The Leak

Chapter 25: The Leak

POV: Jennifer

The video hit the internet at 4:03 AM Geneva time.

I was awake. I’d been awake for 39 hours.

David was asleep on the couch in the safe house, Elena curled against his chest, both of them finally breathing like people who thought they’d live past sunrise. I was standing by the window, watching snow fall on a city that wanted us dead.

My phone buzzed. Once. Then twice. Then it didn’t stop.

Unknown number.

_“You should’ve signed, Ms. Benz. Now everyone gets to watch.”_

Attached: a 42-second clip.

I pressed play.

It was us. From three nights ago. The charity gala in Geneva.

David in a black tux, me in the red dress I’d worn to sell the lie. The band played something slow. He’d pulled me onto the dance floor to “calm the market” after the board vote failed on Ch 27.

“Just the act,” he’d said in my ear. “Smile for the cameras.”

I smiled. Because that was the contract.

But then he’d turned me, his hand at my waist, and I’d looked up at him. And for half a second, neither of us was acting.

His thumb brushed my jaw. My hand came up to his chest.

The kiss wasn’t planned.

It wasn’t soft. It was desperate. The kind of kiss you give someone when you think they might die before morning. His mouth on mine, my fingers in his hair, both of us forgetting Clause Seven, forgetting Harry, forgetting the sniper dot that had landed on Elena’s chest thirty seconds later.

The cameras caught it all.

The kiss. The way neither of us pulled away first. The way David’s hand slid to the back of my neck like he owned me. Like I’d let him.

The video ended with the sound of a gunshot. The screen is going black.

Then text appeared: _LEAKED: BENZ VS ARGENT. IS THIS LOVE OR BUSINESS?_

By 4:04 AM it was on T*****r. By 4:05 AM it was on every news channel. By 4:06 AM Benz Holdings stock was moving in pre-market and it wasn’t moving up.

I deleted the message. It didn’t matter. The internet doesn’t forget.

“Jennifer?”

David’s voice behind me. Rough with sleep. He was standing now, Elena still in his arms, eyes going straight to my phone.

He didn’t ask what was wrong. He already knew. David Benz could read disaster in the way someone breathed.

He walked over. I looked at the screen. I watched 42 seconds without blinking.

When it ended, he set Elena down gently on the couch. Covered her with a blanket. Then he took my phone from my hand.

“Where did it come from?” he asked. Quiet. The dangerous kind of quiet.

“Unknown number,” I said. “Same one that sent the sniper video in Ch 22.”

David’s jaw ticked. “Harry.”

“Or Ravenna,” I said. “She has the files. She was there.”

David looked at the TV in the corner. Turn it on.

BREAKING: BENZ HOLDINGS CEO CAUGHT IN SECRET ROMANCE WITH RIVAL.

STOCK PLUMMETS 18% IN PRE-MARKET.

IS THE FAKE MARRIAGE A LIE?

The anchor’s voice was gleeful. “Sources confirm the kiss was not part of any press event. If the engagement was fabricated, Benz Holdings could face SEC charges for market manipulation.”

David muted it.

He turned back to me. “Clause Seven.”

I knew what he meant. If we fell for each other, the contract voided. Benz Holdings lost all protections Edward Benz had written into the company charter. Harry could seize it by sunrise.

“We didn’t fall,” I said. Too fast. Too sharp. “We were selling the act. You said so.”

David stared at me. “Did we?”

The question hung in the air. Heavier than the snow outside.

Elena sat up. Rubbed her eyes. “Mom? Why is everyone shouting on TV?”

I forced my face to calm. The same face I used in boardrooms when men tried to tell me I didn’t belong. “They’re not shouting, baby. Come here.”

She came. I pulled her into my lap. She was warm. Real. The only thing in this room that wasn’t a lie.

David’s phone rang. He looked at the screen. “Laurent.”

He answered. Put it on speaker.

Laurent’s voice came through, clipped, urgent. “Boss, we have a problem. The board called an emergency vote. 8 AM. They’re citing Clause Seven. If the video is real, you’re disqualified as CEO. Jennifer too.”

“On what grounds?” David asked.

“Market manipulation. Conflict of interest. And…” Laurent hesitated. “Harry filed a motion. He’s claiming Elena isn’t a Benz. He’s demanding a paternity test.”

The room went cold.

I stood up. Elena slid off my lap. “What?”

“Harry’s lawyers submitted a DNA sample,” Laurent said. “From a hairbrush taken from your Geneva hotel room. They claim Elena is 50% of Loris's bloodline.”

David closed his eyes. Just for a second. “It’s fake.”

“Maybe,” Laurent said. “But the court ordered a test. 48 hours. If Elena is Loriss, Harry inherits controlling interest through her. If she’s Benz, you keep the company. If she’s both…”

“He wins either way,” I finished.

Because Elena was the key. She always had been. The only heir to both Benz and Loris's bloodlines. Clause Seven wasn’t about love. It was about her.

David hung up.

