Chapter 26 Damage Control and Dangerous Players.
Chloe's POV
I walked through the estate gates at 2:34 a.m. with my lungs burning from cold air and adrenaline still pumping through my veins from everything that had just happened in that wine cellar.
A delivery truck rumbled past on the main road and I flagged it down with both arms waving. The driver looked skeptical, but I offered him fifty dollars cash to drop me at the hospital and he agreed without asking questions.
The ride took twenty minutes and I spent every second of it replaying Margaret's face when the cops put handcuffs on her wrists, Brian's shock when I pressed that shoe heel against his throat and Liam's eyes following me as I walked away from all of them.
At the hospital, I went straight to Mia's room on the third floor. My mother was propped up in bed, looking groggy but awake and Mia sat in the chair beside her with red eyes and messy hair. The second Mia saw me, she launched herself into my arms.
"The nurse tried to put the pillow over my face," Mia whispered against my shoulder while shaking. "But then her phone rang and she just ran out of the room really fast."
I held both of them and promised they were safe now while my own hands trembled from exhaustion and relief. My mother reached out and touched my cheek with her weak fingers.
"What happened tonight, baby?" Before I could answer, footsteps echoed in the hallway and Liam walked into the room still wearing the same clothes from the wine cellar with blood staining his white shirt from where Lucy had been cut. He stopped in the doorway and looked at me.
I rushed towards him at the door side to prevent my mom from seeing and knowing what was happening.
"You need to leave," I said, with my voice coming out sharper than I intended.
"We need to talk about what happens next with the media and the board," he said while ignoring my demand completely.
Mia's small voice cut through the tension. "Please don't fight anymore. Both of you just sit down and figure it out because fighting doesn't help anyone."
Liam sat down slowly while keeping his eyes on me the entire time. I stood near the window with my arms crossed over my chest like armor.
More footsteps came rushing down the hall and Olivia burst into the room carrying shopping bags and looking frantic.
After I messaged her with the hospital line, I entered the hospital. This was the first time I had seen my best friend in person after months of only talking on the phone. She dropped everything and hugged me so tight I could barely breathe.
"I saw the news," she said while pulling back to look at my face. "Margaret, Brian, Lucy and Kim, all of them arrested. It's everywhere."
She pulled out her phone and showed us the headlines scrolling across every news site. Reporters were already camped outside Astor Industries and outside this hospital, too. The stock had dropped twelve percent in after-hours trading.
Liam stood up and walked into the hallway to make calls. I could hear his voice through the door, talking to his PR team and his legal team while pacing back and forth. When he came back in, he looked directly at me.
"You need to come back to the penthouse with me tonight. The media will hunt you down if you stay here or go anywhere else."
"I'm not going anywhere with you," I said.
"This isn't about us right now, Chloe. This is about keeping you safe and keeping your family out of the headlines. Do you want reporters showing up at your mother's hospital room asking questions about our contract?"
I hated that he was right.
Reluctantly, I agreed for my family's safety. We left through a service exit at 4:30 a.m. with Marcus driving us back to the penthouse in complete silence.
The tension in the car was so thick I could barely breathe. Liam sat on the opposite side of the backseat staring out the window and I did the same. Neither of us spoke until the elevator doors closed behind us in the penthouse.
He went straight to the bar and poured whiskey into a glass. "You want one?"
"No." I walked past him toward the guest room, but his voice stopped me.
"The press conference is at nine this morning. You need to be there with me."
I turned around slowly. "Why would I do that?"
"Because if you don't show up, every reporter will assume the engagement was fake and both of us will face legal consequences for securities fraud. Our relationship status affected stock prices, Chloe. The SEC will investigate."
He stepped closer and his voice dropped lower. "I'm not asking you to forgive me. I'm telling you we're trapped together for at least one more day until the legal team figures out how to spin this and don't forget what you signed in that contract. You agreed to obey and act according to what I say in public situations."
My hands clenched into fists at my sides. "You're using that contract against me again."
"I'm reminding you what's at stake." His eyes dropped to the towel I was still clutching around my body from earlier. The air between us crackled with something dangerous and electric. I felt the pull despite all my anger.
His phone rang and shattered the moment. He answered it while walking away. "Yes, this is Liam Astor."
I went to the guest room and locked the door behind me. Sleep wouldn't come, no matter how hard I tried. At seven in the morning, a stylist arrived with clothes for the press conference.
A gray suit with a white blouse, professional and conservative, was the armor I needed to face the cameras.
