Chapter 16 – The Leverage War
223 Words
By morning, we had a plan.
We weren’t going to hide anymore.
Not behind last names.
Not behind silence.
Lucien was done being his father’s shadow.
And I was done being the girl nobody believed.
We leaked the first file.
Anonymously.
A single page from the black ledger:
Bribes. Offshore accounts. Signatures.
And one name that mattered most—Alaric Sinclair, chairman of Sinclair Holdings.
---
It exploded online.
Within hours, news outlets picked it up. Hashtags. Blogs. Threads dissecting every number.
No one knew who leaked it.
But everyone knew what it meant.
The Sinclair empire wasn’t untouchable anymore.
---
“They’ll come after us harder now,” I said.
Lucien nodded, eyes on the skyline. “Let them. We’re not the ones with skeletons to bury.”
---
That evening, Lucien’s father called.
He didn’t yell.
Didn’t threaten.
He just said:
> “You’ve made your choice.
And now, you’ll learn what it costs to betray blood.”
Lucien stared at the phone for a long time after the call ended.
Then he looked at me.
“I’m not afraid of him anymore.”
I took his hand.
“You shouldn’t be.
Because you’re not alone anymore.”
---
In the distance, sirens echoed.
And for the first time, they weren’t coming for us.
They were coming because of us.
---
- Writer
