CHAPTER 6

Helena.

My chest sank instantly to my stomach, "What happened?" I asked quickly, my brows furrowing into a taut frown.

"Everything." He replied. That word landed between us like a lead weight.

I closed my eyes, bracing myself for whatever came next. "Talk to me." I said, opening my eyes slowly.

"Three of our major sponsors have already frozen their contracts."

I gripped the edges of the phone tighter until my knuckles began turning a sick white.

"Two board members are already calling for an emergency meeting."

A sharp, throbbing headache began to beat behind my eyes.

"And the investors are already circling, asking whether you're going to step down."

My chest tightened, restricting my airway. No, no, no, no. This can't be happening. Not after everything. This is unravelling too fast.

Then, Victor dropped the one piece of news I never saw coming.

"The security footage is gone." He said slowly.

I froze completely, the phone almost slipping out of my grasp. "What do you mean, gone?"

"The arena footage from last night." His voice sounded incredibly strained, stretched to its absolute limit. "All of it."

A sick, terrible feeling settled deep into the pit of my stomach.

"That's impossible, Victor."

"I thought so too." I could hear the chaotic rustling of papers on his end. "But it's not just the main feed. The backups are wiped, too."

The room started to tilt slightly to the side. Someone had gone in and deleted everything.

This wasn't a panicked cover-up. It was a sudden burst of revenge, a meticulous preparation with calculated planning.

Whoever did this knew exactly how to dismantle us. For a long, agonizing moment, I couldn't even find my voice.

Then, I force the words out, "Victor, I need you to keep digging."

"I'm already on it." He replied.

"We'll find a trace...something."

Victor hesitated, causing a heavy pause on the line. "I really hope you're right, Helena." He finally said before the call ends.

I slowly lowered the phone from my ear, numbness washing over my core.

How long has this whole thing been in motion for? Weeks? Months? Maybe even longer.

The realization hits me like a physical crash.

Brent didn't just wake up yesterday morning and suddenly decide to ruin my life.

He had meticulously planned every single piece of this. Every warm smile, every sweet apology, every late night at the office and every single lie had all been planned.

Across the room, Jarrett finally broke his silence.

His voice was quiet, measured, and carefully neutral. "Did Brent ever have access to your executive credentials?"

The question felt like a fist punching the remaining air straight out of my lungs.

I stared at him, speechless. My mind immediately raced backward through the years.

Back to a time when I trusted Brent implicitly and back to when sharing passwords and security access felt entirely normal.

My mind trickled back to when I foolishly believed my own husband would never do anything to hurt me.

Then my blood ran entirely cold because the answer was an undeniable yes.

Only three people in the entire world had those credentials.

Me, Brent and Vanessa. My stomach twisted violently, a wave of nausea hitting me.

Dear God.

The missing financial records, the forged corporate signatures, the altered legal documents and the millions in disappearing money.

It all suddenly made a horrifying, perfect kind of sense.

The temperature in the room felt like it had dropped ten degrees.

He didn't just betray our marriage, he systematically infiltrated every single corner of my life.

Before I could even begin to process the magnitude of the thought, my phone vibrates in my palm again.

It was a text message from Victor. I opened it mechanically, my brain operating on autopilot.

A high-resolution photograph filled the screen in milliseconds. My breath hitched violently. It was Brent walking into what looks like a dimly lit, private conference room.

But he wasn't alone, someone was already waiting for him inside, sitting at the head of the table.

An older man with perfect silver hair and a sharp, tailored dark suit with a terrifyingly familiar face.

My fingers went completely numb, barely able to hold the device.

"No." I exclaimed silently. My heart began hammering wildly against my ribs.

No..Please, not him.

I knew exactly who that face belonged to. I hadn't set eyes on him in what seemed like quarter of a decade but I could never forget him.

I vividly remembered him sitting right beside me at my parents' funeral. I remembered him softly telling me that monsters weren't real.

Telling me that my childhood memories were entirely wrong and that I was unstable and needed professional help.

The walls of the hospital room felt like they were closing in on me.

My pulse roared like thunder in my ears.

Slowly and painfully, I lifted my gaze from the glowing screen to see Jarrett looking over my shoulder, staring intently at the photograph too.

All the color has completely drained from his face. His jaw was clenched so tightly the bone looks sharp.

And for the very first time since he walked back into my life, .Jarrett Brooks looked absolutely terrified.