At nine, we stood outside Astor Industries with dozens of reporters shouting questions and camera flashes blinding me every few seconds. Liam looked perfectly composed in his navy suit while I stood beside him, trying to keep my face neutral.
He addressed the arrests directly and expressed shock about his grandmother, mother and the two former associates. Then he turned to the engagement rumors.
"Malicious individuals leaked a prenuptial agreement and twisted it to look like a business arrangement," he said with his voice steady and convincing.
"Chloe Carter is my legitimate fiancée and our relationship has always been genuine. We met through work, we fell in love and we're planning to get married. What people are calling a contract was simply legal protection of assets."
He reached for my hand on camera and pulled me close. His lips pressed against my forehead in a gesture that looked tender and protective. The reporters ate it up with flashes going off like fireworks.
But I felt sick because he had just doubled down on the lie without asking me first. He trapped me again.
A reporter in the front row pointed her microphone at me. "Miss Carter, do you love Liam Astor?"
The camera zoomed in on my face and I felt every eye on me waiting for an answer. My mouth opened and the word came out. "Yes, I love my man." But even I could hear how hollow my voice sounded.
At eleven, we sat in the emergency board meeting with tension so thick it felt like the air conditioning had stopped working. Board members were furious and panicked. Four of them demanded that Liam step down temporarily.
"Stock is in freefall," one of them said while slamming his hand on the table. "Investors are pulling out. Alexander Voss has made a hostile takeover bid."
Three board members admitted they were considering Voss's offer. The company was in real danger.
Liam stood up and presented an emergency restructuring plan. "Chloe Carter will be joining the board as a full voting member and will head a new clean energy division using her father's patent. The Carter patent is worth billions and having Chloe as the public face of innovation will restore investor confidence."
I sat frozen in my chair. He never discussed this with me. He was using me again as a corporate pawn.
But I realized if I refused publicly right now, the company would fall to Voss and Liam would lose everything. I was trapped.
The board voted narrowly to give Liam one week to stabilize the stock. If he failed, they would accept Voss's offer.
After the meeting, we returned to his office and the tension between us was explosive. I was about to confront him when his secretary buzzed.
"A woman is here to see Mr. Astor. She says it's urgent and personal."
"Send her away," Liam said.
But the door opened anyway and a woman walked in. She was stunning with red hair, green eyes and a designer dress that probably cost more than my entire wardrobe. She looked at Liam with a familiar smile that made my stomach twist.
"Hello, Lee. Did you miss me?" Liam's face went completely blank. "Aurora."
She handed him a folder. "I've been in London working for a rival investment firm. I came back because I heard about your family scandal."
I watched as Liam opened the folder. Inside were photographs of him and this woman together. Hotel rooms, private jets, intimate moments that made my chest hurt.
"My firm wants to invest in Astor Industries," Aurora said while looking at me with a cold smile. "But only if Liam agrees to certain terms. Like ending your engagement publicly and admitting it was a business arrangement."
"Get out," Liam said. "What you're holding is fake and I have the right to sue you."
Aurora set the folder on his desk. "I'll be at the Plaza Hotel for three days. You know where to find me when you're ready to be smart about this."
After she left, I picked up the folder and looked through it. The photos were real and the emails showed a version of Liam I had never seen before.
Throughout the rest of the day, every time we were alone in his office, the air crackled with unresolved tension. He stood too close when we reviewed documents. His hand brushed mine when passing papers. I caught him staring at my mouth when I spoke, but neither of us acted on it.
Later, Seraphina showed up unannounced. She touched Liam's arm and chest while laughing and testing to see if I would react. Marcus pulled me aside afterward and warned me that Aurora had connections to dangerous people in Europe.
At seven, we were alone in the office again. He poured two whiskeys and handed me one.
"I'm sorry for blindsiding you at the board meeting," he said. "But I meant what I said about the clean energy division." "Tell me about Aurora."
He stepped closer and backed me against his desk. His hands gripped the edge on either side of me. "The only woman I feel anything for is standing in front of me right now." He lied.
Before I could respond, the door opened. Aurora walked in holding champagne.
"I knew you'd still be here, Lee. We need to celebrate our reunion properly." She looked at me. "You can leave now, sweetie. The adults have business to discuss."
Liam didn't move away from me and I stood trapped between Liam Astor and his desk with his ex-lover watching us and waiting to see if I would run or fight and for the first time since signing that contract, I realized I was done running from anyone.