Alle Kapitel von The Sin Behind Our Vows: Kapitel 11 – Kapitel 20

Sophia Bennett had always believed that numbers were honest.People weren’t.Numbers couldn’t flatter you.They couldn’t manipulate a conversation.They couldn’t smile while lying to your face.They simply existed.Which was why the spreadsheet on Sophia’s screen was making her increasingly uncomfortable.She stared at the same name for the fourth time.Nathaniel Cross.She typed it into the company’s internal search system.Nothing.She tried again.Still nothing.Sophia frowned.That was impossible.The confidential report she’d received clearly listed him as a former employee of Vale Corporation.His employee identification number was there.His department was there.His employment dates were there.But according to the company’s current records, Nathaniel Cross had never existed.Sophia leaned closer to the screen.“That’s creepy.”Claire looked over from her desk.“What is?”Sophia turned her monitor toward her.“Do you know Nathaniel Cross?”Claire’s expression changed.Only for

Sophia Bennett had learned a lot during her first weeks at Vale Corporation.She had learned that Adrian Vale could silence an entire conference room with a single look.She had learned that Claire could communicate an entire paragraph with one raised eyebrow.She had learned that the coffee machine on the forty-eighth floor was apparently designed by someone who hated employees.And she had learned that billionaires apparently considered walking into an office without knocking a perfectly reasonable thing to do.What she had not learned was what to do when the woman standing in front of her was the reason her boss had spent six months looking like a man who had forgotten how to be happy.Sophia looked up from her computer.And forgot what she was about to say.The woman standing at reception was breathtaking.Not in the obvious, carefully manufactured way Sophia had seen in magazines.There was something different about her.She was elegant without appearing to try. Her dark hair fel

Adrian stared at the invitation.Once.Twice.Then a third time, as though staring harder might somehow make the answer appear.It didn’t.The cream-colored card was unlike any wedding invitation he had ever seen.There was no elaborate announcement.No photograph.No romantic quotation.No family crest.Not even the name of the groom.Only Elena’s name.And beneath it, a date.A location.A time.And one sentence printed in elegant black lettering:Your presence is requested.That was it.No explanation.No groom.No clue.Adrian’s fingers tightened around the card.“She has to be joking.”Sophia remained silent.She had been standing across the office since Elena left.Adrian looked at her.“What did she say to you?”Sophia swallowed.The memory of Elena’s whisper returned.She wasn’t going to tell him.Not yet.“I can’t tell you.”Adrian’s expression darkened.“You can’t?”Sophia immediately regretted the wording.“I mean… I don’t think I’m supposed to.”“She told you something.”“

Sophia Bennett had a problem.She was curious.Not normally curious.Dangerously curious.The kind of curious that made her read an entire office disciplinary report because she wanted to know why someone’s name had been underlined three times.The kind that made her investigate things that had absolutely nothing to do with her.And apparently, working at Vale Corporation had given that particular flaw a very large playground.Sophia stared at the spreadsheet on her screen.Then at the report beside it.Then back at the spreadsheet.Something was wrong.Again.She clicked through another file.“No.”Another.“That can’t be right.”Another.“Definitely not right.”Claire appeared beside her desk carrying two folders.“What isn’t right?”Sophia pointed at the screen.“The numbers.”Claire looked at them.“They look like numbers.”“That’s not helpful.”“I wasn’t trying to be helpful.”Sophia sighed.“The European employee turnover figures don’t match the internal complaints.”Claire’s ex

Sophia Bennett had discovered three things since joining Vale Corporation.First, billionaires apparently believed coffee was an acceptable substitute for lunch.Second, confidential documents had a strange habit of becoming more interesting the moment someone told her not to read them.And third—Adrian Vale was terrible at hiding when he was worried.Unfortunately for him, Sophia was excellent at noticing things people were trying not to show.She sat at her desk, staring at the European turnover reports spread across her computer screen.Something was wrong.Not slightly wrong.Not maybe-the-spreadsheet-formula-is-broken wrong.Something was deliberately wrong.Sophia leaned closer to the screen."Come on..."She compared the original employee records with the final reports again.Several complaints were missing.Entire sections had been removed.And the names that appeared in the preliminary documents seemed to vanish once the reports reached senior management.She clicked between