Chapter 3 - The Penthouse
The doors to the private elevator slid shut, cutting off the sounds of Victoria’s frantic screaming.
The moment they were alone, the atmosphere shifted. Elias hit the button for the penthouse—the top floor, accessible only by a biometric scan. He pressed his thumb to the reader, and the elevator shot upward.
"You cut it close, Charlotte," Elias said, the formal facade melting away into something raw and urgent. He turned to her, his jaw tight as he inspected the bruise on her cheek. "I told you to wait for me. If I had been five minutes later..."
"If I had waited for you, Richard would have destroyed the servers in the east wing," Charlotte interrupted, pulling the silver flash drive from her pocket and holding it up. "I got it, Elias. The offshore transfer logs. The proof that Richard bribed the aviation inspectors before my mother’s flight."
Elias’s eyes darkened. He took the flash drive, his grip tightening around it. For months, they had worked in absolute secrecy. When Eleanor Vale died, Elias was the only one who suspected foul play. He had tracked Charlotte down, hiding her away, teaching her how to fight the corporate war that was coming for her.
"You shouldn't have risked yourself. Look at you," Elias muttered, his hand hovering inches from her bruised face. He wanted to touch her, to comfort her, but he pulled back. Their relationship was strictly professional. It had to be. If Richard found out they were working together, they would both be dead.
"I'm fine," Charlotte lied, leaning against the glass wall of the elevator. Her body ached, and her hands were stinging furiously, but the adrenaline kept her standing. "What's the status of the board meeting?"
"Richard moved it up," Elias said grimly as the elevator dinged and the doors opened into the sprawling, multi-million dollar penthouse suite. "He got wind that an independent auditor was looking into the accounts. He’s calling for a vote of no confidence in the Vale Trust. He wants the board to permanently transfer all majority voting rights to him today at 3:00 PM."
Charlotte walked into the living room, staring out through the floor-to-ceiling windows at the sprawling city below. It was her city. Her mother's legacy.
"He thinks I'm dead, or too broken to show up," Charlotte said softly.
"He thinks you're a frightened little girl," Elias corrected, tossing his briefcase onto the glass coffee table. "But he doesn't know what you've found. With this drive, and the original will I have secured in my vault, we have enough to not only stop the takeover but send Richard to prison for treason and corporate espionage."
Charlotte turned to face him. The bloody, beaten girl from the lobby was gone. In her eyes burned the fire of a billionaire heiress ready to reclaim her throne.
May you like
"It’s 1:00 PM," Charlotte said, checking the Rolex she had kept hidden in her pocket. "I have two hours to stop being a ghost."
Elias pulled out his phone. "I’ll make the calls. You take a shower. I’m having a team sent up. When you walk into that boardroom, Charlotte, they need to see Eleanor Vale’s daughter. They need to see a queen."
