Chapter 7

The Confrontation

The folder slips from my hands and scatters across the hospital blanket, papers sliding everywhere, and I don't even try to catch them.

"There has to be a mistake." My voice comes out sharper than I mean it to. "Julian, check again. Elena wouldn't do this."

"I checked three times before I brought it to you." Julian crouches down, gathering the fallen pages without meeting my eyes. "I didn't want to believe it either."

My father picks up the incorporation document, scanning it with the same cold precision he uses when reviewing a hostile takeover. "The paper trail is clean. Too clean, actually. Whoever set this up knew exactly how to hide it behind enough shell companies that most people would never bother digging this deep."

"Which means it wasn't impulsive." Julian straightens, setting the folder back on the tray table. "This was planned, methodically, over months."

The door opens before I can respond, and Elena walks in carrying a small bouquet of daisies, her face breaking into a relieved smile the moment she sees me sitting up.

"You're awake." She crosses the room fast, setting the flowers down, reaching for my hand before she notices no one else in the room is smiling back. Her steps falter. "What's wrong? Amara, what happened?"

I pull my hand back before she can take it.

Elena's smile fades completely, her gaze flicking between my father's granite expression and Julian's folded arms. "Someone tell me what's going on."

"Voss Holdings." I watch her face as I say it, watch for even a flicker of guilt. "Does that name mean anything to you?"

Elena's brow furrows, genuine confusion pulling at her features. "Should it?"

"It's the company that funded Marcus Delray," Julian says, his voice flat and clinical, watching her just as closely as I am. "Fifty thousand dollars, wired three days before the gala, to pay him to publicly accuse Amara of infidelity and fraud. The incorporation papers list you as the owner."

Elena's face drains of color so fast I almost feel sorry for her, almost, if the memory of that gala floor and Noah's voice calling me a slut in front of three hundred people didn't still burn fresh in my chest.

"That's not." She shakes her head, stepping back like she's trying to physically distance herself from the accusation. "That's not possible. I've never even heard of that company."

"The documents say otherwise." My father's voice is level, but there's an edge underneath it, the same edge I heard through the hospital door yesterday. "Elena, if you had any involvement in what happened to my daughter, I suggest you tell us now, because we are prepared to pursue this legally, and it will not be gentle."

"I didn't do this." Elena's voice cracks, tears springing to her eyes so quickly I almost believe them. "Amara, you know me. You know I would never hurt you or Lila, not like this, not ever."

"I thought I knew Noah too." The words come out before I can stop them, quiet and devastating even to my own ears. "I thought I knew Isabella wasn't capable of destroying an entire life for sport. Forgive me if I'm not ready to trust anyone's face right now."

Elena flinches like I've struck her. "Please. Let me prove it. Let me find out who did this, because I swear to you, it wasn't me."

Julian steps forward, his expression unreadable. "There's a way to prove it. If you're telling the truth, someone used your identity, which means somewhere there's a digital trail showing when and how that shell company was created. If you give us access to your financial records, your devices, everything, we can find whoever actually did this."

"Fine." Elena doesn't hesitate. "Anything. Take whatever you need."

I study her face for a long moment, searching for the crack, the tell, anything that would confirm what the paperwork says. But all I see is fear, and something that looks disturbingly like hurt.

"There's only one person I can think of who would have both the resources and the reason to frame you." My father's voice cuts through the tension, thoughtful now, calculating. "Someone who's spent months positioning herself inside that household. Someone who would benefit enormously if the two women closest to Noah destroyed each other instead of looking at her."

"Isabella." Elena's eyes widen. "You think she set me up too."

"It fits." Julian is already pulling out his phone, typing rapidly. "If Elena's identity was stolen or forged for the incorporation, there'll be inconsistencies. A signature that doesn't match, a digital footprint from a device Elena's never owned. Give me twenty four hours and I'll know for certain."

Elena sinks into the chair beside my bed, her hands trembling in her lap. "I've been so stupid. I let her into that house. I actually felt sorry for her when she first showed up, thought she just wanted stability for Ivy's sake." She looks up at me, eyes glassy. "I should have seen this coming. I should have protected you better."

"None of us saw it coming." I reach for her hand this time, some of the ice in my chest thawing despite everything. "If it wasn't you."

"It wasn't." Her fingers grip mine tightly. "I promise you, Amara, it wasn't."

My father's phone buzzes sharply against the tray table, and he glances down at the screen, his expression shifting into something grim.

"What is it?" I ask.

He turns the phone toward the room, and the headline glowing on the screen makes my stomach drop for the second time in two days.

BREAKING: Frost Corporation Board Calls Emergency Meeting Amid Growing Scandal, Sources Say CEO Noah Frost's Position May Be At Risk

"It's starting." My father's voice is quiet, almost satisfied. "The board is already moving against him."

Julian looks up from his phone, his expression sharpening. "There's more. My contact inside the company just sent something. Apparently Isabella walked into Frost Tower an hour ago, demanding a meeting with the board directly, and according to my source, she's claiming she has evidence that will settle the paternity question once and for all."

The room goes utterly silent.

"What kind of evidence." My voice comes out barely steady.

Julian's eyes lift to mine, grim and certain. "A DNA test. She's telling the board she already ran one, in secret, months ago. And she says the results are going to shock everyone."