Chapter 20: A Crack in the Empire

The Sterling penthouse felt wrong.

Too quiet.

Too still.

Too full of a tension thick enough to be sliced.

Savannah stood near the floor-to-ceiling windows, staring out at the St. Louis skyline. The city lights glittered like scattered diamonds, beautiful but far away, unreachable. Behind her, the soft hum of the penthouse’s air system was the only sound. Jackson had paced the length of the room for almost twenty minutes, each step measured, controlled, and sharp enough to echo.

The press leak had detonated like a bomb.

Every news outlet now carried the story:

Sterling Enterprises Fraud. Tampered Trust Clauses. Possible Illegal Marriage Arrangement.

Savannah still couldn’t breathe when she thought about it. Her name wasn’t mentioned directly yet, but she knew it was a matter of hours, maybe minutes, before reporters connected the dots.

Jackson stopped pacing abruptly.

“She’s playing a long game,” he muttered, jaw tight. “Delilah didn’t just leak the files. She timed it.”

Savannah tore her gaze from the window. “Timed it how?”

He ran a hand through his hair, something he never did. “The shareholders’ preliminary vote is tomorrow. If they believe the trust clause was forged, they can freeze my authority until an investigation is complete.”

“And your father?” Savannah asked quietly.

Jackson laughed without humor. “He’s probably already celebrating. He’s wanted me out for years.”

Savannah stepped closer to him. “You said earlier you could handle him.”

“This isn’t him,” Jackson said sharply. “Not only him, anyway.”

He turned fully to her, the city lights painting sharp angles across his face. “Delilah has documents only someone inside the main legal office could get. Someone fed her information.”

Her stomach dropped. “A mole?”

“Exactly.”

“And they want to ruin you.”

“They want to ruin everything.”

Jackson moved closer, too close, his intensity swallowing the space between them. “Savannah, if the board believes I knowingly entered a fraudulent marriage clause to secure power, this contract… our marriage… becomes their weapon.”

Her heartbeat stuttered. “So what do we do?”

Jackson’s eyes locked onto hers. “We fight back.”

But as he said it, she saw it, the flicker of doubt. The exhaustion in his shoulders. The fear he didn’t want her to see.

He was hurting.

And hiding it.

Because he always did.

“Jackson,” she said softly, “you’re not alone in this.”

He froze.

Savannah swallowed. “I’m in this with you. Whether I like it or not. I signed that contract. I walked into this world. And I’m not going to hide while you take the fall for everything.”

His jaw clenched, but something in his eyes softened, a crack in that iron facade.

“You shouldn’t have to be part of this,” he said quietly.

“But I am.”

They stared at one another, the air charged between them, anger, fear, loyalty, something deeper neither dared name. Savannah felt her chest tighten. She didn’t want to care for him. She didn’t want to feel anything for him at all.

But somehow, she already did.

Before either of them could speak again, the penthouse elevator chimed. The doors slid open.

Grayson stepped out, face drawn and pale. “Jackson… Savannah… we have a problem.”

Savannah’s pulse hammered. “Another one?”

“Worse,” Grayson said, setting a folder down on the marble island. “The board has called an emergency session. Tonight. In one hour.”

Jackson’s expression didn’t flicker. “Of course they have.”

Grayson exhaled shakily. “And Harrison is leading it.”

Savannah felt her breath catch. “His father?”

Jackson didn’t move. Didn’t react. But she felt the shift in the air.

“Your father wants you gone,” Grayson said quietly. “He has evidence. Enough to make this look intentional. Enough to make you look guilty.”

Savannah stepped closer. “Evidence of what?”

Grayson looked at her with something like pity. “That the marriage wasn’t legitimate… and that you had something to gain.”

Savannah’s blood went cold. “Me?”

“The foreclosure notice. The debts. The medical bills. Delilah leaked your father’s records. Your name is now part of the narrative.”

Savannah’s stomach twisted. “That’s not, this wasn’t, ”

“They don’t care what it was,” Grayson said grimly. “They care what it looks like.”

Savannah grabbed the counter for support. Jackson moved instantly, his hand finding her arm, steadying her without a word. She hated that she needed the touch. Hated that it grounded her.

Jackson’s voice was ice. “How long until they vote?”

“An hour,” Grayson said. “Maybe less.”

Savannah forced herself to breathe. “What can we do?”

Jackson turned to Grayson. “Get Beau. He’s the only one on that board who doesn’t owe my father a favor.”

Grayson nodded and stepped aside to make the call.

Savannah looked up at Jackson. His face was stone, but his eyes, those dark, intense eyes, burned with something she had never seen in him before: fear. Not of losing power. Not of losing money.

Fear of losing control of everything he had built with his own blood.

Savannah touched his arm gently. “We’ll face them together.”

Jackson inhaled sharply, as if the words themselves had broken something open in him.

“You’re not just a contract,” he said quietly.

She froze.

“Savannah,” he whispered, “you’re not.”

Before she could answer, Grayson returned. “Beau is on his way. But Jackson… there’s something else.”

Jackson tensed. “What now?”

Grayson handed him a printed sheet.

Savannah stepped closer.

It was a headline.

BREAKING: Mystery Wife of Jackson Sterling Accused of Manipulating Marriage for Financial Gain

Savannah’s ears rang.

Her vision tunneled.

Her name.

Her life.

Her dignity.

Being dissected by the world.

Jackson’s reaction was immediate.

He took the paper and ripped it clean in half.

Then again.

And again.

Until nothing remained.

His voice dropped to a dangerous, lethal whisper.

“Savannah… I swear to you… I will burn down the entire board before I let them destroy you.”

Her heart pounded so hard she thought it might bruise her ribs.

Because he meant it.

And because she wasn’t sure whether she should fear him… or trust him.

The elevator chimed again.

Beau rushed in, breathless. “Jackson, we have to go. They’re already gathering. If we’re late, they’ll vote without you.”

Jackson straightened, shoulders rolling back, mask falling perfectly into place.

He turned to Savannah.

“Stay here,” he said softly.

“No.” Savannah’s voice was steady, stronger than she felt. “I’m coming.”

Jackson hesitated, only for a second, but that was enough to show how much he wasn’t used to someone standing beside him.

“Savannah, ”

“I’m not hiding,” she said firmly. “Not when they’re using me as ammunition.”

Grayson nodded. “She has a point.”

Jackson looked at her, jaw tight.

Then he exhaled.

“Fine,” he said. “Stay behind me. Don’t speak unless I tell you to. Don’t show fear. They feed on it.”

Savannah nodded.

He reached for her hand.

Not forcefully.

Not possessively.

But like he needed the anchor.

She let him take it.

As the elevator doors slid shut, Savannah felt the shift, not just in the fate of the Sterling empire, but in the space between them. Jackson was no longer hiding behind ice.

And she was no longer just a contract.

They were stepping into war together.

And behind them, unseen, the shadows moved.

Delilah hadn’t finished yet.