Chapter 3

A week later, a crisis broke out in the Cloud Project, the joint venture between the Rodneys and the Grants.

The Rodneys had provided the land; the Grants, the technology. The project had already reached its final review stage when Grant Group's core data was suddenly leaked, forcing the whole thing to a halt.

As the Rodneys' project lead, I marched into Grant Group's conference room with legal counsel in tow. Wade sat at the head of the table, flipping through documents, not even lifting his head.

"Wade, the Cloud Project's core data has been leaked. The Rodney Group stands to lose nearly 300 million dollars." I slapped a report down in front of him. "We need an explanation."

Only then did Wade look up, his gaze sweeping over me and my legal team. He gave a short laugh and pushed a document across the table toward me.

"An explanation? Elisa, you don't actually think a 300-million-dollar hole can be pinned on someone else, do you?"

I looked down at the document. A data authorization agreement, my name signed at the bottom. My eyes narrowed.

"That signature is forged."

"Whether it's forged is for a forensic examiner to decide." Wade leaned back in his chair. "Right now, every piece of evidence points to you. Elisa, you leaked the data on purpose, to get back at me for calling off the engagement."

No one in the room spoke.

I looked at his face and suddenly understood everything.

It had happened at exactly this point in my last life too. The Barrymores' tech company had lost a bid to Grant Group, leaving a hole in their books they couldn't fill.

Rose had stolen the core data, using half of it to patch the Barrymores' finances and the other half to break the engagement between the Rodneys and the Grants. Afterward, she'd cried and claimed it had all been an accident. In the end, Wade had buried the whole thing.

Now, to protect Rose, he was forcing the blame for a 300-million-dollar loss onto me instead.

"You know exactly who did this." I stared into his eyes.

Wade's gaze flickered away for a moment. He stood, came around to stand in front of me, and lowered his voice.

"Rose has depression. She can't handle this kind of pressure. But you, Elisa, you're tough enough. Hard-hearted enough. You can take it."

The sound around me began to warp, blurring into static.

Tough enough. Hard-hearted.

For all these years, how many attacks, open and hidden, had I taken for him? But now, in his eyes, I was nothing more than a shield he could shove forward to take the blame whenever he needed one.

"Those seventy-three doses of medicine five years ago, I knelt outside the old herbalist's door and begged for those. The fact that you can even stand here talking to me right now, that's because of me."

So that wooden box had been his ledger all along. Every dose recorded, principal and interest, tallied all the way to today.

"And if I don't confess?" I looked at him.

Wade let out a cold laugh. "You could refuse."

He took out his phone and pulled up a video. The footage showed a private room at a club three years ago. My father was pushing a case across the table into someone else's hands.

The angle was clean, the lighting good enough that even the watch on his wrist was clearly visible. The case held the ransom money.

To buy Wade's mother back, my father had scraped the cash together overnight, keeping it off the Rodney Group's books entirely.

"One word from me, and your father gets hauled away tomorrow for financial crimes." Wade looked at me. "Elisa, you don't have any room to negotiate."

I looked at my father's aged face on the screen and closed my eyes. Outside the window, the wind knocked against the glass, a dull, muffled sound.

After a long moment, I opened my eyes and picked up the pen on the table.

"Fine."

I signed my name on the confession document.

Wade frowned. He probably hadn't expected me to agree so readily. No arguing. No crying. Not a single word in my own defense.

"You..." He opened his mouth.

I ignored him and walked out of the conference room. I pulled out my phone and called Nick.

"Liquidate every asset under my name and transfer it to my father's account. And book me a flight to Topheria. As soon as possible."