Chapter 19 – Her Father's Secrets
The silence in the penthouse was deceptive—too calm for the storm that had just begun.
Elara sat on the velvet couch, the folder Juliette had given her finally open on her lap. Damian had gone to an emergency board meeting, and she was alone again—with the truth.
The file wasn't just about Monroe Industries. It wasn't even about VossTech.
It was about Gregory Vale—her father.
Her fingers trembled as she flipped through the pages. Court transcripts. Sealed testimony. A signed confession.
From Gregory Vale.
Her father had testified in secret—against his own company.
Against his own partners.
He had discovered that Vale Innovations had been laundering money through shell subsidiaries. He tried to report it. But someone higher up buried the confession. And three weeks later, he was dead.
Her throat tightened.
All this time… She had blamed Damian. Blamed VossTech. But it had never been him. It had been Monroe Industries—and her father's so-called business partners. And the worst part?
She had walked right into Monroe's trap, trying to avenge a man who'd been trying to protect her from the very people she was helping.
She felt sick.
The file included a name—Edward Monroe, CEO of Monroe Industries—and a second name circled in red ink.
Wesley Wexler.
Her pulse spiked.
Wexler. The board member who had been most vocal about getting rid of her. The one who'd fought to exclude her from the meeting.
Her mind raced. Was he the leak? The one inside VossTech helping Monroe take Damian down?
The pieces started to fit.
Damian had said the leak had to come from someone with high-level access. Someone who knew how to strike at the heart of the company—and at him.
Wexler had motive. Power. Access.
She needed to tell Damian. Now.
The VossTech building was a pressure cooker when Elara arrived.
Security was tight, reporters camped outside, and the entire executive floor buzzed with tension. Everyone she passed looked at her with suspicion—or pity.
She didn't care.
Juliette met her near the elevator. "You found something?"
"I know who the leak is."
Juliette blinked. "Who?"
"Wexler. My father's sealed testimony implicates Monroe Industries—and Wexler's name is all over it. He's not just part of the cover-up. He's part of the takedown."
Juliette's expression hardened. "Come with me."
They stormed into the boardroom where Damian was mid-presentation with the senior legal team. He stopped speaking the second he saw Elara.
The other board members glanced up, clearly annoyed by the interruption.
Wexler sat at the far end of the table, cool and composed, sipping coffee.
"Elara," Damian said carefully. "Now's not the time."
"It is," she said. "Because the man who's been trying to crucify me is the one actually working with Monroe."
Wexler raised a brow. "Excuse me?"
Elara strode to the table and threw the file in front of Damian. "Read it. Gregory Vale didn't collapse his own company. He tried to expose a fraud. And Wexler helped bury him."
Gasps rippled through the room.
Wexler chuckled. "This is nonsense."
"Is it?" Elara snapped. "Then why is your name on the original offshore transfers? Why is Monroe's name circled next to yours? And why did a sealed testimony from a federal whistleblower end up in your former law firm's archives?"
Damian opened the file, scanning fast. His eyes darkened with every page.
"You lied to me," Elara said, staring at Wexler. "To everyone. You let them paint me as a spy when you've been selling this company from the inside."
Wexler rose slowly from his seat. "Careful, Ms. Vale. That's a serious accusation."
Damian closed the file and stood, his voice like ice. "It's not an accusation if it's backed by evidence."
"You don't want to go down this road, Damian."
"You already took me there," he said. "And I don't forgive betrayal."
Wexler's mask cracked for the first time.
"You think I'm the only one who knows your skeletons? You think I don't have copies? Videos? Signed contracts? You'll go down with me."
"No," Damian said. "You'll go down alone."
Juliette had already called security.
Wexler was escorted out minutes later, still shouting threats.
The board sat in stunned silence.
Damian didn't even look at them.
He only looked at Elara.
Later that night, in the privacy of his office, Damian poured two glasses of whiskey.
He handed one to Elara.
"To Gregory Vale," he said. "And the daughter who wouldn't let his name die in silence."
She accepted the drink, her fingers brushing his.
"I didn't do this for him," she said. "I did it for me. I needed to know the truth, Damian."
"You found it."
She nodded. "And I found something else, too."
He waited.
"That I'm not angry at you anymore," she said. "Because you never tried to hurt me. You were trying to protect something you built. Something I nearly helped destroy."
Damian stepped closer, lifting her chin with his fingers. "You didn't destroy anything. You gave it a reason to fight harder."
She exhaled. "You always say the right thing when I least expect it."
He leaned in, brushing his lips against her cheek. "Then let me say something else."
She turned to meet his eyes.
"I'm not letting you go," he whispered. "No matter how ugly this gets."
Her throat tightened.
"I don't want you to."
Outside, the city buzzed with scandal, and VossTech's future still hung in the balance.
But inside, two people who were once enemies stood side by side, stronger than before.
And for the first time, Elara Vale believed she might just survive the storm.
With him.