Ms. CEO’s Baby Daddy Is the Merchant of Death – Episode 40
The recovered ledger transformed suspicion into evidence. Bennett had financed Scarlett’s pursuit, Asterion’s collapse, Summer’s endangerment, and Cross’s coup. Prosecutors filed charges before sunrise.
Stephen survived surgery under police guard. He gave a complete statement and surrendered every hidden account connected to Whitmore. The testimony could reduce his sentence, but it could not restore his family.
Scarlett visited him once. Stephen asked for forgiveness, and she told him accountability had to come first. Saving her life was one right act after years of wrong ones.
He accepted her answer without protest. For the first time, he did not demand affection as payment. Scarlett left with grief instead of reconciliation.
Bennett appeared in court stripped of private security and influence. His attorneys argued that Voss and Cross had acted independently. The ledger, recordings, and vehicle logs contradicted every denial.
Outside the courthouse, former Whitmore allies abandoned him. Richard’s financial action had exposed debts hidden beneath the family’s reputation. Whitmore Holdings entered emergency liquidation.
Connor took no pleasure in the collapse. He had once believed destroying an enemy solved everything. Watching Scarlett rebuild showed him that creation demanded greater courage.
Asterion’s board unanimously confirmed Scarlett as president. The restored trust placed Summer after her in the succession, though Scarlett sealed those provisions until her daughter reached adulthood. Summer would inherit choices, not burdens.
Dominion’s directors also met under international observation. Connor proposed permanent civilian oversight, closure of autonomous weapons programs, and a new defensive division partnered with Asterion. Several founding directors opposed him.
Richard offered to pressure the vote. Connor declined but thanked him for asking instead of acting. The small courtesy marked more progress than either man admitted.
The reforms passed by one vote. Cypher discovered that two absent founders had transferred their shares hours earlier to an unknown corporation. The buyer’s identity remained encrypted.
That evening, Richard hosted a private family dinner without cameras or investors. He formally welcomed Scarlett but avoided calling her an asset to the Reed name. Lily teased him for practicing the sentence all afternoon.
Summer asked whether she was rich now. Scarlett said money did not decide who she was. Connor added that she was already rich in people who loved her.
Richard returned the repaired watch and showed Summer its strengthened emergency beacon. She made him promise it would call Connor before any security team. Richard agreed that her father should always be first.
Connor apologized to Scarlett for the secrets that had shaped their marriage. She did not pretend trust was fully repaired, but she recognized every choice he had made differently since. They kissed while Summer loudly complained about adults being embarrassing.
News broke that Bennett had been denied bail. Cross remained in a secure prison hospital, and international warrants named Voss. For the first time since Scarlett entered Connor’s truck, every known enemy was contained or running.
Richard publicly acknowledged Scarlett as his daughter-in-law and Summer as his granddaughter the next morning. He also declared that the Reed fortune would not interfere with Asterion’s independence. Markets responded with immediate confidence.
Cypher interrupted the celebration with an encrypted alert. A new defense company had registered patents derived from the stolen Aegis fragment. Its systems were already being marketed to governments under the name Vanguard Arc.
The company’s technical founder was Marcus Voss. Its financing came from the corporation that had purchased the absent Dominion directors’ shares. Someone inside the empire had prepared this escape long before Cross fell.
Connor studied the list of secret investors and recognized the signature of a founding director presumed dead for twelve years. As Summer laughed with her grandfather nearby, he understood that Bennett had been the mastermind behind Scarlett’s suffering—but the war for Dominion had only revealed its oldest enemy.
