The digital clock on Champagne's marble counter flickered to 3:00 AM. The city outside was a grid of cold, unblinking lights, but inside the condo, the air hummed with the mechanical whir of servers.
"Do it," Champagne commanded, her voice cutting through the silence. "Send the first breadcrumb. Not the whole file, just enough to make her heart race."
One of the analysts nodded, his fingers dancing across a specialized keyboard. A moment later, a "system alert" was routed through the Cheongsong Group's private internal server, disguised as a routine security ping.
In the master suite of the Han manor, the air was heavy with the scent of expensive linen and the lingering tension of the dinner. Seo-yeon was staring at the ceiling, her mind a chaotic loop of the kiss in the office and Ji-hye's warnings.
Ever since she came back from meeting up with her friends, she has been thinking about Champagne. The atmosphere was a mixture of romantic and sad.
Is it a liability? she wondered, touching her lower lip. Or is it the only real thing I have?, Seo-yeon kept on thinking with questions on her mind.
Se phone chimed on the nightstand, a sharp, urgent tone reserved for high-level security breaches. She sat up instantly, her CEO instincts overriding her exhaustion.
The notification wasn't from the IT department. It was an automated "Flagged Transaction" alert from an offshore account she didn't recognize, linked directly to her brother's personal ID.
Her heart hammered against her ribs. She immediately dialed the one person she knew would be awake, the one person who had been working on the brother's "disgrace" files since day one.
"Champagne?" Seo-yeon whispered into the phone the second it picked up.
"Seo-yeon?" Champagne's voice came through the line, sounding perfectly drowsy, a masterful imitation of someone being pulled from a deep sleep. "Is everything okay? It's nearly dawn."
"I just got a ping. Singapore. An encrypted transfer. My brother is moving money, Champagne. He's trying to freeze the quarterly audit before I can finalize the takeover."
On the other end of the line, Champagne stood in her high-tech command center, watching the live trace of Seo-yeon's phone. She signaled her team to stay silent.
"Let me check the back-end servers," Champagne said, her voice turning crisp and professional. "I'm opening my laptop now. Stay on the line."
Seo-yeon gripped the phone, a wave of relief washing over her. "Thank God you're awake. I don't know who else I can trust with this. My mother is already breathing down my neck, and the board is looking for any excuse to stall my appointment."
"I'm here," Champagne murmured, the predatory glint in her eyes shielded by the darkness of her condo. "I've got the trail. He's using a shell company called Blue Lotus. I'll have the full documentation on your desk by 8:00 AM. Don't worry, Seo-yeon. I won't let him take this from you."
"Thank you," Seo-yeon said, her voice trembling slightly with a mix of adrenaline and affection. "I don't know what I'd do without you."
"You'll never have to find out," Champagne replied, her thumb hovering over a file labeled CHEO_DESTRUCTION_PHASE_2.
Champagne was doing all these to have control and full access to Seo-yeon's account, before Taeyong who was Seo-yeon's brother, could have access to it.
The morning sun cut through the floor-to-ceiling windows of the Cheongsong executive suite like a blade. Seo-yeon hadn't slept, she stood by the window, her silhouette sharp against the rising skyline, watching the city wake up.
A soft, rhythmic knock echoed against the mahogany door.
Champagne entered, looking impeccably composed in a charcoal-grey power suit that mirrored Seo-yeon's own professional armor. In her hand was a single, obsidian-black tablet and a physical manila folder, an "Old Money" touch for a digital crime.
"The Blue Lotus documentation," Champagne said, her voice a soothing balm to Seo-yeon's frayed nerves. "I pulled the final transaction logs from the Singaporean server at 4:15 AM. It's all here."
She walked toward the desk, her movements fluid and deliberate. As she set the folder down, her fingers brushed against Seo-yeon's hand, a brief, electric contact that felt like a secret shared in broad daylight.
"My brother really went through with it," Seo-yeon murmured, opening the folder. Her eyes scanned the documents: wire transfers, shell company registrations, and a signature that was unmistakably her brother's, authorizing the freeze on Cheongsong's liquidity.
"He didn't just move the money," Champagne added, leaning over the desk so her shoulder almost touched Seo-yeon's.
"He was planning to frame the 'disappearance' of these funds on your recent executive restructuring. If this had gone through, the board wouldn't just have stalled your appointment, they would have called for an investigation into you."
