Chapter 2 - The Name Behind the CompanyBy noon, my name was everywhere.

Not just on campus.

Everywhere.

News sites were publishing headlines before the graduation ceremony had even ended.

NINETEEN-YEAR-OLD FOUNDER BUILDS $15 BILLION CYBERSECURITY EMPIRE

WESTBRIDGE'S YOUNGEST BILLIONAIRE WAS HIDING IN PLAIN SIGHT

WHO IS AVA VALE?

I sat inside a private conference room beneath the university auditorium while my security director, Mara Collins, stood by the window.

She had been my first full-time employee.

Back then, she had laughed when I told her I wanted to build a company worth a billion dollars before I turned twenty.

"You've got four years," she had said.

We had done it in less than four.

Now she held my phone.

"Your family is trending."

"I know."

"Your sister is posting."

"What is she saying?"

Mara looked at me.

"You sure?"

"Read it."

She sighed.

"She says she always knew you were brilliant."

I almost laughed.

Bianca had once told me I was "weird in an impressive way."

Apparently that had now become sisterly support.

I took the phone.

Bianca had posted a childhood photograph of us.

She was wearing a pink dress.

I was holding a broken toy robot.

Her caption said:

So proud of my little sister. We've always believed in each other. ❤️

I stared at it.

Then I scrolled.

Three hundred thousand likes.

Already.

Mara shook her head.

"She's trying to establish proximity."

"Let her."

"Your mother is worse."

I looked up.

"What did she do?"

Mara turned the screen toward me.

A video.

My mother was standing in the kitchen.

The exact kitchen where she had slid my graduation invitation back across the table.

She was crying.

"Our daughter has worked very hard," she said. "We're incredibly proud."

My jaw tightened.

Mara paused the video.

"She's doing a press conference at four."

"Without me?"

"Apparently."

I leaned back.

That was when the door opened.

Henry Mercer walked in.

He looked pale.

"Miss Vale."

"Mister Mercer."

He shut the door.

"We need to talk."

Mara moved closer to me.

Henry noticed.

"I came alone."

"Why?"

He swallowed.

"Because your father doesn't know yet."

I frowned.

"Know what?"

Henry placed a folder on the table.

"Six months ago, Richard's firm attempted to acquire a controlling interest in ValeCore."

I stared at him.

He continued.

"They didn't know you were the founder."

"Who did they think owned it?"

"A group of private investors."

"So they tried to buy me."

"They tried to buy the company."

"Same thing."

Henry looked uncomfortable.

"They offered eleven billion."

I smiled coldly.

"My company wasn't for sale."

"We know that now."

"No. You don't."

Henry's expression changed.

"What does that mean?"

I opened the folder.

"The eleven-billion offer was accepted."

Silence.

Mara looked at me.

Henry blinked.

"Accepted?"

"By someone."

I reached into another folder and pulled out a copy of the transaction.

"The sale was never completed."

"Why?"

"Because the buyer disappeared."

Henry's face went white.

"Who?"

I slid the paper toward him.

A name sat at the bottom.

A private investment corporation I'd never heard of.

Northbridge Holdings.

Henry whispered, "That's impossible."

"What?"

"Northbridge doesn't exist anymore."

I stared at him.

"What do you mean?"

"It dissolved three years ago."

Mara stepped forward.

"Then who made the offer?"

Henry didn't answer.

My phone rang.

My mother's number.

I declined it.

It rang again.

I declined again.

Then another message arrived.

This one from my father.

We need to meet tonight.

I typed one response.

Why?

The answer appeared instantly.

Because I just found the name on your incorporation papers.

My pulse jumped.

I had incorporated ValeCore through a legal trust when I was sixteen.

Only four people knew the full structure.

Me.

My lawyer.

Professor Elias Ward.

And one other person.

A person who had promised never to reveal it.

My father sent another message.

The registered controlling beneficiary is Elena Vale.

I froze.

Mara looked at me.

"What?"

I showed her.

Her face hardened.

"Ava..."

"My mother isn't the controlling beneficiary."

"Then why is her name there?"

I didn't know.

And that frightened me more than the black SUVs.

Because someone had changed the ownership structure of my company.

Without my permission.

Without my knowledge.

May you like

My Family Inherited Millions and Left Me a Ruined House. Four Months Lat...

The lawyer’s office fell silent as my grandmother’s will was read, and I watched my family inherit millions while I received nothi...

A Desperate Mother Begged a Billionaire for a Job to Feed Her Two Childr...

I was stranded on a lonely Arizona highway with two starving children, a pair of ruined suitcases, and no way to reach our destina...

I Saved the Mafia Boss’s Baby from a Dumpster, but He Threw Me in Jail f...

The first thing I noticed when I opened the dumpster behind the Valente mansion was a tiny blue hand sticking out from beneath a f...

And somehow...

They had used my mother's name to do it.