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Chapter 5: Underestimated
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2026-07-23 23:45:00news of Elena Marchetti's return spread across the business world overnight.
Every major business newspaper carried the same headline.
"Marchetti Heiress Returns After Divorce, Takes Over as Vice President."
Inside Cross Group, the article lay on Damian's desk.
Vivian picked it up and scoffed.
"They're making her sound like some business queen."
Damian continued reading.
"They're not praising her because of the divorce."
Vivian frowned.
"Then why?"
"They're praising her because investors trust her."
Vivian's smile faded.
She hated hearing anyone compliment Elena.
Meanwhile...
Marchetti Group Headquarters.
Elena entered the conference room precisely at nine.
The executives were already waiting.
"Good morning, everyone."
"Good morning, Miss Marchetti."
She sat down and opened a file.
"Our overseas cosmetics project has been delayed for three months."
The marketing director lowered his head.
"We're still negotiating with the supplier."
Elena closed the file.
"No."
The room became silent.
"We're wasting time."
She looked at her assistant.
"Arrange a meeting with their CEO."
The assistant nodded.
"They're based in London, Miss Marchetti."
"Then book the earliest flight."
The executives exchanged surprised looks.
"So soon?"
Elena smiled.
"Opportunities don't wait."
"Neither do I."
Marco watched quietly from the end of the table.
His daughter had changed.
She no longer waited for life to happen.
She made things happen.
Across the city...
Damian received a phone call.
"Mr. Cross."
"This is Ethan from Sterling International."
Damian smiled.
"I was expecting your call."
"I'm afraid our partnership meeting has been cancelled."
Damian frowned.
"Cancelled?"
"Yes."
"We've decided to meet another company first."
"Which company?"
A brief silence followed.
"Marchetti Group."
The call ended.
Damian slowly lowered his phone.
His expression darkened.
That afternoon...
Vivian stormed into Damian's office.
"I just heard."
"They stole your client!"
Damian looked out the window.
"They didn't steal anything."
"They simply moved faster."
Vivian couldn't believe what she was hearing.
"So you're defending Elena now?"
Damian turned toward her.
"I'm stating a fact."
"If we lost the opportunity, it's because we hesitated."
Vivian clenched her fists.
She wasn't angry at Damian.
She was furious with Elena.
London.
The next morning...
Elena entered Sterling International's headquarters wearing a fitted navy suit.
The receptionist smiled politely.
"Miss Marchetti."
"Our CEO is expecting you."
Inside the meeting room, Mr. Harrison stood to greet her.
"I've heard impressive things about you."
Elena shook his hand confidently.
"I hope to give you even better reasons today."
For the next hour...
She explained her proposal.
Every question received a confident answer.
Every concern had a solution.
When the meeting ended...
Mr. Harrison smiled.
"I think we've made the right decision."
He extended his hand.
"Welcome to Sterling International's newest partner."
Elena smiled.
"It's a pleasure doing business with you."
The contract was signed.
Back in the city...
Cross Group.
The news arrived before Elena's plane even landed.
Priya hurried into Damian's office.
"Mr. Cross."
"The Sterling contract..."
Damian looked up.
"What about it?"
"They officially signed with Marchetti Group."
Silence.
Vivian slammed her hand on the desk.
"This is impossible!"
Damian slowly closed the file in front of him.
"No."
His voice remained calm.
"It's only the beginning."
That evening...
Elena returned home.
Marco was waiting with two cups of tea.
"I heard."
He smiled proudly.
"You won."
Elena sat beside him.
"This isn't about winning."
"It's about proving I never needed Damian to succeed."
Marco nodded.
"And today..."
"You proved it."
Just then...
Elena's phone vibrated.
An unknown number.
She answered.
"Hello?"
A deep male voice spoke calmly.
"Miss Marchetti."
"My name is Alexander Knight."
"I'm calling because I'd like to discuss a business proposal..."
He paused.
"...one that could change both our futures."
Elena's eyes narrowed.
"And why should I trust you?"
Alexander chuckled softly.
"Because unlike Damian Cross..."
"I know exactly how valuable you are."
Elena remained silent.
For the first time since her divorce...
Someone wasn't looking at her as Damian's ex-wife.
Someone was looking at her as Elena Marchetti.
She looked out the window at the city lights.
Perhaps...
This was the beginning of something much bigger than revenge.
