Alle Kapitel von I Married the Man My Ex Could Never Compete With : Kapitel 161 – Kapitel 170

Lydia POV The documents don’t look dangerous. That’s what makes them worse. Clean formatting. Structured filings. Legal language that reads like it belongs in a routine review. Nothing dramatic. Nothing urgent. But I know what I’m looking at. And more importantly I know what happens if I use it. “Say it clearly,” I tell the lawyer across from me. He hesitates. Not because he doesn’t understand. Because he does. “If this is filed,” he says slowly, “it will trigger a deeper regulatory review into Arclight’s offshore structure.” “And?” “And that review won’t stay contained.” Of course it won’t. It never does. “It will expand into connected entities,” he continues. “Historical ownership. Transaction chains.” I hold his gaze. “And Cole Group?” A pause. Then— “Yes,” he says. “There’s a high probability it circles back.” Not just the company. The past. Adrian’s father. Everything buried under structure and silence. “Define exposure,” I say. “Reputational damage at

Lydia POV It doesn’t feel like a collapse at first. There’s no alarm. No immediate chaos. No moment where everything stops at once. Just… a shift. Subtle. Wrong. “Lydia.” Damien’s voice cuts through the room, low but sharper than usual. I look up. He’s already holding his phone, something on the screen that shouldn’t be there. “What is it?” I ask. He doesn’t answer immediately. That’s enough. “Say it.” He steps closer, turning the screen toward me. A legal notice. Official. Stamped. Final. I read the first line. Then the second. And by the third I already know. “No,” I say quietly. Not denial. Recognition. “This was filed twenty minutes ago,” Damien says. “Emergency authorization. Fast-tracked.” “That’s not possible.” “It is if they had this prepared in advance.” Of course they did. My eyes move across the document again, slower this time. Not searching. Confirming. The asset listed isn’t small. It isn’t symbolic. It’s foundational. A core infrastru

Adrian POV It starts exactly the way we planned. That’s the first thing that bothers me. “Legal pressure is expanding,” Damien says, scanning through the incoming reports. “Three additional entities flagged. Two more under preliminary review.” “Faster than expected,” I reply. “Yes.” That should feel like momentum. It doesn’t. Across the table, Lydia is already moving through her own set of documents, calm, precise, not wasting motion. She doesn’t look at me when she speaks. “Media hasn’t stabilized,” she says. “But it’s shifting. Less narrative, more confusion.” “Uncertainty helps us,” Damien adds. “For now,” she replies. She’s right. Uncertainty doesn’t belong to anyone. It just creates space. And right now Space is the only thing we’ve managed to carve out. By midday, the board fractures exactly where we expected. “Two members are pushing back against the expansion,” Damien says. “Three are supporting it. The rest are—” “Hesitating,” I finish. “

Lydia POV It doesn’t happen all at once. That would be easier to catch. Easier to stop. Instead, it shows up in small ways. Quiet ones. The kind you almost ignore until they start repeating. I don’t ignore patterns. That’s the difference. “This should have held longer,” Damien says, scanning the latest update. “It should have,” I reply. But it didn’t. The legal pressure we extended yesterday carefully timed and deliberately placed is already being redirected. Not blocked. Not resisted. Adjusted. “That response came too fast,” he adds. “Yes.” “How many people had access to that move?” “Three,” I say. “Including you.” “And you.” “And Adrian.” Silence. Not suspicion. Just process of elimination. “It’s not a leak,” Damien says after a moment. “No.” Because leaks are obvious. Messy. This isn’t. This is precise. I shift the data on the screen, isolating timelines. Execution. Response. Adjustment. Again. Execution. Response.

Adrian POV I know Marcus disappeared before Damien confirms it. Not because he vanished cleanly. Marcus has never been careful enough for that. He moves emotionally even when he thinks he’s being strategic, and emotional people always leave traces behind. No, I know because the pattern changes. The interference inside the system shifts direction too precisely to be random. Communication gaps appear where there shouldn’t be any. Certain internal movements stop feeling reactive and start feeling guided. Someone is shaping him. That realization settles in long before the report reaches my desk. Damien walks into my office just after midnight, closing the door behind him without speaking immediately. He looks tired, which means whatever he found matters. “He’s off-grid,” Damien says finally. I lean back slightly in my chair. “Completely?” “For now.” “That’s unlike him.” Damien nods once. “That’s what concerns me.” Silence settles between us as I glance toward the city outside