Chapter 660
Declan nodded and immediately moved to execute the order.
Ten minutes later, Jarred pulled the car door open and slid into the backseat.
Declan handed him an iPad over the console.
The screen was flooded with glaring, bold red headlines.
[Sterling Matriarch Implicated in Major Crimes, Paralyzed by Stress-Induced Stroke p>
[Exclusive: Tragic Details of Elite Socialite’s Hidden Drug Addiction Revealed p>
The articles were plastered with photos of Helena Sterling in her hospital bed, alongside grainy, shadowed images of her suffering from drug withdrawals.
The catastrophic secrets he had spent the last six months burying under mountains of cash and manpower had just been bulldozed right into the public eye.
“Who leaked it?” Jarred’s voice was frigid.
Declan shook his head. “We can’t trace the source. The initial accounts used offshore IP addresses, but the details are terrifyingly accurate.
They included specific medical parameters that only the attending doctors and direct family members would know p>
Jarred fell silent for a few seconds.
He flipped the iPad over, placing it face down on the leather seat, and closed his eyes.
He didn’t even need to investigate to know exactly who was behind this.
The only person with access to Helena’s precise medical data and the intimate details of her criminal case was the one person who had visited her midway through—Sienna.
And out of everyone who knew he was covering up the scandals, she was the only one entirely beyond his control.
But what was her endgame?
Jarred opened his eyes, a dark, complicated emotion swirling in his gaze.
He already had a pretty good idea.
Sienna’s biggest headache right now wasn’t the hostile board of directors.
It was the executive control the grandfather had entrusted to her, which she had originally planned to hand over to Maloney.
But with Maloney missing in action, that authority had become a massive liability.
As long as she held onto the reins, she was trapped.
She desperately needed someone powerful enough to take the throne off her hands.
That successor had to meet one of two criteria: a direct Sterling bloodline, or a proxy implicitly trusted by the family.
By dropping a nuclear bomb on the Sterlings, dragging Helena’s crimes and addiction out into the blinding daylight, she achieved two massive goals.
At the very least, it secured her position in two ways.
First, with the entire internet dissecting the Sterlings, her personal safety was guaranteed. No, one could quietly kidnap her like last time while she was in the spotlight.
Second, she was forcing his hand.
She was forcing him to resign from his position as Captain and come back to clean up this catastrophic mess.
She was betting that he couldn’t bear to watch his family empire burn or see his closest relatives crucified. by public Seeinion She was betting he would ultimately fold.
Jarred closed his eyes again, a bitter ache blooming in his chest.
It was his own hesitation that had pushed her to execute such a ruthless, high-stakes move.
“Mr. Sterling, our absolute priority right now is stabilizing those old vultures on the board,” Declan said.
Declan carefully studied his boss’s face, his voice trembling slightly… “I’ve fielded a dozen calls since dawn. The senior family board members are already waiting for you at the office.
Rumor has it… they’ve all brought their own hand-picked candidates to seize control p>
Jarred reached up and pinched the bridge of his nose.
He looked utterly exhausted from his sleepless night, yet the terrifying, dominant aura radiating from him hadn’t diminished in the slightest.
“Let’s go meet them,” he commanded.
The Maybach carved its way through the morning traffic.
By the time they arrived, The Sterling Group’s corporate headquarters had dissolved into pure chaos.
The scandal had festered overnight and exploded across the city the moment the sun came up.
The board’s senior members and elite shareholders had all arrived early, barricading themselves inside the top-floor conference room.
They had flooded the executive secretariat’s phone lines, demanding Jarred show his face and put out the fire.
Everyone was panicking.
The Sterlings’ generational wealth and the collective interests of dozens of powerful families were hanging by a thread over the abyss.
The car glided to a halt in front of the towering glass skyscraper.
Jarred pushed the door open and stepped out. Dressed in a sharp black suit, he stood tall, his gaze dead and fathomless.
Even running on zero sleep and completely hollowed out, he still possessed the raw power to command the storm.
The moment he pushed open the heavy double doors of the top-floor conference room.
The deafening uproar instantly dropped into dead silence.