Chapter 5
Isabella stared at the closed door for a long moment,
her chest heaving as she struggled to draw breath into her tight lungs.
She turned to Julian,
her face streaked with ruined makeup,
expecting him to have a brilliant strategy to fix this massive disaster.
Tell me she is bluffing,
Isabella pleaded,
grabbing his arm with desperate,
clawing fingers.
Julian looked down at her,
feeling a sudden and intense wave of nausea,
because he knew Eleanor Aaron never,
ever bluffed.
He pulled his arm away from her grasp,
walking over to the table to inspect the documents she had left behind,
praying that there was some legal loophole he could exploit.
But as he scanned the first page,
his heart sank completely into his stomach,
reading the meticulously documented evidence of his betrayal.
She had everything.
There were bank statements showing the extravagant gifts he had purchased,
flight records of their secret weekend getaways,
and even copies of the private messages they had exchanged on the company’s secure server.
How did she get this,
Isabella cried out,
looking over his shoulder at the damning evidence.
You are the head of marketing,
Julian snapped viciously,
suddenly turning his anger toward the woman he had risked everything for.
You were supposed to be careful,
but you left a digital trail so wide a blind person could have followed it.
Isabella gasped,
deeply offended by his sudden and cruel shift in tone,
realizing that his charming facade was entirely conditional on his success.
Do not blame me for your carelessness,
Julian.
You promised me that your wife was oblivious,
and that she was too focused on the baby to notice our relationship.
Julian laughed,
a harsh and bitter sound that echoed off the green room walls,
realizing how profoundly stupid he had been to underestimate his wife.
Eleanor is never oblivious to anything,
he muttered darkly,
dropping the papers back onto the table as if they were burning his hands.
She built this company’s infrastructure,
and she coded the very security protocols we used to hide our affairs.
Isabella backed away from him,
her survival instincts suddenly overriding her fading affection for the disgraced CEO.
If she owns the patents,
Isabella reasoned quietly,
then the company is essentially worthless without her permission to use the technology.
Julian nodded slowly,
the devastating reality of his financial situation finally settling into his bones.
My shares are tied to the primary corporation,
which is now just an empty shell company holding massive operational debts.
Isabella did not say another word,
she simply picked up her purse,
wiped the tears from her cheeks,
and walked toward the exit.
Where are you going,
he demanded,
feeling a surge of panic as his last remaining ally prepared to abandon him.
I have to call my lawyers,
she replied coldly,
May you like
opening the door and stepping out into the chaotic hallway,
leaving him completely and utterly alone in the dark.
