Chapter 38

Camille's point of view

I sat in my private office at Kane Industries, watching six screens track different aspects of my plan to destroy Rodriguez Shipping. Each monitor told part of the story, stock prices, trading volumes, news alerts,social media sentiment, competitor reactions, and internal communications we'd managed to intercept.One year of meticulous preparation leading to this pivotal moment. The leather of my executive chair creaked softly as I leaned forward, my reflection in the darkened glass showing a woman I sometimes barely recognized.

"Ready?" Victoria asked from the doorway,her tailored charcoal suit as impeccable as always. Her eyes gleamed with the predatory anticipation I'd come to recognize over our months working together.

"Everything's in position." I pulled up the final numbers, watching as our algorithms predicted the coming cascade. "Our traders are standing by in London, New York, and Singapore. The evidence of Rodriguez Shipping's safety violations hits the press in exactly four minutes and twenty-three seconds."

She moved to stand behind my chair, studying the screens with the careful attention of a general reviewing battle plans. Her subtle perfume, always jasmine with notes of sandalwood, filled the air between us. "And the backup plan?"

"Three different whistleblowers will contact financial reporters about questionable accounting practices at precisely staggered intervals. The evidence has already been planted in their internal systems,backdated appropriately, and verified by our technical team." I tapped a sequence on my keyboard, bringing up another window showing the pre-written exposés."If they somehow weather the safety scandal, the financial improprieties will finish them."

My hands stayed steady as I typed final commands into the trading system, muscle memory from countless simulations we'd run. Inside, emotions warred, satisfaction, pain, a strange kind of grief for the company I'd once thought would be mine to help run,alongside the family I thought would become my own. The diamond on my left hand had been gone for months now, but sometimes I still felt its phantom weight.

"First article just dropped," Victoria noted as alerts started flashing across the primary monitor."Wall Street Journal. 'Major Safety Concerns Plague Rodriguez Shipping Fleet: Internal Documents Reveal Years of Neglect.'"

I allowed myself a small, controlled smile as other notifications followed in rapid succession. Reuters.Bloomberg. Financial Times. CNBC breaking news.Each one sharing damaging details we'd carefully leaked through untraceable channels.Each one driving the stock price lower, triggering automated sell algorithms across institutional investors' systems.

"Trading volume spiking," my head trader reported through the speaker, his voice betraying the excitement he was trying to contain. "Up four hundred percent above normal. Major institutional investors starting to sell. BlackRock just dumped twelve percent of their position."

On my main screen, Rodriguez Shipping's stock chart turned bright red, the downward trajectory steepening with each passing second. Down five percent. Then twelve. Then twenty. A freefall gaining speed with every passing minute, accelerated by high-frequency trading programs reacting to the negative press.

My phone buzzed - a message from our source inside the company: *Total chaos here. Stefan locked in emergency board meeting. Conference room screens showing stock collapse. His father just arrived looking furious. Security doubled on executive floor.*

"Time for phase two," Victoria said quietly, a manicured nail tapping the edge of my desk in perfect rhythm with the declining stock ticker.

I nodded, sending the encrypted signal to our trading team positioned around the globe. Kane Industries would start quietly buying shares through a complex network of shell companies,but only after driving the price down further. By day's end, we'd own enough to demand board seats, placing us in the perfect position to dismantle the company from within.

More alerts filled my screens in a cascade of digital destruction. Industry analysts questioning the company's future viability. Suppliers nervously reviewing contracts. Customers making backup plans with competitors. Credit agencies placing Rodriguez Shipping on watch for potential downgrade.

"Thirty percent drop," Victoria noted with undisguised satisfaction, her reflection in my monitor showing the slight smile she reserved for victories. "The margin calls will start soon. Their creditors won't wait."

She was right. Rodriguez Shipping had leveraged their assets heavily for the Asian expansion Stefan had championed against his father's wishes. As the stock price fell, their loan covenants would trigger,forcing immediate repayment. A cascade of financial disaster we'd carefully engineered, exploiting the hidden weaknesses I'd learned about during intimate dinners and family meetings.

My phone buzzed again: *Stefan's father just walked out of the board meeting. Never seen him so angry.Screaming about family legacy destroyed. Three generations of work ruined. Stefan looks shell-shocked. CFO in tears.*

I should have felt only triumph. This was what I'd planned,systematic destruction of everything Stefan valued. But memories kept intruding unbidden. His father's pride when giving me a tour of their flagship vessels. Family dinners where he'd treated me like the daughter he never had. All fake, all conditional on me being the perfect wife to his perfect son. All dissolved the moment I became inconvenient, unnecessary,replaceable.

A notification from our banking contacts appeared: *Rodriguez seeking emergency credit line. Multiple rejections already.*

"Ms. Kane?" My assistant's voice through the intercom,professional as always despite the financial bloodbath playing out on our screens. "Mr. Rodriguez Senior is attempting to contact you directly. He's called three times in the last five minutes."

Victoria's eyes narrowed slightly. "Desperation sets in quickly."

"Block the calls," I replied, voice cool despite the turmoil inside. "And inform security that no Rodriguez family member is to be admitted to the building under any circumstances."

