Chapter 14 - The Trojan Horse
“Elias needs you alive until your birthday,” Silas whispered, stepping into Olga’s moonlit bedroom. He raised the suppressed barrel of the gun, pointing it squarely at her heart. “But I don't. If you die before you turn twenty-nine, the Rostova Trust legally defaults to the next blood heir. Me.”
Olga didn't scream. She didn't beg. She stood perfectly still, her mind moving at a thousand miles an hour. Silas was impulsive. He was acting out of greed and fear.
“If you pull that trigger, Elias will know,” Olga said, her voice eerily calm. “Julian’s guards are stationed at the end of the hall. The cameras are active. You won't make it to the elevator before your father executes you for destroying ten billion dollars.”
“I’ll say you tried to attack me,” Silas sneered, though his hand trembled slightly.
“You’re sweating, Silas,” Olga observed clinically. “You didn't think this through. You’re bleeding cash, aren't you? Your father keeps you on a tight leash, and you’ve been taking side bets you can't cover.”
Silas’s eyes widened a fraction of an inch. Olga had guessed, but the reaction confirmed it. An arrogant man in a tailored suit holding a gun was usually a man deeply in debt.
“Put the gun down, Silas,” Olga commanded softly, stepping right up to the barrel. “If you want that money, you need me alive. Let me work the ledgers. I can make you richer than Elias ever could.”
Silas stared at her, intimidated by her absolute lack of fear. Slowly, he lowered the weapon. “If you cross me, I’ll throw you off this mountain myself.” He turned and slipped back into the shadows.
The next morning, Olga didn't hide. She walked directly into Elias’s grand study.
Elias was reviewing a tablet, Julian standing silently by the fireplace. “I didn't summon you,” Elias said coldly.
“You’re losing money,” Olga stated, dropping a heavily annotated printout onto his desk. It was a breakdown of the syndicate’s public shell companies she had researched before her flight. “Your offshore routing is sloppy. Your laundering margins are bleeding three percent to middlemen. You have a rat in your logistics department.”
Elias finally looked up, genuinely intrigued. “And you deduced this from public filings?”
“I put my last family in federal prison using public filings,” Olga reminded him flatly. “You want my mother’s ten billion? Fine. I’ll sign the papers on my birthday. But for the next three weeks, give me terminal access to your financial network. Let me clean up your ledgers.”
Julian frowned. “Sir, giving her mainframe access is an immense security risk.”
Elias studied Olga’s face, seeing the exact same ruthless ambition he possessed. He thought she was trying to win his favor. He thought she wanted a place in the empire.
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“Give her a restricted terminal,” Elias ordered Julian. “Let’s see what the prodigy can do. But monitor every keystroke.”
👉 As Olga sat down at the high-tech terminal in the estate’s server room, she smiled coldly to herself, knowing Elias had just handed the keys to the castle to the very person who was going to burn it down.
