Chapter 22 Chapter 22
The air outside the café felt colder than it should have, the kind of cold that slips into your bones and refuses to leave. I wrapped my arms around myself, trying to calm the trembling that had started the moment Damien walked away.
Adrian didn’t say a word at first. He just fell into step beside me, silent, calculating. A part of me wondered if he was angry with me—angry that someone from my past suddenly had a hand in our already messy plan. But when he finally spoke, his voice was low and steady.
“Don’t let him inside your head.”
I exhaled shakily. “That’s the thing, Adrian… he’s already in.”
I stopped walking and pressed my back against the brick wall of a nearby building. “He wouldn’t come back after all these years unless he wanted something. And Damien doesn’t waste energy on things that won’t break.”
Adrian stepped closer, his presence overwhelming in that steady, grounding way he had. “Then we make sure he can’t break you.”
I looked up at him, my pulse tripping over itself. “You say that like it’s easy.”
He leaned one hand against the wall beside me, caging me in—without touching me, without crossing the thin line of tension between us. His voice dropped into something softer. “It is easy. Because I’m not letting anyone destroy you. Not Daniel, not Mandy, and definitely not Damien Kane.”
A warmth spread through me I wasn’t ready to name. I swallowed. “You make it sound like I matter to you.”
His eyes flickered—for a moment, unguarded. “Maybe you do.”
My breath hitched, and I had no idea what to say. Luckily—or unluckily—my phone buzzed, snapping the moment in half. I forced myself to look away and checked the screen.
A notification.
From my company’s internal server.
URGENT: System breach detected – unauthorized transfer request initiated.
My heart fell to my stomach.
“No. No, no, no…” I opened the file with shaking fingers. A transfer request—of my remaining shares. The ones Daniel hadn’t taken from me. The ones I fought to rebuild.
Requested by: Damien Kane.
My hands went cold.
Adrian noticed immediately. “What is it?”
I showed him the screen, and his jaw clenched so hard I heard his teeth grind. “He moved fast,” Adrian muttered, eyes darkening. “Faster than I expected.”
“He’s trying to take everything,” I whispered. “Everything I have left of my father. Everything I rebuilt.”
Adrian didn’t hesitate. “We’re going to the office.”
The drive to my building felt like a blur, every streetlight stretching into streaks of gold as my panic grew. By the time we arrived, security was already scrambling. My assistant, Rina, rushed toward me, breathless.
“Elena! Someone accessed your data remotely. We’ve frozen the system, but… it’s bad.”
“Show me,” I demanded.
We ran into my office. Papers were scattered everywhere from the security sweep. Adrian stayed close behind me like a shadow, his presence steadying me when everything inside felt like it was collapsing.
Rina pulled up the server logs. “Look here—he used a backdoor code. One that only somebody who knew your old company files could use.”
My chest tightened. “He knew my father’s codes. Damien used to intern at Carter Holdings before everything went to hell. Dad fired him for misconduct.”
Adrian let out a humorless laugh. “So this is personal.”
“Damien always takes grudges personally,” I murmured.
Rina touched my arm gently. “We stopped the transfer, but he still copied your financial statements. He knows your weak spots now.”
I sank into my chair, heart pounding. “Why now? Why come back after all these years?”
A quiet voice behind me answered.
“Because you became powerful.”
I looked up sharply. Adrian stood there, watching me with eyes that saw too much.
“You have influence now, Elena. Money. A name that matters. And men like Damien? They don’t like seeing the people they once controlled rise above them.”
My throat tightened. “So this is revenge.”
“Not just revenge,” Adrian said. “It’s domination. He wants you trapped. Dependent. Weak.”
I shivered—not from fear, but from realization.
Damien wasn’t like Daniel.
Daniel had betrayed me out of selfishness and greed.
But Damien? Damien wanted to own the pieces of me he couldn’t break before.
Adrian loosened his tie slightly, his jaw ticking. “We’re not letting him continue this. I’ll assign a private security team. And you won’t go anywhere alone anymore.”
Heat rushed to my cheeks. “You can’t just—control everything.”
“I’m not controlling you,” he said softly. “I’m protecting you.”
The softness in his voice disarmed me more than anything else tonight.
Before I could respond, Rina cleared her throat awkwardly. “Um… Elena? There’s one more thing.”
I braced myself. “What now?”
Rina hesitated, then turned the screen toward me.
A photo.
At first, I didn’t understand it. The image was grainy, taken at a distance. But then I recognized the figures walking out of the café earlier that day.
Me.
Adrian.
Too close.
Too intimate.
The angle made it look like he was pulling me against him, his hand almost on my waist. My face tilted up toward him.
A picture taken to be twisted.
Rina swallowed. “Someone leaked it. It’s spreading on business gossip blogs already.”
Ice shot through my veins. “Leaked? Already?”
Rina nodded. “And the article headline says:
‘Widowed Heiress Elena Carter Spotted With Rival Executive—Suspicious Timing After Power Shift Attempt.’”
My breath caught. Damien was framing me—trying to ruin my reputation, weaken me publicly, and cause division with Adrian.
Adrian stepped closer, reading the headline over my shoulder. His voice was calm, too calm. “Damien did this on purpose. He wants to make you look unstable. Like you’re jumping from man to man.”
The humiliation burned hot in my chest. “He wants to make me look like Mandy.”
Adrian’s eyes softened a fraction. “You’re nothing like her.”
But the damage… it was already spreading.
My stomach twisted. “What do we do? If this gets worse, the board will question my credibility. Investors could pull out—”
Adrian knelt beside my chair, surprising me so much I froze. He took my trembling hands in his—warm, steady, grounding.
“Elena,” he said quietly. “Look at me.”
I lifted my eyes to his.
“You survived betrayal. You survived Daniel. You survived losing everything once already. You are not losing again. Not to Damien, not to anyone.”
My throat tightened. “Adrian…”
“We’re fighting this together,” he said. “You’re not alone.”
Something inside me cracked then—not in a weak way, but like pressure releasing. Like I had been holding myself together with glue and stubbornness, and for the first time in years, someone else was helping me hold the pieces.
Before I could speak, Rina rushed back in.
“Elena—there’s more.”
I stood so quickly my chair scraped the floor. “What now?”
Rina hesitated, breathless and pale.
“Damien Kane… he just arrived downstairs. He’s demanding to see you.”
My heart lurched.
Adrian’s expression turned murderous.
And just like that, the real war began.