All Chapters of NOT THE BRIDE HE WANTED : Chapter 21 - Chapter 30

The words hung in the study like something physical, pressing down on all three of them at once. Outside, the wind had picked up further, rattling the old windows in their frames, the fire burning lower now, casting long, restless shadows across the walls of books and family photographs."An account inside this house," Adrian repeated slowly. "You mean staff. Someone employed here.""I don't know yet," Elias said, already dialing Vivian back, his hands still shaking. "Vivian, put me on speaker with your IT team. I need names, not guesses." His voice had regained some of its old command, though the tremor in his fingers gave away exactly how much this new revelation had cost him.The call connected properly this time, a younger voice joining Vivian's on the line, quick and technical, rattling off details Temi struggled to fully follow. Something about a login token. An internal credential normally reserved for household staff who managed digital correspondence and scheduling on Elias's

The article spread faster than anything Temi had seen yet, pulled up on three different phones within the study inside of two minutes, each new refresh adding fresh detail to what was quickly becoming the biggest business story of the week. Notifications kept arriving in waves, financial news outlets, industry newsletters, even a few personal messages from acquaintances Temi barely knew who had apparently already seen her name attached to the unfolding chaos.Sallow Capital, according to the filing, had accumulated just under nine percent of Voss Industries' outstanding shares over the past fourteen months, quietly, through a series of smaller holding companies designed to avoid triggering the disclosure threshold until now. The public statement accompanying the filing cited, in carefully neutral corporate language, growing concern among shareholders regarding recent instability in company leadership, referencing both the rushed marriage and the still unresolved fraud allegations as e

The wait stretched on long enough that Temi lost track of time entirely, the hallway's fluorescent lights buzzing overhead in a way that made everything feel slightly unreal, like the whole night had tipped over into something too strange to be actually happening. Somewhere down the corridor, a vending machine hummed steadily, and a janitor pushed a mop bucket past them without so much as a glance, the ordinary rhythms of the hospital continuing on entirely indifferent to the crisis unfolding just behind one closed door.Adrian paced a tight line in front of the closed door, the letter still crumpled in his fist, occasionally stopping to press his palm flat against the wall as though bracing himself against something only he could feel. Elias sat motionless in his wheelchair, eyes closed, lips still moving faintly, and Temi found herself standing between the two of them, unsure which one needed her more, settling instead for simply staying close to both.Finally, after what felt like

Temi did not remember leaving the boardroom.One moment she was standing beside Naomi with Pri's message glowing on her phone, and the next she was in the back of a taxi crawling through midday traffic toward a police precinct in Midtown, her hands clenched so tightly in her lap that her knuckles had gone pale. The driver glanced at her in the rearview mirror once, then kept his eyes politely on the road, and she was grateful for the small mercy of a stranger who didn't ask questions. Outside the window, the city moved through its ordinary Tuesday, people carrying coffee, delivery bikes weaving between cars, none of it having any idea that her whole world had tilted sideways in the space of a single morning. She had texted Adrian one line, Camille's been arrested, I'm going to her, and he had answered within seconds, Go. I'll handle the board. Call me the moment you know anything. No argument, no hesitation, just trust, and somehow that small, steady thing was what kept her breathing

Temi read the message aloud to Pri twice before either of them said anything, the words sitting heavy in the cold precinct hallway. The fluorescent lights above them buzzed faintly, and somewhere down the corridor a door slammed, sharp and echoing, making both of them flinch."What does that even mean," Pri said. "Who voted first?""I don't know. But I'm not standing in a hallway trying to figure it out." Temi was already moving toward the exit, phone pressed back to her ear, Adrian's voice waiting on the other end where she'd left the call open, her heels clicking fast against the worn linoleum floor."Adrian, are you still there?""I'm here." His voice had gone flat, careful, the particular stillness he wore when he was working hard not to panic. "I heard what came through. Read it to me again."She did, slowly, and the silence on the other end stretched long enough that she checked the screen twice."Graham didn't call the vote," Adrian said finally. "Margaret did, as chair. But th