Chapter 6 6

A knock at the door broke the tension.

Arthur entered, pushing a silver Rimowa suitcase. "Madam's luggage. Retrieved from the apartment."

Eleonora's eyes widened. She lunged for the suitcase. "Thank you!"

Kristopher narrowed his eyes. "Why are you so jumpy?"

"I'm not jumpy. It's my private property."

"In this house, nothing is private." Kristopher stepped closer. "What's in there? More broadcasting equipment to slander me with?"

"No!"

Kristopher reached for the handle. Eleonora grabbed it at the same time.

They wrestled for a second. The latch, damaged from the hasty packing, popped open.

The suitcase fell over.

Contents spilled across the floor. Not wigs and microphones, but burner phones, encrypted hard drives, and several manila folders.

A thick report slid across the floor and stopped at Kristopher's feet. The cover page read: "Schaefer Media Group – Q3 Financial Analysis – CONFIDENTIAL."

Silence stretched out, thin and brittle.

Kristopher bent down and picked it up. He flipped through the pages, his expression hardening with each turn. They were riddled with her notes, red ink circling manipulated revenue streams and hidden debts.

He looked from the damning report to Eleonora. A slow, arrogant smirk spread across his face, but this time it held no humor, only a chilling understanding.

"You call me a scumbag," he said softly. "While you're planning to gut my company from the inside?"

Eleonora's face burned. It was one of her working copies, something she'd grabbed in the rush.

"It's... research," Eleonora lied. "For my next exposé."

Kristopher held up a page detailing a shell corporation he'd thought was buried forever.

"Liar," he whispered. He stepped closer, tossing the report onto the nightstand. "This isn't journalism. This is a corporate raid. All this outrage... is it because I ignored you?"

"You are delusional," Eleonora spat. "I hate you."

"Hate is just love with nowhere to go." Kristopher trapped her against the wall. He placed a hand next to her head. "Now. Tell me everything."

The shift was sudden. The seduction vanished, replaced by the cornered CEO.

Eleonora blinked. "What?"

"Your plan. Your endgame. I need to know the liability."

Eleonora swallowed. She gave him a heavily redacted version. The over-leveraged assets. The coming debt crisis. She left out her short position, her network of informants, and her ultimate goal: a seat on the board.

Kristopher listened, his face impassive. When she finished, he pulled out his phone and typed a message.

"Done," he said.

"What's done?"

"I've postponed the quarterly earnings call. It buys me two weeks."

Eleonora stared at him. "You can just... do that?"

"I have resources you can't imagine." Kristopher leaned in. "I've contained your little fire. Now you solve mine."

"What do you want?"

"Play the wife. Convince Beatrice we are happy. Help me secure the OmniCorp merger, and I won't turn you over to the SEC for attempting to manipulate the market."

Eleonora looked up at him. He was a monster. But tonight, he was her monster.

"Fine," she whispered.