Tous les chapitres de : Chapitre 31 - Chapitre 40

POV: AdrianAt 8:55 a.m., Adrian walked into the boardroom believing he still controlled the room.That belief lasted exactly three minutes.He had spent the previous night preparing for the vote.He knew the numbers.He knew the directors.He knew who had supported him through difficult years and who owed their positions to his leadership.Most importantly, he knew the outcome.At least, he thought he did.The vote was supposed to be simple.The board would decide whether Vale International should proceed with the acquisition Elena had warned them against.Adrian intended to win.Not narrowly.Comfortably.He placed his notes on the table and looked around.Daniel(CFO) sat to his right.The chairman was at the far end.Six directors were present.Elena sat opposite Adrian, perfectly composed.She had arrived ten minutes early.Of course she had.Adrian looked at her."You look confident.""I am.""That's interesting.""Why?""Because you're about to lose."Elena smiled."We'll see."

Sophia’s POVSophia knew something was wrong the moment Adrian walked into the room.He didn't look at her.Not properly.He gave her a distracted nod, dropped his keys on the console, and walked straight past her.“Adrian?”He stopped.“What?”Sophia studied him.His shirt was still the one he'd worn to dinner.His expression was distant.His shoulders were tense.And there was something in his eyes she hadn't seen in weeks.Regret.She had learned to recognize it because she'd been watching him closely.Too closely.“Did something happen?”“No.”The answer came too fast.Sophia smiled.“Okay.”She turned toward the kitchen.“Do you want something to eat?”“No.”“Coffee?”“No.”“Then what do you want?”Adrian finally looked at her.“I want to be alone.”Sophia's smile disappeared.She had imagined this night differently.She had expected him to come home relieved.Elena was gone.The relationship was over.That should have made things easier.Instead, Adrian looked like a man who had

Elena’s POVThe first sign that something was wrong was the phone call.It came at 6:42 a.m.Elena was standing in her kitchen, staring at a cup of coffee she hadn't touched, when her phone rang.“Ms. Laurent?”“Yes?”“We have a problem.”Her vein tightenedThe voice belonged to Marcus, the senior legal adviser who had worked with the Laurent family for almost fifteen years.Elena straightened.“What kind of problem?”“Confidential documents have been leaked.”She stopped breathing for a second.“What documents?”There was a pause.“Financial restructuring plans. Acquisition files. Internal board correspondence.”Her fingers tightened around the phone.“Where did they appear?”“Several places.”“Public?”“Not yet.”Elena closed her eyes.That was worse.A public leak was damage.A contained leak meant someone was testing the walls.“How many people had access?”“That's what we're trying to determine.”“No.”Elena walked toward the window.“Don't start with the question of who had acce

POV: ElenaThe first thing Elena noticed was the dust.It covered the top of the old file cabinet in a thin gray layer, soft as ash. Nobody had opened it in years.She stood in the narrow storage room at the back of the house, holding her phone flashlight over a stack of cardboard boxes labeled in her mother's handwriting.TAXES.SCHOOL RECORDS.MEDICAL.Then, at the bottom, one box with no label at all.Elena's pulse quickened.She crouched and pulled it toward her.The cardboard resisted before giving way with a dry scrape across the floor.She looked toward the doorway.No footsteps.No voices.She was alone.For three days, she had told herself she was looking for answers about her parents' deaths.That was only partly true.She was looking for the lie.Because somewhere beneath the condolences, police reports, family stories, and carefully chosen silences was something nobody had wanted her to know.Her parents had died twelve years ago in what everyone had called a tragic accide

POV: Elena“Why do you care?”The question remained between them.Adrian didn't answer.Elena watched his face, waiting for the polished response she had learned to expect from him.Nothing.No clever remark.No deflection.Just silence.That frightened her more than an argument would have.“Adrian?”He looked away.“Don't ask me that.”Her eyebrows lifted.“Why?”“Because you won't like the answer.”“Try me.”He gave a humorless laugh.“You think everything has an explanation.”“Everything does.”“No. Sometimes people care because they care.”“That isn't an answer.”“It is.”“No, it's an excuse.”His face tightened.“Elena.”“What?”“You need to stop pushing.”“Why? Because I'm getting close to something you don't want me to know?”“This isn't about secrets.”“Everything with you is about secrets.”She walked past him, but he caught her wrist.Not hard.Just enough to stop her.Elena looked down at his hand.Then at him.“Let go.”He did immediately.She should have walked away.Inst