Ms. CEO’s Baby Daddy Is the Merchant of Death – Episode 16
The criminal referral landed before Stephen Hayes like a death sentence. Camera flashes erupted across the boardroom as reporters abandoned every prepared question and shouted about embezzlement. Stephen struck the file from the table and declared the evidence fraudulent. His authority, once absolute in this room, now sounded like desperation.
He accused Connor of purchasing Hayes Group only to humiliate its chairman. The debt acquisition was predatory, he argued, and Dominion Tech had no right to interfere in family affairs. Connor remained beside Scarlett, allowing Dominion’s attorneys to answer the corporate claims. The violence against his wife and daughter, however, was not something he intended to delegate.
Stephen turned to Scarlett and ordered her to denounce Connor. He reminded her that she carried the Hayes name and insisted blood should matter more than a marriage made in a single morning. Scarlett looked at the man who had beaten her while Summer suffocated behind a locked door. Whatever power the word father once held had died in that hallway.
“You stopped being my father when you used my daughter to control me,” she said. Her voice did not rise, yet everyone heard it clearly. She would not protect Stephen from the company he robbed or the law he had invited. For the first time, she severed their relationship without grief weakening the decision.
Danielle sprang from her seat and accused Scarlett of poisoning Connor against the family. She claimed the hospital crisis had been exaggerated to steal control of the company. Cypher responded by activating the central screen. The recovered security footage began playing before Danielle could escape the room.
The directors watched Summer being locked away during an asthma attack. They heard Scarlett beg for the inhaler and Stephen demand punishment in exchange for the child’s release. Then the corridor camera showed Danielle entering the room, retrieving the blue inhaler, and hiding it inside her purse. No edited statement could soften the satisfaction visible on her face.
Danielle insisted the recording was fake. Dominion’s forensic specialist presented verified timestamps, remote backups, and matching data recovered from the estate system. A household employee had also confirmed seeing the inhaler in Danielle’s possession. Her denial weakened with every piece of evidence.
The boardroom doors opened again, this time for police and child protection investigators. An officer informed Danielle that she was being investigated for intentionally withholding lifesaving medication from a minor. Her mother pushed between them and claimed responsibility belonged to a servant. The attempt to redirect blame failed when Cypher produced their recovered messages.
Those messages showed that Scarlett’s stepmother knew Summer had no inhaler. She had ordered the staff not to unlock the room, warning that anyone who disobeyed would lose employment and housing. Danielle had replied that a few minutes without air might finally make Scarlett obedient. The cruelty was written in their own words.
Scarlett forced herself to watch as investigators escorted Danielle away for questioning. There was no satisfaction in seeing her sister frightened, only a hollow awareness of how close Summer had come to death. Danielle had expected family wealth to erase every consequence. Connor’s evidence ensured money would no longer be enough.
Bennett Whitmore quietly moved toward the exit. Connor called his name before he reached the door, and the room’s attention shifted to him. Bennett denied knowing anything about the abuse or Stephen’s stolen funds. Whitmore Capital, he claimed, had offered only a legitimate rescue package.
He proposed a private arrangement. Whitmore would withdraw its claim to selected Hayes assets if Dominion ended the audit and kept the family name away from scandal. The offer was polished, expensive, and designed to sound mutually beneficial. Connor recognized it as the plea of a man hiding a larger crime.
“No deal,” Connor said. Dominion would trace every dollar, contract, and shell company connected to the attempted takeover. If Bennett was innocent, the records would establish it. Bennett’s anger revealed how little he believed that outcome.
The board convened an emergency vote without Stephen’s leadership. His chairman authority was suspended pending the criminal investigation, while Scarlett was restored as chief executive with temporary power to stabilize operations. Several directors who had mocked Connor now offered eager congratulations. Scarlett accepted the result without pretending their loyalty was real.
Dominion’s restructuring team would keep wages paid and essential projects operating. Connor emphasized that he had not bought Hayes Group to absorb it into his empire. The company would remain Scarlett’s to lead once fraudulent debts were removed. His public support surprised her more than the money itself.
Stephen was escorted from the room after attempting to destroy documents. At the doorway, he looked back and warned Scarlett that Connor’s world was built on blood. A dangerous man could protect her only until his enemies decided to strike. Then Summer would pay for her mother’s latest mistake.
Connor’s operatives tightened around him, but Scarlett refused to let the threat control her. She answered that Stephen no longer had the right to speak Summer’s name. Even so, his warning remained in her mind. She still knew almost nothing about the husband powerful enough to overturn her family in one night.
Bennett left before investigators could question him formally. In the elevator, he broke the disposable phone hidden inside his briefcase from its packaging. His hands shook with rage as he entered a number memorized years earlier. The call traveled through several encrypted relays before connecting.
A distorted voice asked why he had used the emergency channel. Bennett reported that Connor Reed had revealed himself and placed Dominion behind Scarlett Hayes. Their financial operation was compromised, and the Aegis assets might soon be discovered. Silence followed long enough to make Bennett fear the connection had failed.
Then the voice laughed. Connor had spent years protecting his identity, only to sacrifice it for a wife and child. The unknown man ordered Bennett to remain close to Scarlett and wait for instructions. “At last,” he said, “the Merchant of Death has given us something he cannot afford to lose.”
