All Chapters of Forbidden Love with my stepbrother : Chapter 51 - Chapter 59

Elara's POVThe operations director's name was Sandra Obi and she arrived twelve minutes before Corr, which told me she had done her own preparation independently of his timeline.She was mid forties, precise in the way of someone who had spent years fixing other people's operational failures and had stopped being diplomatic about it. She shook my hand, sat down, opened a notebook, and looked at me directly."I want to understand the onboarding process end to end," she said. "Not the overview. The detail.""That is exactly what I am here to give you," I said.Corr arrived at nine on the dot. He looked at Sandra already settled with her notebook and nodded once like a man confirming something he had expected.Alexander and Damien handled the commercial side of the room. Clare sat at her desk managing the morning's client correspondence without appearing to listen, which meant she was listening to everything. I took Sandra through the onboarding process from the first client contact thr

Elara's POVThe second hire had started Monday. Her name was Priya, twenty eight, three years running operations for a mid sized freight company that had outgrown her ambition before she had outgrown it. She had walked in on her first day and introduced herself to Clare and they had established a working rhythm by Tuesday afternoon that required no input from either of us.By Thursday the office had a different quality. Fuller. More capable of holding what was coming.I sat at my desk at half four and looked at the Corr integration timeline on my screen and felt the particular satisfaction of a thing running the way it was designed to run. Two months since the contract signed. Three months since Clare started. Four months since we moved into the apartment. Five months since the rooftop and Walsh and all the things that had needed to be closed before anything else could open.Six weeks since my nineteenth birthday, which had been a Sunday, which meant Daniel had been at the table for i

Elara's POVPriya had the accounts pulled before I asked for them.She set the file on my desk Monday morning without comment, a printed copy with three pages of her own notes clipped to the front. I looked at the notes and then at her."I figured you would want them," she said, and went back to her desk.I read through everything twice. The northern company was called Hale Freight, family name, nothing to do with Richard, just a coincidence that I noted and set aside. Second generation, the founder's son running it now, a man named Peter Hale who had taken over eight years ago at thirty two and had grown the revenue steadily without changing the structure underneath it. That was the tension the numbers showed. A company that had outgrown its own bones.Damien came in at nine and I handed him the file. He read it standing up, which he did when he wanted to move through something fast. He put it down after ten minutes."The distribution network," he said."Three overlapping routes in t

Elara's POVThe envelope arrived at the office on a Wednesday with a law firm's name in the corner and Damien's name on the front in the formal typeface of people who charged by the hour.He opened it at his desk while I was on a call with Clare about the Hale operations manager follow up. I saw him read the first page and go still. Not the stillness of something routine. The other kind.I finished the call and looked at him. He was on the second page."What is it," I said."Pre trial discovery. Victor's legal team." He kept reading. "They are required to share anything relevant to connected parties before testimony begins."Priya and Clare were both at their desks. He looked at me and then at them and I understood."Lunch," I said to the room. "Early today."Clare looked up, read the situation, and had her coat on in forty seconds. Priya followed without a word. The door closed behind them.Damien put the documents on the desk between us.I read through them. Victor's testimony cover

Damien's POV Walsh called at six that evening. I was in the kitchen when my phone rang and Elara was on the couch with her shoes off and the Hale file open in her lap that she was not reading. She looked up when she heard Walsh's name. I put it on speaker. "Daniel Voss came to me this afternoon," Walsh said. "With documentation." "I know," I said. A pause. "You sent him." "Elara did." Another pause, shorter. "The documentation is clean. The resignation timeline holds. He is not in