Ghost on paper. But… everything suggests he’s the man behind the curtain. Powerful. Dangerous. Untouchable.”

The screen zoomed out, a digital diagram of Stone Enterprises’ ownership structure replacing the video feed.

“And Stone Enterprises?” Miles asked, voice now like stone.

June paused—then delivered the truth.

“Stone Enterprises is the former Sterling Empire.”

“Your father’s company.”

“It was rebranded, reshaped, and rebuilt after the scandal… but the core structure? Still the same. The bones of it were your father’s legacy.”

The room fell into silence.

The truth settled like ash after an explosion.

Miles’s expression darkened—not with shock, but with something deeper.

Realization. Rage. Resolution.

He turned toward the massive glass window behind his desk. The skyline stretched endlessly before him, beautiful and oblivious.

“So they didn’t just destroy my father.” His voice was calm—but beneath it, a storm brewed.

“They stole everything he built. Took his empire. Painted him a villain. Buried the truth.”

His reflection in the glass looked back at him—calm face, burning eyes.

He took a deep breath… and exhaled like a man who had just chosen war.

“No one buries the Sterlings and walks free.”

Behind him, June said nothing. She simply stood there, watching the man she followed take his first step into a deeper battlefield.

And then he turned around, sharp and cold.

“Start digging, June. Every file, every deal, every executive connected to Stone Enterprises.”

He walked to the side shelf and opened a hidden drawer—inside it, a black folder stamped with Ghost Protocol.

He pulled it out and dropped it onto the desk.

“I want to know who funded the betrayal. Who wrote the script. Who got rich off my father’s ashes.”

June nodded sharply. “Understood, boss. I’ll let Miss Monica know.”

Miles looked out the window one last time, fists clenched behind his back.

“Stone Enterprises was built on a lie.” He paused.

“Now let’s burn the lie down. Brick by brick.“

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