CHAPTER TWO Erased

By morning, I was trending.

I didn’t have to open social media to know it. My phone wouldn’t stop vibrating on the kitchen counter of the small apartment I’d fled to after leaving the hotel at dawn.

I hadn’t slept.

I had changed out of my wedding dress in a gas station restroom forty minutes outside the city. The silk now sat crumpled in the backseat of my car like the remains of someone else’s life.

Every news outlet had picked it up.

Every blog.

Every gossip channel.

"The Billionaire Groom Requests an Instant Annulment." "Moretti Industries Is Rocked by a Corporate Espionage Scandal" "Insider Sources Verify Bride's Transfer of Private Documents."

Insider sources.

The phrase made my stomach twist.

Lucian had moved fast.

Of course he had.

Damage control was instinct to him. Reputation was currency. And I had just been labeled the liability.

The apartment belonged to my college friend, Mara. She was away on a work trip and had given me the spare key months ago “just in case.” Neither of us had imagined this scenario.

My phone buzzed again.

Dad.

I closed my eyes before answering.

“Elena,” he breathed the second I picked up. “Tell me it isn’t true.”

His voice sounded older than it had last night.

“It isn’t,” I said immediately. “I didn’t do anything.”

There was silence on the other end.

Then a shaky exhale. “Lucian’s legal team froze our joint accounts this morning.”

The words didn’t register at first.

“What?”

"The emergency investment line he offered Hart Biotech has been withdrawn. Our board is panicking.”

Cold crept into my bones.

Lucian had promised to stabilize my father’s failing company after the merger through our marriage. It had been strategic, yes — beneficial to both sides — but it had also been… personal.

He knew what Hart Biotech meant to my father.

And now he was pulling the plug.

“He thinks I betrayed him,” I whispered.

“And so he’s punishing us,” Dad replied quietly.

Guilt flooded me.

“This is my fault.”

“No,” he said firmly, though his voice trembled. “This is corporate warfare. And we’re collateral damage.”

I hung up shortly after, promising to come by the office later.

The room felt too small.

Too quiet.

I went to the window and gazed out at the dismal sky.

Lucian wouldn’t act without proof.

That was the part that frightened me most.

He wasn’t impulsive. He wasn’t emotional.

He was precise.

If he believed I’d betrayed him, it meant the evidence was airtight.

Which meant whoever had set me up knew exactly how to do it.

A knock at the door made me flinch.

Mara’s elderly neighbor stood outside, holding a package.

“It was left downstairs,” she said kindly. “Thought you might want it.”

“Thank you.”

I closed the door and stared at the sleek black envelope in my hands.

There was no sender.

My pulse began to race.

Inside was a single flash drive.

And a note.

You deserved to see what he saw.

My hands shook as I sat at the small dining table and opened my laptop.

The flash drive contained three files.

Security footage.

Server access logs.

And the bank transfer record.

The footage showed me entering Lucian’s private office three nights ago.

I remembered that clearly. He had been overseas, and I had stayed late reviewing presentation materials.

The camera angle was perfect.

Too perfect.

It showed me inserting something into the desktop tower beneath his desk.

Except I had never done that.

The video zoomed slightly.

The object in my hand looked like a USB drive.

But I had been holding my lipstick.

I remembered reapplying it before leaving.

My stomach turned.

The access logs showed my login credentials transferring files at 2:13 a.m.

I had been asleep beside him at 2:13 a.m.

Unless—

Unless someone had used remote access.

The bank record was the worst.

My maiden name.

My signature.

An account I had never opened.

The documentation was flawless.

Professional.

Deliberate.

This wasn’t sabotage done in panic.

It was a long game.

And I had walked straight into it.

My phone buzzed again.

This time it was a message notification.

Unknown number.

You look better in white than orange. Be grateful he chose divorce.

My breath caught.

Orange.

Prison.

Whoever this was wanted me to know how close I had come to something worse.

I typed back before I could stop myself.

What do you want?

The reply came seconds later.

Nothing from you. You were simply convenient.

Convenient.

Rage flickered beneath my fear.

I said to myself, "You chose the wrong woman."

But even as I said it, doubt crept in.

Had they?

Lucian believed them.

That was what mattered.

The front door opened suddenly, and I jumped to my feet.

Mara stepped inside, suitcase in hand, eyes wide.

“I saw the news and got on the first flight back,” she said, pulling me into a fierce hug. “Tell me everything.”

I didn’t realize how badly I needed to be held until that moment.

“I didn’t do it,” I whispered against her shoulder.

“I know.”

The certainty in her voice nearly broke me.

After I explained everything, she pulled back and studied me carefully.

“You need to fight this.”

“How?” I asked hollowly. “Lucian already made his decision.”

“Then make him question it.”

A bitter laugh escaped me.

“You don’t know Lucian.”

“No,” she agreed. “But I know men like him. Powerful men hate being wrong more than they hate being betrayed.”

The statement lingered.

Before I could respond, my phone rang again.

Private number.

I hesitated.

Then answered.

“Elena Hart.”

His voice was controlled.

Cold.

Legal.

My spine stiffened automatically.

“Lucian.”

“I trust you received the preliminary documents.”

Documents.

As if we were discussing a routine acquisition.

“Yes.”

“My lawyers will finalize the annulment within forty-eight hours. You will sign without resistance.”

“And if I don’t?”

A pause.

Then: “I pursue criminal charges.”

Ice slid through my veins.

“You’d have me arrested?”

“If that’s what justice requires.”

Justice.

“Look at me and tell me you believe I did this,” I demanded, my voice shaking despite my effort to steady it.

Silence.

For one fragile second, I thought he might soften.

Instead, he said, “The evidence speaks for itself.”

“And what do I say?”

“You say nothing. You disappear quietly. It’s the least destructive option.”

Destructive.

“You’re destroying my father’s company.”

“I’m protecting mine.”

The simplicity of it stunned me.

Before I could stop myself, I said, "I loved you."

His exhale was almost imperceptible.

“Love doesn’t erase treachery.”

My eyes burned with tears, but I wouldn't let them fall.

“I didn’t betray you.”

“You already have.”

The line went dead.

I stared at the phone long after the call ended.

Something inside me shifted.

It wasn’t heartbreak.

That had happened last night.

This was colder.

Sharper.

If he wanted me erased, he would have to do better than fear.

Because I was done begging.

I rose slowly and closed my laptop.

“Mara,” I said quietly.

She looked up from where she’d been pacing.

“I need a lawyer.”

Her expression hardened in approval.

“Good.”

"I also need access to all of Hart Biotech's internal documents from the past year."

“You think it connects?”

“I think whoever framed me knew our merger would make me untouchable inside his company. So they made sure I fell before the ink dried.”

Mara studied me.

“There she is.”

“Who?”

"The woman who chose not to wed Lucian Moretti in order to save herself."

I glanced down instinctively.

My hand rested over my lower abdomen again.

I hadn’t told her yet.

I wasn’t ready to say it out loud.

Because once I did—

Everything would change.

I inhaled slowly.

Lucian thought he had buried me.

He thought divorce would end the problem.

But he had made one fatal mistake.

He had underestimated what I was willing to survive.

And when he finally learned the truth—

When he realized the empire he protected so ruthlessly had been rotting from the inside—

When he discovered what he had thrown away—

He would come looking for forgiveness.

But forgiveness wasn’t something I gave easily anymore.

Not to devils.

Not even the one I married.