Chapter 21 – The Ghost File
The morning after the press release, the VossTech building was under siege.
Not by Monroe.
By the media.
Dozens of reporters camped outside the entrance, their cameras pointed like weapons. Headlines screamed across every screen: "Corporate Giant Rocked by Murder Cover-Up" and "Wife or Whistleblower? The Woman Who Brought Down the Board."
Inside, VossTech buzzed with cautious energy.
Juliette handled the interviews. Damian handled the legal teams. And Elara… tried to stay out of sight.
Not because she was afraid.
Because she wasn't sure who she was anymore.
She sat in Damian's private study, the sunlight filtering in through tall glass windows. In front of her sat a thick envelope Juliette had placed in her hands just an hour earlier.
A new name had emerged from the Wexler investigation—an old accountant, fired years ago after a silent payout. He'd sent this package anonymously.
Inside were photocopied ledgers, email prints, and a single flash drive labeled: Project Ghost.
Elara plugged it in.
The files were encrypted—but Juliette had cracked the password already.
When the contents loaded, Elara's stomach dropped.
Project Ghost was a secret buyout plan—not by Monroe.
By VossTech.
It had been initiated before Gregory Vale's death.
The document was signed by three people: Wesley Wexler, a then-executive from Monroe Industries… and one more.
Damian Voss.
Her breath caught.
The date on the document was two weeks before her father died.
Elara's fingers trembled. This couldn't be right. Damian had told her he wasn't involved—had sworn it.
But this—
This was his digital signature.
And a memo attached to it read:
"Vale Innovations will collapse. Position ready for acquisition. No media trails."
The words hit her like a punch to the ribs.
Her knees weakened. Her chest burned.
Was it possible? Had Damian lied all along?
The office door opened.
Damian entered, looking tired but triumphant. "Wexler's properties are frozen. Monroe's scrambling. We have them cornered."
He smiled at her.
Elara didn't smile back.
She simply turned the laptop toward him.
Damian's expression didn't change at first—until his eyes landed on the signature.
Then he went still.
She rose slowly from the desk. "Tell me it's fake."
His jaw clenched. "Where did you get this?"
"Tell me it's not real, Damian."
Silence.
That was her answer.
"I didn't know you then," he said quietly.
"But you knew my father. You watched him get destroyed. You married me knowing you were part of the machine that ruined his life."
"No," Damian said. "It wasn't like that. Wexler brought me the proposal—I signed off on it without knowing the full scope. I was young, hungry, and VossTech was still climbing. I didn't ask enough questions."
"You didn't care."
"I didn't know. Not until it was too late."
Her heart splintered.
"So when you looked me in the eyes, over and over, and told me you didn't cause my father's downfall—"
"I meant it," Damian said. "By the time I realized what had happened, he was already gone. I buried the file. I was ashamed. And I thought protecting you from it was better than dragging you through the truth."
"You lied to me."
"I made a mistake—"
"A mistake?" she spat. "You signed the beginning of my family's end. And then you married me. Dragged me into your world. Let me believe I was healing while I was sleeping with the man who helped break me!"
Damian stepped closer, but she backed away.
"Elara—"
"Don't," she said, her voice sharp. "Don't say my name like you still have the right."
For the first time since she'd known him, Damian Voss looked afraid.
Not of losing his company.
But of losing her.
That night, Elara didn't go home.
She didn't answer his calls.
She took the Project Ghost file and locked it away in the hotel safe of a room booked under another name. Then she sat at the edge of a cold bed and tried to remember who she was before all of this.
She thought of her father.
Of the way he used to laugh while sipping coffee on their porch. The way he protected her. The way he died trying to do the right thing.
He had made mistakes.
But never like this.
Never for profit.
A knock came at the hotel door.
She didn't answer.
Juliette's voice called through the door. "He didn't kill your father, Elara. He tried to bury the part of himself that could've."
"I don't know what's worse," Elara said. "That he let it happen… or that I loved him without knowing what he really was."
Juliette was silent a long moment.
Then: "You still love him. That's the real problem, isn't it?"
Meanwhile, across the city, Damian stood alone in the rain on the roof of VossTech.
He didn't feel the cold.
Didn't care about the storm.
His mind was on one thing: Elara.
He'd thought protecting her meant hiding his worst mistake.
But all he had done was delay the detonation.
Now it had blown up in both their faces.
You ruined the one person who loved you unconditionally.
He stared down at the lights of the city he ruled.
And for the first time in his empire-building life, Damian Voss felt powerless.