Ms. CEO’s Baby Daddy Is the Merchant of Death – Episode 49
Vale displayed the terms across every screen. Connor would surrender the founder key and Scarlett would transfer Constellation to Vanguard. In exchange, Richard’s restraints would release before the corporate vote ended.
Richard spoke through the holding-room camera. He ordered Connor to protect Scarlett, Summer, and the cities connected to Aegis. A father’s life could not outweigh millions of strangers.
Connor refused the arithmetic. Vale had taught him to reduce lives to numbers, and Richard had taught him to hide consequences. He would accept neither lesson again.
Scarlett located the restraint signal within the Constellation map. It depended on one Vanguard node and one Dominion authorization. Husband and wife could separate the two if they acted simultaneously.
Cypher prepared a manual release near Richard. Connor moved toward the Dominion uplink while Scarlett entered the civilian network. Vale sent guards to divide them.
Voss watched hidden system logs and discovered Vale’s cleanup order. After Genesis activated, every engineer with Aegis knowledge would be eliminated. His own name appeared first.
He contacted Cypher on a narrow maintenance channel. In exchange for the chance to stand trial, Voss provided a route into the control core. Cypher promised only that surrender would be documented.
Connor reached the uplink and inserted his founder key. Dominion recognized both him and Vale, creating a conflict the original charter had never anticipated. The system demanded a board resolution.
Richard used the final access remaining in his Reed-held shares. Instead of voting for Connor, he transferred the voting rights to an independent emergency trustee. Vale lost the majority needed for permanent control.
The transfer triggered Richard’s restraints. Cypher cut the physical relay at the same moment Scarlett removed the civilian node. The heart-stop charge discharged harmlessly into the floor.
Connor reached his father as guards entered. Richard could barely stand, but he insisted on walking out beside his son. Connor supported him without pretending the gesture diminished either man.
Vale activated Genesis Protocol before the takeover failed completely. Twelve hidden weapons depots appeared across the world. Each contained systems built during Dominion’s earliest years and erased from official inventories.
Voss realized Vale had never intended Vanguard to replace Dominion. He intended to merge both networks under one command and force governments to accept his authority. Competition had only funded the weapon.
Scarlett began Constellation activation. Civilian nodes lit across hospitals, rescue centers, and transport systems. The third credential waited for Evelyn’s duplicated authorization.
Lily and Summer joined Richard’s foundation piece from the secure house. Summer pressed the confirmation only after Scarlett explained what it would do. Evelyn’s module completed the constellation.
The hidden depots lost navigation one by one. Vale countered with C-7, forcing several weapons back online through internal coordinates. Constellation could deny outside targets but not destroy the launch systems.
Connor used his founder key to separate Dominion from Genesis. The action permanently erased his exclusive command authority. He chose to surrender power rather than preserve the empire Vale wanted him to defend.
Voss opened Vanguard’s control core for Cypher. Guardian entered the remaining depots and locked their physical mechanisms. International teams moved to seize them.
Vale escaped the chamber through a passage absent from Voss’s maps. Before leaving, he initiated a complete facility purge. Vanguard began collapsing around Connor’s team.
Cypher announced that every weapon was disabled, but the building would not survive. Connor took Richard’s arm, Scarlett took his other side, and together they ran as the man who had created their enemy disappeared below them.
