Chapter 138

Chapter 138

Sabrina's mouth opened and closed several times before she finally managed to croak out, "Is this Gavin guy part eel or something? How is he this slippery?"

"Eels aren't as venomous as him." Sawyer pocketed his phone and walked to the window to draw the curtains shut tight. "Starting now, this apartment's security level is maxed out. I've got my investigators in position—two cars downstairs running twenty-four-hour shifts, one team at the front entrance, one at the back. Until Gavin's in custody, neither of you leaves this place. Especially you, Ms. Branpia. You're the bullseye on his last card."

Sabrina's hand shot up immediately. "I'm not going anywhere tonight. I'm staying right here. The guest room's empty anyway, and I'll sleep on the couch if I have to."

Vivienne couldn't help but laugh at Sabrina's battle-ready expression, though she didn't refuse.

For the next three days, the apartment was locked down tighter than Fort Knox.

Sawyer called twice a day—morning and evening—with updates.

The police had expanded the manhunt to neighboring states. Every known property and office under Gavin's name was under surveillance. Allegra had coughed up a list of Gavin's offshore shell companies during interrogation, and the financial crimes unit was working through them one by one.

But Gavin himself? Not a trace.

On the third afternoon, Sawyer called again.

"Vance is back in the country." Relief flooded Sawyer's voice. "Flew in this morning with embassy staff the whole way. They took him straight to the precinct for his statement. I'm heading over to see him now. Ms. Branpia, is there anything you want me to ask him?"

Vivienne went silent for a long time.

She'd been waiting for this man for what felt like forever—since the day Novagraph's servers were destroyed, since the day she realized every piece of electronic evidence that could prove her innocence had been wiped clean.

But now that he was actually back, her mind went blank. She didn't know what to ask.

Finally, she pulled her thoughts together. "Just ask him where the Novagraph server backup is."

"Got it."

Sawyer made it to the precinct quickly, but when he finally saw Vance in person, the sight still hit him like a punch.

The man looked even thinner and older than in the surveillance photos. Utterly haggard.

Hard to believe that just a few months ago, he'd been a confident, successful businessman.

"Mr. Guise." Sawyer sat down across from him and cut straight to the point. "I'm Sawyer, Vivienne's attorney. I know you're in rough shape, but I need to confirm some things as quickly as possible."

Vance nodded, his voice hoarse. "Go ahead. You people got me out of that hellhole—you saved my life. Whatever you want to know, I'll tell you."

"What was stored on Novagraph's servers?"

Vance set down his tea. "The data was auto-backed up to both cloud and local servers. Gavin's people destroyed the local terminal, but they didn't know I'd set up a third backup when I first founded the company. It's an independent physical server hidden in a compartment in the company basement. Only my brother and I knew about it."

Sawyer's pen paused mid-stroke. "Your brother?"

Vance's hand suddenly stopped trembling.

He lowered his head, staring at the crisscrossing scars on the back of his hand. The silence stretched.

"When Gavin lured me out, my brother was there too. They took both of us." Vance's voice suddenly broke. "My brother had intellectual disabilities since childhood. His health was never good. By the time they dragged us to that island, he was already getting sick. There wasn't even a decent doctor on that godforsaken place. He ran a fever for nearly two weeks. Gavin's people wouldn't give him medicine—said they were waiting for me to tell them where the backup server was. But before I could say anything, he died."

He looked up at Sawyer, tears blurring his vision. "I don't know who's behind you, and I don't care. As long as Gavin dies, I'll say whatever you want. I'll testify in court. I'll hand over the backup server location to the police. I'll give you every piece of evidence I have."

Sawyer set down his pen, stood, and bowed deeply to Vance.

Vance froze for a moment, then covered his eyes with his hand and broke down sobbing.

Two days later, Vivienne submitted all the evidence to the court.

Their months of effort finally paid off. The court officially ruled in Vivienne's favor—the plagiarism charges were dismissed. Multiple designs from Dreamscape Studio were found to be infringing works. Allegra was ordered to issue a public apology and pay damages.

After months of being dragged through the mud, Innovate Design Studio was finally vindicated.

The afternoon the news broke, Vivienne's social media followers shot past three million.

Innovate Design Studio immediately reached out to invite Vivienne to resume her plans and head to their Paris headquarters for advanced training. Finnian called too, asking her to come back.

But Vivienne declined.

"Finnian, I don't want to go back." Vivienne rested her hand on her belly, smiling as she spoke to him. "I think maybe Innovate Design Studio and I were never meant to go the distance. We were only meant to walk part of the road together. My true home isn't there."

Finnian understood. After everything she'd been through, Vivienne had outgrown that small corner of the world.

He didn't push. Instead, he smiled and offered his blessing. "Vivi, no matter where you end up, you're going to be an incredible designer."

Vivienne smiled back. "I'll hold you to that, Finnian."

After hanging up, an email appeared in Vivienne's inbox.

She clicked it open. A few short lines later, her hand froze mid-air on the mouse.

Sabrina walked in carrying a bowl of soup, saw her expression, and nearly jumped. "What's wrong? Who sent that?"

Vivienne turned the laptop screen toward her.

Sabrina leaned in to read. She almost dropped the bowl.

"This is—" Her voice shot up an octave, excitement nearly sloshing the soup everywhere. "This is DW's Creative Director! They want to sign you for a collaboration line! Vivi, do you know what this means?"

Vivienne took the soup and set it safely on the table, a smile slowly curving her lips.

Of course she knew.

DW was one of the top three luxury brands in the world. Dreamscape Studio had begged for three years and never even gotten a fashion show invitation.

And now, DW's Creative Director had written to say he deeply admired Vivienne's design philosophy and wanted to explore a collaboration.

If she was willing, they could even arrange an independent launch for her next quarter.

"Vivi! Are you going to do it?" Sabrina asked, practically vibrating with excitement.