Page 122 of Code of Heart

Today wasn’t going to be productive. He had known it the moment he walked through the door. He was about to call it a day when the office doors burst open with the force of a battering ram.

Ivy barreled in, breathless and wild-eyed. The look on her face sent him instantly on alert, every muscle tensed.

“What’s wrong?” he barked, his body already moving before his mind caught up. “Are you hurt?”

“No,” she gasped, still catching her breath. “The Boardcalled an emergency meeting. They’re gathering in the conference room right now—and Levi—it’s really bad. You need to see the news reports now.”

A hole of dread opened in his gut.

She hesitated through her panting. “Photos of Aurelia…from that hotel room…someone leaked them. The media’s all over it. They’re—”

Before she could finish, Isaac and Owen came skidding into the office, Owen nearly tripping over his own feet in the rush.

Isaac looked like he hadn’t slept. His hair was a disaster, his shirt wrinkled, and his expression was one of total devastation. Owen was seething, practically vibrating with rage.

Isaac was the first to speak, his voice heavy with alarm. “It’s everywhere, even on national news. A massive customer data breach was leaked by an anonymous tip. Grace is trying to put out the fire, but it’s chaos.”

“It was Martin Strasburg who found it,” Owen added, his jaw tight. “Came straight to me. Said Wilkerson built a backdoor into the system before we terminated him. The bastard’s been inside our network this whole time.”

“Months,” Isaac said, horrified. “It was buried, layered so deep no one saw it. But now the leak’s public and—”

“And Aurelia’s private trauma has been blasted across the internet,” Owen finished bitterly.

Levi sank into his chair. His head spun with everything they lobbed at him.

Wilkerson’s code. The public breach.

Sexually explicit photos of Aurelia were plastered on newsfeeds and social media.

It wasn’t a coincidence. It was a full-scale ambush.

A coup.

And he had been too broken, too distracted, too blind to see it coming.

He lifted his eyes to his team—his family—every one of them waiting for direction. Waiting for their leader.

He knew what the emergency Board meeting was for.

Taking him down.

He swallowed hard, bracing himself. Then, with slow precision, he rose to his full height in his chair, the calm, calculating mask of a CEO slipping into place like armor.

“Go to your offices,” he said firmly. “Start packing up your things.”

The silence was instant and complete. Isaac blinked. Owen stared. Ivy’s mouth dropped open.

“What?” Isaac finally whispered.

“Tell Grace to do the same,” Levi said, his voice stronger now. “This was Tyler’s endgame all along—take control of the company. And I think…” He paused, a breath hitching in his chest. “I think he succeeded.”

They didn’t move. Couldn’t. The weight of his words paralyzed them.

“When I walk into that meeting,” Levi said, tone flat, “it’ll likely be for the last time.”

He stood then, unhurried and steady, straightening his blazer in anticipation of the battle looming on the horizon.

“But we’re not going to give them the satisfaction of watching us fall apart. No panic. No scrambling. We walk out of here calmly. Cool. Lethal.” His voice hardened, each word sharpened to a blade’s edge.