Semua Bab Reborn to Ruin Him: Bab 21 - Bab 30

“Someone close to Ashford has been talking.”Xavier’s text still glowed on my screen when he pulled up outside the penthouse ten minutes later, headlights cutting through the dark like a lifeline. I was already outside waiting, my arms wrapped around myself against the cold, unable to stand being inside those walls another second.“Get in.” He leaned across to push the passenger door open before I’d even reached the car.I dropped into the seat, and he pulled away from the curb before I’d finished closing the door, his knuckles white against the wheel.“Tell me everything,” he said. “From the beginning. Don’t skip anything, even if it seems small.”I told him. Mrs. Devonte’s cold recitation of everything she’d done and felt nothing about. Her demand that Ashford bury the Meridian case. Her threat against Sofia, delivered with the same flat calm she’d use to discuss the weather.Xavier’s jaw tightened with every sentence, the muscle jumping the way Jeremy’s used to, except on Xavier it

“I found her.”Ashford’s voice came through clearer this time, steadier, like a man who’d finally slept a few hours somewhere safe. Xavier and I sat across from each other at the small kitchen table in my apartment, the phone on speaker between us.“Found who?” I asked.“My paralegal. Denise. She’s worked for me for six years.” A pause, weighted with something that sounded like genuine disappointment. “I checked the security logs before I moved everything. Someone accessed the Meridian files remotely three separate times over the past month, always late at night, always from an IP address tied to her home internet.”My stomach twisted. “Are you sure it’s her, and not someone using her credentials?”“I called her an hour ago. Told her I suspected a breach, watched how she reacted.” Ashford’s voice hardened. “She didn’t ask a single question about what kind of breach, or when, or how I’d found out. A woman with nothing to hide asks questions, Miss Jones. She just started apologizing.”X

“Thank you for coming.”Sofia looked younger in person than the nineteen years Marcus had mentioned, her hands wrapped tight around a paper coffee cup at the small diner booth, her eyes darting toward the door every few seconds like she expected someone to burst through it.“Thank you for reaching out.” Xavier’s voice had gone careful, gentle, nothing like the controlled urgency I usually heard from him. “You didn’t have to do this.”“I know.” Sofia’s fingers tightened around the cup. “I’ve thought about calling for months. I found something in my dad’s things after he stopped taking my calls. I didn’t understand what it was until recently.”She slid a small flash drive across the table, worn at the edges like it had been carried in a pocket for a long time.“What is it?” I asked.“Recordings. My dad used to record everything, meetings, conversations, anything that felt important enough to protect himself later.” Her voice wavered. “I found this one labeled with a date. Two years ago.

“I brought everything.”Victoria stood in Ashford’s temporary office doorway, a worn leather satchel clutched against her chest, her eyes red-rimmed like she’d been crying the whole drive over. Xavier tensed beside me, and I felt my own guard rise instinctively, two years of learning not to trust this woman refusing to let go easily.“Come in,” Ashford said, his voice carefully neutral, the voice of a man who’d learned long ago not to extend trust before evidence earned it. “Sit down. Let’s see what you have.”Victoria crossed the room and set the satchel on the desk with careful, almost reverent hands, like she was handling something sacred rather than paper.“My father kept journals for years. Every job, every client, every uncomfortable thing he witnessed and couldn’t say out loud to anyone who might repeat it.” She opened the satchel and pulled out three leather-bound books, their spines cracked with age. “This one. The entries start two weeks before your parents died, Kara, and e

“It’s done.”Ashford’s voice came through the phone flat with exhaustion, though something steady lived underneath it, the particular calm of a man who’d finally crossed a finish line he’d been running toward for over a decade.Xavier and I sat pressed close together on his couch, the phone between us on speaker, both of us barely breathing.“The filing went through?” I asked.“Twenty minutes ago. Sofia’s recording, Victoria’s father’s journals, the Meridian paperwork, all of it, submitted directly to Judge Harrington’s chambers under emergency review.” Ashford exhaled slowly. “The judge has already scheduled an expedited hearing. Two days from now.”Relief crashed through me so hard I had to grip Xavier’s hand to stay upright on the couch.“Two days,” I repeated. “That’s it? After everything, two days?”“Given the severity of what we’re alleging, and the strength of the evidence, Judge Harrington moved faster than I’ve seen in twenty years of practice.” Ashford’s voice carried someth