Chapter 9 - The Video That Made Her Look Guilty.
The ballroom became chaos.
Reporters shouted.
Phones rose over heads.
Victor stood perfectly still while the video played behind him.
Elena stared at the screen.
She remembered none of it.
Onscreen, she looked toward Adrian.
"Once we're married, transfer the shares to Adrian."
Adrian answered.
"All of them?"
"Enough to take control away from Victor."
The clip ended.
Victor turned toward the cameras.
"My niece has accused me of theft while admitting she planned to move company control to a man with known criminal ties."
Elena felt the room closing in.
Adrian leaned toward her.
"The clip is edited."
"How do you know?"
"Because you never asked me to own your shares."
"I don't remember what I asked."
"I do."
Victor heard them.
"Of course he does."
Elena looked toward the press.
Her confidence from thirty seconds earlier was gone.
Every camera now saw doubt.
Victor saw it too.
"Elena was not in a condition to make financial decisions last night," he said.
"Yet Adrian Vale married her anyway."
A reporter shouted.
"Mr. Vale, did you marry her to gain Marlowe shares?"
Another shouted.
"Was she impaired when she signed the marriage papers?"
Adrian stepped toward the microphones.
Elena caught his sleeve.
"Don't."
He looked at her.
"Why?"
"Because every answer gives Victor another headline."
She turned to the cameras.
"The complete recording will be released within the hour."
Victor smiled.
"Will it?"
The words sounded like a challenge.
Elena's phone buzzed.
A message from Sofia.
DO NOT RETURN TO THE PENTHOUSE.
Elena's pulse jumped.
A second message arrived.
THE LEAK IS MARCUS.
She looked at Adrian.
Marcus was the man he had called to freeze Vale Capital transfers.
The man handling his internal investigation.
The man with access to security footage.
Elena kept her face neutral.
"We need to leave."
Adrian saw the urgency immediately.
They exited through a side corridor before the press could follow.
In the elevator, Elena showed him Sofia's message.
Adrian went completely still.
"You spoke to Sofia?"
"She was in your bedroom."
His head snapped toward her.
"When?"
"This morning."
"And you didn't tell me?"
"She said someone inside your penthouse was leaking information."
"So you believed her and lied to me."
"I believed the possibility."
Adrian's jaw tightened.
"She's my sister."
"And Victor is my uncle."
That silenced him.
The elevator doors opened into the underground garage.
Adrian's security team waited by two black vehicles.
Marcus stood beside the first car.
Elena stopped.
Marcus smiled.
"We need to get you both out of here."
Adrian's expression did not change.
"Where?"
"Penthouse is compromised."
Elena felt a chill.
Marcus should not have known that they knew.
Adrian glanced toward her.
One glance.
Enough.
"We'll take the second car," he said.
Marcus shook his head.
"Fuel issue."
"Then we'll walk."
Marcus's smile faded.
"That's not safe."
Adrian stepped closer.
"Neither is getting into a car you selected."
The garage went silent.
Marcus looked at Elena.
Then back at Adrian.
"Sofia contacted you."
It was not a question.
Adrian moved first.
Marcus turned and ran.
Security chased him between the cars.
A vehicle roared from the far end of the garage.
It accelerated toward them.
Adrian pulled Elena behind a concrete pillar.
The car missed them by feet and smashed through a parking barrier.
Tires screamed.
Elena's heart hammered.
Marcus jumped into the passenger side as the car passed.
The vehicle disappeared up the ramp.
Adrian was already on the phone.
"Lock every Vale account Marcus touched."
He looked at Elena.
"And find my sister."
Elena's phone buzzed again.
Sofia.
One photograph.
It showed Richard Bell, the Marlowe company lawyer, entering a building in Queens.
Beside him walked Preston.
The time stamp was five minutes old.
A message followed.
PRESTON IS TRYING TO GET OUT.
Then another.
IF BELL REACHES VICTOR FIRST, PRESTON WON'T GET A SECOND CHANCE.
Elena looked at Adrian.
"We have to find Preston."
"After what he did to you?"
"Especially after what he did to me."
Adrian frowned.
"Why?"
Adrian opened the rear door of an unmarked vehicle.
Elena stopped before getting in.
"If Marcus leaked the wedding video, he may know where we're going before we do."
"Then we don't use my network."
"Whose do we use?"
Adrian looked at her.
"Yours."
Elena almost laughed.
"I have a phone and a yoga membership."
"You also have a company with twelve thousand employees and regional security contracts Victor does not personally control."
The words stopped her.
Once again, Adrian was forcing her to see power she had been trained not to notice.
She called the one person at Marlowe Systems she trusted without hesitation.
Grace Kim had been her father's operations assistant and now ran facilities compliance.
Elena asked for a vehicle that would not appear in executive dispatch logs.
Grace did not ask why.
She simply said, "Garage C in eight minutes."
Adrian raised an eyebrow.
"Yoga membership?"
"Be quiet."
As they changed vehicles, Elena realized something important.
Victor had controlled the boardroom.
Richard controlled the paperwork.
Marcus controlled Adrian's information.
But none of them controlled every ordinary person who still remembered Samuel Marlowe with loyalty.
That might be the first advantage Elena had found all day.
May you like
She looked at the photo again.
"Because people who build lies for a living always know where the truth is buried."