The financial carnage continued as more investors abandoned what was clearly becoming a sinking ship.News channels began running special segments on the "Rodriguez Collapse," featuring experts we'd quietly briefed in advance.

Fresh alerts flooded my screens. Rodriguez Shipping's board had called an emergency session. Rumors of Stefan's possible removal as CEO spread through financial circles. Trading halts triggered then lifted,each resumption bringing another wave of selling.

"Forty percent drop," Victoria announced with clear satisfaction, pouring two glasses of the eighteen-year -old Macallan she kept in my office for special occasions. "WVell done, Camille. Absolutely masterful execution."

I accepted the glass but didn't drink, watching instead as our source continued to provide real-time updates from inside the Rodriguez headquarters.

More messages appeared: *Stefan's office being cleared out. Personal items in boxes. Security escorting him from building. Executive team in complete meltdown. Legal team preparing for shareholder lawsuits.*

I stared at the words until they blurred together.Remembered Stefan's boyish pride in his family's company during our first dates. His passionate late-night talks about modernizing the fleet. The dreams he'd shared late at night about expanding their legacy across new shipping lanes, new countries, new possibilities. The way his eyes lit up when discussing the business in a way they never quite did when discussing our future together.

All ash now. All destroyed by my hand, methodically,deliberately, without mercy, just as he'd destroyed me.

"Incoming call from Margaret Lewis," my assistant announced through the intercom, interrupting my thoughts.

My mother. Probably calling to beg for help with Rose's failing fashion line, unaware of the irony. She had no idea she was speaking to her lost daughter while her chosen one's world crumbled into dust. I wondered briefly what she would think if she knew the truth, that the daughter she'd discarded was now powerful enough to crush businesses with a few keystrokes.

"Decline," I said sharply, watching Rodriguez stock hit another circuit breaker.

Victoria sipped her whiskey, watching me over the rim of her glass with the calculating gaze that had first drawn me to her after my world collapsed. "After this,there will be no going back. You understand that?Once the Rodriguez name is destroyed, many doors will close to you forever."

"Those doors closed the moment Stefan and Rose decided to betray me," I replied, finally tasting the aged whiskey, letting it burn down my throat. "I'm simply making it official."

"The market closes in ten minutes," Victoria said,glancing at her watch. "Tomorrow we start on their Asia division. By week's end..."

"By week's end they'll have nothing left," I cut in,watching each percentage point drop with a hollow satisfaction. "Isn't that the point? Complete annihilation?"

On screen, Rodriguez Shipping's stock hit bottom again. Trading halted for the fourth time. Stefan's legacy ended not with a bang but with a whimper and a lot of red numbers. The five-year chart showed a perfect cliff edge, everything before today rendered meaningless.

My phone buzzed one final time. A photo from our source, Stefan being escorted out, box of personal items in his arms, face pale with shock and disbelief.The golden boy finally facing consequences.The heir apparent dethroned. The man who had promised me forever now facing his own sudden ending.

I'd done this. Me. The woman he'd discarded like yesterday's news. The wife he'd betrayed with her own sister. The inconvenient obstacle to his true desires.

So why didn't victory taste sweeter? Why did the whiskey turn bitter on my tongue? Why did the emptiness inside seem to grow rather than diminish?

Victoria studied me carefully, her years of experience reading people picking up on my unexpected hesitation. "You're not having second thoughts, are you? After everything we've done to get here?"

"Not second thoughts," I said, setting down my glass."Just wondering what comes after."

"After?" Victoria raised a perfectly shaped eyebrow."After this, we continue with the plan. Rose's fashion empire. Your mother's social standing. One by one,we dismantle everything they value, everything they chose over you."

I nodded slowly, but something inside me questioned whether endless destruction would ever fill the void their betrayal had created. "And then what? When it's all gone, what remains for me?"

Victoria's sigh held years of experience, both professional and personal. "Just remember why we started this. What they did to you. What they deserve.

How they would have continued using you if you hadn't discovered the truth."

"I remember everything," I said softly, touching the screen where Stefan's broken expression was captured forever. "That's the problem."

The final trading bell rang, the sound echoing through my office like a death knell. Rodriguez Shipping's stock closed down sixty-two percent, the worst single -day performance in the company's century-long history.Headlines already proclaimed the death of a shipping dynasty that had survived wars, depressions,and global crises, but couldn't survive my vengeance.

I'd won. Thoroughly. Completely. Just as planned.

My phone began buzzing incessantly, financial reporters seeking comment, business associates offering congratulations, vultures seeking to pick at the Rodriguez carcass. I silenced it without looking at the names.

Tomorrow would bring new targets, new strategies,new victories. But tonight... tonight I would sit alone with my thoughts, the taste of ash in my mouth despite the expensive whiskey, and consider what exactly came after revenge. When all the destruction was complete, when everyone who had hurt me was brought low, what would I build from the ruins of my former life?

It was a question I hadn't allowed myself to consider until now, focused solely on tearing down rather than building up. Perhaps it was time to start thinking beyond vengeance, beyond the all-consuming fire that had driven me these past months.

Perhaps there was something waiting for me on the other side of revenge.