Seo-yeon felt a chill that had nothing to do with the office air conditioning. She looked up at Champagne, her gaze softening for a fraction of a second, the CEO mask slipping. "You saved me. Again."
"I told you," Champagne whispered, her eyes dark and unreadable. "I won't let them take this from you."
Seo-yeon stood up, the weight of the evidence in her hands giving her a new, lethal sort of energy. "Call a private session with the legal team. And find my brother. I want him in the conference room in ten minutes. No cameras, no secretaries."
"Already done," Champagne replied with a faint, chilling smile. "He's waiting in Conference Room B. He thinks he's there to discuss the quarterly projections."
Seo-yeon nodded, tucking the Blue Lotus files under her arm. "Champagne... after this is over today... stay late. I want us to talk. Not about the company."
"I'll be exactly where you need me," Champagne promised, with a smile on her face.
As Seo-yeon marched out of the office, her heels clicking with the rhythm of a firing squad, Champagne stayed behind for a moment. She picked up Seo-yeon's discarded espresso cup, her expression shifting from "loyal assistant" to something much colder.
She tapped her earpiece. "The evidence has been planted and accepted. The internal war starts now. Prep the acquisition team,the Han family is about to tear itself apart from the inside."
The air in Conference Room B was sterile, smelling of ozone and expensive furniture polish. Han Taeyong was leaned back in a leather chair, scrolling through his phone with a smirk that suggested he already felt the weight of the CEO title returning to him.
When the heavy soundproof doors swung open, it wasn't a team of analysts who walked in. It was only Seo-yeon, her face a mask of cold, architectural perfection.
Champagne followed a step behind, silent as a ghost, placing the black tablet and the manila folder onto the glass table with a clinical click.
"You're late, sister," Taeyong said, not looking up. "I was beginning to think the pressure of the quarterly audit was finally getting to you. It's a lot for a woman to handle, isn't it? The numbers, the volatility..."
Seo-yeon didn't sit. She stood over him, her shadow stretching across the table. "The only thing that's volatile, Taeyong, is your loyalty to this family."
She slid the Blue Lotus file across the glass. It stopped inches from his hand.
Taeyong's smirk didn't vanish immediately, but his eyes flickered to the folder.
He opened it slowly, his expression shifting from arrogance to a pale, frantic sort of confusion as he saw the wire transfers to Singapore.
"What is this?" he stammered, his voice losing its bass. "This is... this is fabricated. Some IT glitch...."
"It's a paper trail to your grave," Seo-yeon interrupted, her voice a low, dangerous hum.
"You tried to freeze the group's liquidity. You tried to frame the restructuring I worked for as a criminal disappearance of funds. You didn't just try to take my seat, Taeyong. You tried to burn the entire Cheongsong Group to the ground just so I couldn't have it."
Taeyong stood up, his chair screeching against the floor. He looked at Seo-yeon, then his eyes darted to Champagne, who stood by the door, her hands folded primly in front of her.
"You!" Taeyong pointed a trembling finger at Champagne. "You're the one who found this? You're just a stray she picked up! You don't know the first thing about how this family operates!"
Champagne didn't flinch. She didn't even blink. "I only know what the data tells me, Mr. Han. And the data says you sold your soul to a Singaporean shell company to spite your sister."
"I am a Han!" Taeyong roared, turning back to Seo-yeon. "You can't do this! Mother will never allow a public scandal. She'll protect the name before she protects you."
"Mother already knows," Seo-yeon lied, her gaze never wavering. "I sent her the summary ten minutes ago. She isn't interested in protecting a traitor. She's interested in protecting the stock price. And right now? You are a liability that needs to be liquidated."
Seo-yeon leaned in, her voice dropping to a whisper that felt like a blade. "Sign the resignation. Hand over your shares to the trust. If you do it now, we'll call it 'health reasons.' If you don't, I'll hand this folder to the prosecutors before the sun sets."
Taeyong collapsed back into the chair, the reality of his defeat sinking in. He looked small, a far cry from the "Old Money" prince he pretended to be.
Seo-yeon turned her back on him, walking toward the window. "Champagne, give him the pen. I want this finished before lunch."
As Champagne stepped forward, her eyes met Taeyong's for a brief second. There was no pity in them, only the cold satisfaction of a hunter watching a trap snap shut. She leaned over him, whispering just loud enough for only him to hear as she handed him the stylus.
"Don't worry, Mr. Taeyong. You're just the first domino."