He walked to the safe in the wall. Keyed in a code. Pulled out a file. Old paper. Edward Benz’s handwriting.

He laid it on the table in front of me.

“Clause Seven,” David said. “Read the last line.”

I read it. My blood went cold.

_“If a child is born of this union, all assets revert to the child. But only if both parents consent to raise her together. If either parent abandons the child, the child inherits nothing. The company passes to the Loriss line.”_

I looked up at him. “You knew.”

“Yes,” David said. “My father wrote it ten years ago. After Robert threatened to kill me if I didn’t marry into the Loriss family. He said the only way to protect the company was to make the heir untouchable. A child with both bloodlines.”

“You used me,” I whispered. “You used Elena.”

“No,” David said. He crossed the room in two steps. Stopped in front of me. Close enough that I could see the exhaustion in his eyes. “I protected you. I protected her. Eleven years ago Robert wanted me to marry Elise. I refused. So my father wrote Clause Seven. He said if I ever met a woman I trusted enough to have a child with, that child would end the war.”

I shook my head. “We don’t have a child together.”

David’s hand came up. Brushed my hair back from my face. His thumb lingered at my temple. “Don’t we?”

The door exploded inward.

Not gunfire. Gas. White, choking smoke filled the room.

Men in masks poured in. Harry’s men.

David shoved me behind him. “Down!”

I grabbed Elena. Pulled her under the table. Covered her with my body.

Gunshots. Shouting. David firing back.

Through the smoke, I saw Ravenna. She wasn’t with Harry’s men. She was fighting them. Two guns. No hesitation.

“Run!” she shouted. “Back door!”

David grabbed my hand. Pulled me up. Elena in my arms. We ran.

Behind us, the safe house went up in flames.

We burst into the Geneva alley. Snow falling. Sirens in the distance.

David didn’t stop. He pushed me into a waiting car. Laurent in the driver’s seat.

“Go!” David said.

The car peeled away as the safe house collapsed behind us.

In the back seat, I held Elena tight. She was crying now. Silent tears.

David sat next to me. Blood on his sleeve. Not his.

He took my hand. His fingers were steady. Mine weren’t.

“Jennifer,” he said. “The video was edited. They cut out the part where I told you Clause Seven was void.”

I stared at him. “What?”

“Before the kiss,” David said. “I said it. I said the words. I chose you over the company. Over everything.”

My throat closed. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Because if Harry knew, he’d kill you faster,” David said. “He’d kill Elena faster.”

Elena tugged my sleeve. “Mom, are we in trouble?”

I kissed her forehead. “No, baby. We’re going home.”

David’s phone buzzed. He looked at it. His face went blank.

He turned the screen to me.

A new video. Uploaded 30 seconds ago.

It was us again. But this time, a different clip.

Me, alone in the hospital room after David took the bullet in Ch 33. Me, holding his hand. Me, whispering, “I love you. Don’t you dare leave me.”

Then a document flashed on screen. A birth certificate.

Elena Benz.

Father: David Benz.

Mother: Jennifer Benz.

Date: Six years ago.

Under it, text: _DNA RESULTS CONFIRMED. ELENA IS HEIR TO BENZ AND LORISS. MARKET OPENS IN 2 HOURS._

David deleted it. Too late.

Laurent’s phone rang. He answered. Listened. Then he looked at us in the rearview mirror.

“Boss,” Laurent said. “Harry just called a press conference. He’s going to announce Elena’s paternity live. To the whole world.”

David looked at me.

And I understood.

The leak wasn’t about the kiss.

The leak was about Elena.

Harry wanted the world to know she was both Benz and Loriss. Because if she was both, she was the key to both companies.

And whoever controlled her, controlled everything.

David squeezed my hand. “We have two hours before the market opens. Before Harry owns her.”

I looked at Elena. Six years old. Asleep against my shoulder now, exhausted from running.

“She’s not a key,” I said quietly. “She’s my daughter.”

David nodded. “Then we fight for her. Not for the company. For her.”

He pulled me closer. His arm around me. Elena between us.

For the first time since Ch 1, Clause Seven didn’t feel like a cage.

It felt like a promise.

My phone buzzed one last time.

Unknown number.

_“4:59 AM. The market opens in 1 hour. Last chance, Ms. Benz. Sign the contract. Give me Elena. Or I’ll tell the world how your father really died.”_

Attached: a photo.

Edward Benz, alive, tied to a chair. Gun pressed to his head.

And standing behind him, smiling: Robert Loriss.

Dead in Ch 200.

Unless he wasn’t.

---

_Cliffhanger: The car swerved. Tires screeched. A black SUV blocked the road ahead. Men got out. Guns raised

_David pulled a gun from his jacket. Pressed it into my hand

_“If they take her,” he said, “they don’t take her alive.”_

_Elena opened her eyes. I looked at the gun. Looked at me._

_“Mom,” she whispered. “I don’t want to be a key.”_

_The SUV doors opened. And Harry Argent stepped out._

_“Hello, family,” he said. “Time to choose which Benz dies first.”_