The following morning, Aquileia arrived at the company to find an envelope on her desk. As she opened it and read its contents, her expression turned to shock. She rushed to Hayden's office—but he was absent.
Moments later, Jedidiah arrived. As he walked toward his office, Aquileia intercepted him, holding out the letter. Jedidiah calmly pulled out an identical letter from his own folder.
He nodded, unsurprised. "I had a feeling something like this would happen. Stay calm."
He walked to the conference room, only to be met by a hostile crowd outside. The board members inside the meeting room wore looks of disdain. Three of them—along with Hayden—smirked as Jedidiah entered.
Jedidiah scanned the room, his demeanor cool and measured. He turned to Aquileia.
"Let's go," he said quietly.
As they exited the building, Jedidiah made a phone call. Meanwhile, inside the boardroom, Hayden took center stage.
"Jedidiah is a fraud," he declared. "He's here to steal from us. We cannot allow—"
His speech was interrupted by a message alert on his phone. His face paled as he read it.
"What's wrong?" one of the board members asked.
He hesitated. "We—we've just gone bankrupt. Our biggest investor has pulled out."
Panic swept through the room.
Another board member read the message aloud. "We're required to pay five million dollars in penalties for breach of contract… and six billion in investment reimbursement. That's 6.005 billion dollars in total."
Gasps filled the room.
The members who had sided with Hayden looked at each other in horror.
Hayden knew they were in deep trouble—and worse, he knew Dr. Raymond would soon hear about it.
Back at the mansion, news of the financial disaster spread like wildfire. Hayden was summoned.
As he arrived, he was met with icy stares. Everyone was already assembled. Dr. Raymond's expression was thunderous.
"Do you know what you've done?" Raymond barked.
Hayden tried to defend himself, but Dr. Raymond cut him off.
"I instructed Aquileia to give Jedidiah documents assigning him to lead the engineering project. You were still in charge of business strategy. You misunderstood. Aquileia even vouched for you. And this—this is how you repay that trust?"
Hayden fell silent.
An emergency meeting was called. Ideas flew around, desperate attempts to find a solution.
Kate offered a suggestion. "Why not contact Jedidiah? He might still help us. If we can convince him, he could sway his board overseas. And with Aquileia at his side, he might listen."
Kennedith turned to Hayden. "What did you do that was so terrible?"
Even Dr. Raymond demanded answers.
Kate tried to intervene, but Dr. Raymond's voice boomed with authority. "Let him speak!"
Hayden, cornered, confessed.
"It was my mother's idea. She told me to post an old photo of Jedidiah—when he was sleeping under a bridge. Alongside the photo, we wrote that he was the son of a whore who abandoned him. That his siblings and his father were being helped by Kate. That the girl he once loved—Aquileia—was now betraying me and trying to steal company money with him."
Silence.
Kate tried to deny it, but Dr. Raymond dismissed her protests.
"We'll deal with that later."
Kennedith rose from his seat, his expression unreadable, and left without a word. Kate reached out, calling after him, but Dr. Raymond blocked her path.
"Right now," he said grimly, "we need to find Jedidiah."