Tous les chapitres de : Chapitre 41 - Chapitre 50

POV: ElenaThe rain had stopped, but the windows of the top-floor conference room were still streaked with water.Elena stood at the far end of the table, watching the city glitter beneath her.Behind her, Adrian said nothing.That was what unsettled her most.He had spent the last fifteen minutes pacing, questioning, threatening, and trying every argument he could think of to make her reconsider.Now he was silent.Elena turned.Adrian stood with both hands braced against the back of a chair, his jaw tight.“You're serious,” he said.“I wouldn't have asked you here if I wasn't.”“You're asking me to make a deal with you.”“A temporary corporate alliance.”He gave a humorless laugh.“Call it whatever you want. It's still a deal.”“Yes.”“And you expect me to trust you?”“No.”The answer stopped him.Elena walked slowly toward the table.“I don't need your trust, Adrian. I need your signature.”His eyes narrowed.“You're enjoying this.”“No.”“Then why do you look like you already won?

POV: AdrianThe call ended with one sentence.“His room is empty.”Adrian stared at the phone long after the line went dead.For several seconds, the room around him seemed unreal, the low hum of the air conditioner, the faint ticking of the wall clock, Elena standing three feet away with her arms folded tightly across her chest.His father had vanished from a locked hospital floor.No wheelchair.No security alert.No explanation.Just an empty bed.“Adrian?”He looked up.Elena’s voice was careful.“What happened?”He almost told her.Instead, he remembered the contract lying between them.The contract his father had warned him about.And now his father was gone.“I have to go, why so soon but you just called me to come over.”Elena stepped forward. “Where?”“To my father’s old office.”“I’m coming.”“No.”The word came out sharper than he intended.Elena flinched.Adrian immediately regretted it.But before he could apologize, his phone rang again.This time, the screen showed an u

POV: ElenaThe message arrived at 2:17 a.m.Elena was still awake.After they escaped from Adrian father’s old office.She sat alone in the darkened study of the Laurent mansion, surrounded by financial reports, legal documents, and three empty cups of coffee. Rain tapped against the tall windows, turning the city lights outside into blurred streaks of silver.She had spent the last four hours trying to understand how someone could know so much about Laurent Holdings.They knew about the offshore accounts.They knew about the board's private meetings.They knew which executives Elena trusted.And, somehow, they knew things that had never appeared in a single public document.Her phone vibrated.Once.Elena glanced down.“UNKNOWN NUMBER”Her vein tightened.She opened the message.“You have forty-eight hours to surrender Laurent Holdings.“Her fingers went cold.A second message appeared almost immediately.“Transfer controlling ownership. Resign from the board. Walk away quietly.“Ele

Elena’s POV Rain hammered the windshield so hard Elena driver could barely see the road. The wipers fought desperately to clear the glass, but every sweep revealed only a blur of headlights, wet asphalt, and darkness. Forty-eight hours. The words kept pounding through her mind. Not like a warning anymore. Like a countdown. Her hands tightened around the front seat. “Think, Elena. Think.” The rearview mirror caught a pair of headlights behind her. Her pulse jumped. The car followed their around the bend. Her driver changed lanes. So did they. Her heart dropped. “No.” He accelerated. The engine growled as the speed climbed. The headlights behind her remained fixed. Whoever was driving wasn't trying to pass. They were following. Elena reached for her phone on the passenger seat. Her fingers had barely touched it when— “CRACK!“ The rear windshield exploded. She screamed and ducked instinctively. Glass sprayed across the back seat. Another shot punched through th

Elena’s POV“I never stopped loving you.”The words hung between them.Elena stared at Adrian as if he had just spoken in a language she no longer understood.For a few seconds, neither of them moved.Then she laughed.It wasn't a happy laugh.It was short, bitter, almost painful.“Don't.”Adrian's expression tightened. “Elena—”“Don't say that.”“I mean it.”“That makes it worse.”His jaw clenched.Elena turned away from him, pressing her fingers against her temples as memories rushed through her mind.Their wedding day.His hand around hers.The promises.The late-night conversations.The arguments.The day everything had fallen apart.And finally, the divorce papers.She had spent years teaching herself not to remember.Now Adrian stood in front of her, reopening every wound she had carefully buried.“You don't get to say that now,” she whispered.“Why?”“Because you're too late.”The words came out harder than she expected.Adrian flinched.Elena saw it.She hated that she noticed