Chapter 115 Private Investigator
Chapter 115 Private Investigator
Danika's POV
The sound of that gavel felt like a physical weight being lifted entirely off my shoulders. The heavy, suffocating invisible chains that had bound me to Jared for years suddenly shattered into a million pieces. It was over. He was going away for more than two decades. He would never be able to touch me, threaten me, or look at me ever again.
I turned my head toward Lysander, and before I could even say a word, he pulled me into his arms. He wrapped his strong arms completely around my waist, burying his face in my hair as he held me tightly against his chest. I closed my eyes, letting a few silent tears of pure, unadulterated relief slip past my eyelashes, soaking into the fabric of his midnight-black suit jacket.
"You're free, sweetheart," he whispered fiercely against my ear, his grip tightening as if he never intended to let me go. "He’s gone. You did it."
"Thank you," I breathed, my voice thick with emotion as I held him back. "Thank you for standing behind me."
“You don't have to thank me for this. You're my wife, it's only normal for me to stand behind you.” Lysander said, his gaze fixed on me. I could feel a burn on my cheeks as he looked at me. I still wasn't able to meet his gaze whenever he called me his wife.
“But still,” I murmured, “It would have been a lot less easy if you still hadn't given the opportunity to take care of him.”
“Oh please.” Lysander waved my words away as he slowly ushered me out of the courtroom, “I barely did anything. You know, I was actually a bit angry that you didn't even give me a chance to do anything. But when I saw how much fun you were having publicly showing the world what Jared and Natalie had done to you, I couldn't take that away from you.”
“Fun?” I blinked. His choice of words were a bit… But still, he wasn't wrong. I did have fun thinking about the expressions that Jared and Natalie would have on their faces whenever they see that there's a new piece of news on the internet about them. To be honest, it was quite easy and I had Jared to thank for that. If he hadn't laid out all of our laundry to the public from the beginning of our ‘marriage', it wouldn't have been this easy to take care of him. And I didn't even have to get my hands dirty!
After all was said and done, we finally moved toward the heavy double doors of the courtroom. The gallery cleared out, the murmuring crowd dispersing into the hallways, and Lysander kept his hand firmly placed against the small of my back, guiding me out of the courtroom.
As I walked down the grand stone steps of the courthouse, flanked closely by our bodyguards, I saw a heavily armored law enforcement transport vehicle parked near the side exit. I paused for a brief fraction of a second just as I was about to enter our car. Through the bodies of people around us, I watched as Jared, still clad in that bright orange jumpsuit and weighed down by heavy chains, was slowly being loaded into the back of the transport.
This was it.
There were no dramatic goodbyes, no frantic yells from him asking for my forgiveness, and no final, venomous threats hurled at me via him. He didn't even look back or see me. The doors of the transport van slammed shut with a heavy clang, and just like that, he was completely removed from my reality. It was over, finished in a matter of hours. To be perfectly honest, apart from feeling a profound sense of happiness and relief that Jared was finally, completely out of my life, I didn't really feel anything else. I didn't feel anger, I didn't feel sadness, and I didn't feel a desire to gloat. I was just entirely indifferent. He had become a stranger to me, a closed book that would spend a lot of years gathering dust behind a set of iron bars.
But as the driver closed my car door and the engine purred to life, my mind immediately shifted away from the past and slammed into the present. The next person who bothered me now was Victoria, and the whole terrifying situation with the company. Apex Bio-Tech Solutions was a ticking time bomb, and the federal investigators were only giving us until Monday morning before they demanded answers.
I stared out the tinted window, my brow furrowing as I mentally retraced the steps I needed to take. It was like Lysander knew exactly what I was thinking. He reached across the leather seat, a small, knowing smile playing on his lips as he looked at my serious expression.
"Stop overthinking, sweetheart," he murmured, his lazy warmth wrapping around me like a blanket. "In a few minutes, I have someone very special to introduce to you. The person is already waiting at the company."
We arrived back at the company, bypassing the main lobby to take the private executive elevator directly to the top floor. When the doors slid open and we walked into the executive office, I immediately noticed a woman standing near the large floor-to-ceiling windows.
She looked incredibly professional. She was dressed in a sleek, navy-blue tailored trousers suit, her dark hair pulled back into a flawless, tight bun. She couldn't have been older than her mid-thirties, but her eyes possessed a sharp, calculating stillness that told me she didn't miss a single detail in a room.
The moment she saw us, she stepped forward, extending a hand toward me with a confident nod. "Good afternoon, Mrs. Laurent-Ashworth. My name is Valeria. I operate as a private investigator and corporate intelligence specialist under President Laurent-Ashworth’s payroll. From this moment on, I am entirely at your disposal. Anything you want to know about this case, you will know. You can consider me your shadow."
Lysander stepped up beside me, placing a supportive hand on my shoulder. He looked at Valeria, then turned his gaze down to me, his dark eyes full of that unyielding, proud trust. "I leave the company and this investigation in your hands for now, Danika. Valeria answers only to you. Use her well."