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Too Late to Want Me Back Chapter 52: The Thursday File
"Play it again.""Elena, I've heard it.""Play the Thursday."David reached over and dragged the marker back.The file came to me on the Thursday. It came to me before the police had finished with the car."Stop." Elena put her finger on the table. "Now tell me what a claim file is.""You know what a claim file is.""Tell me anyway."David sighed. "It's the insurer's assessment. Damage, liability, payout figure.""And you can't write a payout figure until you know the liability.""No.""And you can't know the liability until somebody's looked at the car.""No.""So on the Thursday morning," Elena said, "before anyone had finished looking at that car, a complete file with a figure on it arrived on Piero Faranda's desk."David didn't say anything."Say it, David.""It doesn't prove anybody killed her.""I know it doesn't.""It doesn't prove there was another vehicle, it doesn't prove interference, it doesn't prove one single thing a court would look at.""I know all of that." Her voice
Too Late to Want Me Back Chapter 51: Ten Past Seven
"Say it, then.""I don't want you back."Elena's face did something small and she turned it towards the windscreen."That's not what I mean.""Then say what you mean.""Back is the flat on Sardi and the two of us not talking about your father." Damian's hands stayed on the wheel with the engine off. "Back is me arranging things at you until you stop asking for any of them. I don't want back.""Then what?""Sunday."She looked at him."I want you to come on a Sunday. Not this one, he's asked me and that's his. Another one." His jaw moved. "And then I want to ask you again the week after, and I want you to be able to say no without it meaning anything, and I want to keep asking.""That's it.""That's it.""You gave away a controlling share in eleven seconds and you're frightened of asking me to a bus stop.""Yes," Damian said.Elena sat with it."I'm not going to answer you tonight.""I didn't ask you to.""I'm going to think about it for a week, and I might come back with something you
Too Late to Want Me Back Chapter 50: What You Do About Me After
"Say it again for the record," the chair said."I'm not taking it.""Mr Vale, with the twenty percent you hold a controlling position. Without it you don't.""I know what I hold.""You've spent five months proving that share is yours.""I proved it was never his," Damian said. "That's a different thing."David read it into the minutes in a flat voice, and every word of it took something away from the man standing at the end of the table.Luca sat through all of it with his hands between his knees, understanding none of it."What's happening?" he said, when the room started moving. "David. What just happened?""Do you want it in the legal words or the real ones?""The real ones."David turned his chair round."He's just given you ten percent of Marchetti Group," he said. "You can't sell it for fifteen years. When the company pays out, you get a tenth of it, whether you turn up to a meeting or not, and nobody in this building can take it off you, including him."Luca looked at him."Tha
Too Late to Want Me Back Chapter 49: Forty Minutes
"There's a bench," she said."I know where the bench is.""Then walk to it, Marco. I'm not standing at a gate at my age."He came through and neither of them said anything about the fact that he'd come through.They sat down. He put his hat on his knee."I'm not going to explain myself," he said."I know. That's why I let you in.""I've had thirty years to put it into an order that sounds better and it doesn't get better.""No.""If I start, you'll listen, because you were always polite. And then we'll both have to sit through it.""So don't start."He turned the hat around by the brim."What would you like me to say?""Something ordinary," she said. "Anything ordinary. I've had nothing ordinary since 1994."He looked at her."Do you still take sugar?""Two.""You took two before.""I take two now. What else."He thought about it."I had a dog," he said. "For eleven years. A grey thing, bad-tempered, he'd only sit with me.""What was his name?""Nico.""Is he dead?""Six years ago.""
Too Late to Want Me Back Chapter 48: Nobody's Boy
He washed his cup.Damian watched him do it from the doorway. Rinsed it, dried it with the cloth by the sink, put it back in the cupboard in the same place, closed the door."There's a machine," Damian said."I know. I saw it.""You can use it.""It's one cup."The kettle was still warm. Luca stood beside it with his hands at his sides, in a kitchen he'd slept above for two nights, waiting for something."Sit down," Damian said."Where?""Anywhere. It's a chair."Luca sat on the one nearest the door.He'd made the bed upstairs both mornings, tight, corners tucked. He'd asked before opening the fridge. On the first night he'd stood in the hall for ten minutes because nobody had told him which light he was allowed to turn off."Can I ask something," he said."You don't have to ask to ask.""How long am I here for?"Damian pulled out the chair opposite him and sat down."There's a warehouse on Vitelli," he said. "Stock reconciliation. Two men do it and one of them's leaving."Luca frowne
Too Late to Want Me Back Chapter 47: At the Gate
Alexander stopped four feet from him and didn't come any closer.Damian came down the steps and stopped at the bottom of them, which was as far as he was going to go."Say it out here," Luca said. "Not inside. Not in an office.""Here is fine.""They all know, don't they. Every one of them knows and I'm the last.""Yes.""Then say it."Alexander looked at him for a moment."I'm your father."Nothing moved on the whole street."I didn't marry your mother and I never lived with her, and I've never once in all these years been in a room where I could say that sentence." He didn't soften a word of it. "I'm not going to ask you for anything and I'm not going to explain myself, because there isn't an explanation that survives being said out loud to your face."Luca stood very still."All right," he said."All right?""I've got questions. Small ones. Answer them the way you answered that.""Go on.""I was six. I had a chest thing and I was eleven days in the little hospital on Via Serra." Lu
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