Ms. CEO’s Baby Daddy Is the Merchant of Death – Episode 46
Richard denied possessing any authorization until Scarlett showed him Evelyn’s inventory. The account number belonged to the Reed Foundation’s original research fund. Only he could open its sealed archive.
Connor recognized another secret hidden in the name of protection. He demanded the truth before Richard could offer an explanation shaped to sound noble. Scarlett supported him with silent agreement.
Richard admitted Evelyn had approached him after discovering Vale’s unauthorized tests. She feared Aegis would become a targeting system and asked him to preserve a duplicate of Vale’s credential. He agreed because Connor’s life was already entangled with the project.
Evelyn encoded the credential into a physical module. Richard placed it in a foundation vault and erased the account from ordinary records. After the explosion, he believed revealing it would connect Connor to the disaster.
Scarlett asked whether he had known her mother was in danger. Richard said Evelyn refused protection and disappeared from the project before her death. He had assumed Stephen’s family troubles were unrelated.
Connor accused him of having enough power to investigate and choosing silence. Richard accepted the accusation. Protecting a fortune had seemed easier than confronting what it financed.
They entered the vault under independent legal supervision. Inside, the module rested beside letters from Evelyn describing Constellation’s purpose. She wrote that no weapon should obey one frightened or ambitious person.
Scarlett activated the module with her fingerprint. Vale’s original authorization appeared, but only as a limited duplicate. It could approve one complete Constellation activation before destroying itself.
Cypher warned that using it too early would leave them defenseless against Genesis-level systems. They needed proof of Vanguard’s next target. Vale had forced them to choose the exact moment for Evelyn’s final safeguard.
Connor wanted the module moved to Dominion’s most secure bunker. Scarlett rejected any location controlled by a single organization. She divided its encrypted components between Asterion, Dominion, and the Reed Foundation.
Their decision reflected Constellation itself. No person could use or surrender the credential alone. Richard accepted holding only one piece.
Vale responded by leaking evidence of Richard’s early funding. News reports accused the Reed family of creating both Dominion and Vanguard. Richard’s companies lost government contracts within hours.
He refused to issue a denial that blamed Connor or Evelyn. For the first time, he publicly admitted financing technology without sufficient oversight. His statement surprised even Lily.
Summer asked why Grandpa looked sad on television. Richard told her he had made choices that hurt people and was trying to repair them. She asked whether he had recorded a promise like Connor.
Richard knelt beside her and spoke into the watch. He promised never again to hide a dangerous truth simply because it threatened the Reed name. Summer saved the message under “Grandpa Comes Clean.”
Scarlett received intelligence that Vanguard had purchased an abandoned satellite-control facility. The site could coordinate weapons across multiple countries. Its activation date matched Vale’s threatened demonstration.
Cypher detected Voss probing Asterion’s archive. He was searching for the authorization module but could not determine how it had been divided. The false location they planted drew his attention.
Connor proposed allowing Voss to steal a counterfeit. Guardian code inside it would reveal Vanguard’s internal network when Vale tested the key. Scarlett approved the trap, provided no employee was used as bait.
The fake module was placed in Asterion’s visible archive under robotic security. Voss did not attack the machine. Instead, his team cut power to the building while Lily and Summer were visiting Scarlett.
Emergency doors locked around them as masked intruders entered the lobby. Connor heard Summer’s watch alarm and realized Vale had identified the people guarding the real secret, even if he had not found its location.
