All Chapters of The Billion Dollar Contract: Chapter 31 - Chapter 40

ELENA’S POVTuesday. 8:04 AM.I woke on the couch, Adrian asleep next to me, my father snoring softly on the other couch across the room. Every inch of my body ached.My phone was ringing. I’d turned it off last night, but someone must have turned it back on. An unknown number flashed on the screen. I almost didn’t answer, but something in me pulled at the slide.“Hello?”“Mrs. Blackwood?” It was a woman’s voice—nervous, young. “I’m Sarah Chen. I’m—I’m Robert Chen’s wife.”I sat up straight, Adrian shifting next to me as he woke.“What do you want?”“I know what my husband did. I found out last night. He—” Her voice cracked. “He’s been lying to me for months. Taking money from Victor Kane. Betraying your husband.”“I know. The whole world knows now.”“I have recordings.”I went very still. “What?”“Robert. Recorded his conversations with Victor Kane. He was paranoid. Thought Victor might turn on him. So he kept insurance. Audio files. Dozens of them.”My heart began to pound against m

ADRIAN’S POVTuesday, 2:14 PM.The upload bar crept to one hundred percent, and then the world went silent. We sat in the hotel suite, facing our laptops like they were life-or-death oracles, waiting for a judgment that refused to come. I refreshed the homepage of the New York Times. Nothing. I checked CNN, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal. Blank screens and silent tabs stared back at me, indifferent to the grenades we had just lobbed into the digital ether.Elena mirrored my movements on her laptop, her fingers tapping out a frantic rhythm of click, refresh, wait, repeat.“How long does this usually take?” she asked, and I heard the thin edge of desperation in her voice.“It could take hours,” I said, trying to sound surer than I felt. “They have to verify the files, clear with legal, write the story.”“What if they don’t run it?”I looked at another tab on my browser, the one I hadn’t dared to click since the notification first popped up. ACCOUNT FROZEN - EMERGENCY INJU

ELENA’S POVWednesday, 1:47 PM.I stayed on the line with Chloe while Adrian contacted Marcus again.“Did you pack?” I asked, trying to keep my voice even as my hands trembled.“I packed a bag. Elena, you are scaring the crap out of me. Why do I have to leave?”“Just trust me. The security team is five minutes out.”“Security team? What security team?”“Adrian’s security team. They’re going to get you to a safe place.”“Elena, what the hell is going on?” Her voice broke, and it broke me because Chloe had been there through everything—late rent checks, bad dates, me-before-Adrian—and now she was in danger because of me.“Victor Kane is missing,” I said softly. “And I think he’s targeting people I care about.”Silence on the line. Then: “The Victor Kane? The guy on the recordings?”“Yes.”“Oh my God.”“The team is almost here. Two minutes. Do not open the door for anyone except them. They will say they’re Sentinel Security.”“Okay. Okay, I’m at the door. I’m looking through the peephole

ELENA’S POVThursday, 7:47 PM.I couldn't tear my gaze from the blood staining the carpet. It was only a smudge, dark and drying against the plush fibers, but its presence made the room spin with dizzying nausea. This was Chloe's blood, spilled because of me, and the sharp, coppery tang of iron hung heavy in the air, clashing nauseatingly with the hotel’s cloying vanilla air freshener to create a scent that coated the back of my throat with sickness.“This is my fault,” I whispered, the words tasting like ash.Adrian stood by the window, phone pressed to his ear, his voice tight and clipped as he spoke to Marcus. “I don't care how he got past security. Find her. Now.”Sarah hovered in the doorway like a wraith, her skin ashen and eyes wide with guilt. She gripped the door frame with trembling fingers, her voice barely audible. “He wants the drive. The recordings I took. This is my fault.”“This is Victor's fault,” Adrian snapped, ending the call and turning to face us, his expression

ADRIAN’S POV12:17 AM.We waited. Victor lounged on the shipping container, his gun on his knee, like he had all the time in the world, while Chloe cried continuously. Elena stood next to me, trembling in the wind that whipped off the harbor, reeking of salt, rust, and decay. The fog was getting thicker, curling around the edges of the pier like white fingers.“You know what's funny?” Victor said conversationally. “You don't even remember, do you?”“Remember what?”“What you did to me. Seven years ago. The Meridian deal.”I tried to dredge up my memories, but seven years of mergers and acquisitions ran together in a blur. “I've closed a lot of deals.”“Not like that one.” His voice went hard. “You destroyed my reputation. Told my investors I was cooking the books. Had the SEC investigate me. Took me three years to rebuild what you dismantled in an afternoon.”Seven years ago. Meridian Capital. Fraudulent projections. It came back to me.“You were cooking the books.”“That's not the po