Chapter 4: The Hunted Becomes the Hunter
The transition from the Institute to the outside world felt like emerging from a tomb. The police had arrived, but they weren't there for Leo; they were there to secure the facility. The media circus was immediate, helicopters circling the building, cameras flashing like lightning.
But the "They"—the shadowy figures behind the Vane conglomerate—would not go down without a fight.
For the next three days, Evelyn and Leo were ghosts. They moved through the city using the network of allies Evelyn had cultivated while working undercover. They needed to reach the Vane Tower, the corporate headquarters, to formally sign the papers that would liquidate the organization and return the assets to the rightful heirs—the employees and the victims of the Institute.
"They have assassins, Leo," Evelyn said as they hid in a safe house. "They won't let the company fall."
"Then we don't just destroy the company," Leo said, staring at the blueprints of the Tower. "We expose the board."
He was different now. The boy who sat in a wheelchair was gone. In his place was a man who had been tempered in the fires of betrayal and emerged forged in steel. He spent the night mapping out the legal traps, the financial discrepancies, and the evidence he had gathered from the Institute. He had been a brilliant mind trapped in a broken body; now, the body was whole, and the mind was unleashed.
They struck at dawn.
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They didn't break in. They walked through the front doors of the Vane Tower during the shareholder meeting, hand in hand. The board members were gathered in the boardroom, ready to announce a new puppet CEO to replace Leo.
The room went silent as the doors swung open.
