The morning came too soon.
Sunlight streamed through the curtains and Amelia awoke, and for a moment of confusion she forgot where she was.
And then it all flooded back The board meeting.
Today.
Her father’s empire was falling apart.
Sitting up fast, her heart pounded against her ribs, her hands shaking a little.
She shoved her hands into the mattress and inhaled, exhaled, inhaled, exhaled.
Fear still lingered.
But something else was starting to grow underneath.
Resolution
She rose and moved to the closet, where the clothes she’d laid out awaited.
A dark blue suit, businesslike, powerful the very antithesis of the silver dress she’d worn the night everything changed.
She dressed slowly, each movement considered, as if she were getting ready to fight.
A gentle knock broke into her thoughts.
“Amelia?
Sophia’s voice.
Amelia cracked open the door.
Sophia stood in the hallway, steady but weary, the bruises on her wrists darker now, but her eyes were full of strength.
“You look ready.” She spoke softly.
“I feel ready.”
Sophia leaned closer and her voice lowered.
“Damien’s downstairs waiting.
Amelia’s stomach clenched.
“Is he nervous?”
Sophia had to smile.
He doesn’t seem nervous.
He looks like he’s ready to tear somebody up.”
“Amelia laughed weakly.
That sounds like him.
Sophia placed a hand on her arm.
“You don’t have to go through this alone.
I know.
They went down together.
Damien was standing just inside the door.
Black suit, cold eyes, that same controlled look he’d worn the first night he’d watched her across the ballroom.
But now she saw something else beneath it.
The moment his eyes found her, they softened.
“Ready?
“Okay.
He cracked the door open.
The car waited outside, black and strong and unforgiving in its own way.
Amelia slid in, Damien next to her, Sophia in the back.
The car moved away from the mansion, silence falling between them as the buildings and people sped past the window, everyone else going on with their lives as usual.
They had no idea what was going to happen.
Damien broke the quiet.
“Your father is going to try and steer the story.”
“He’ll come for you personally.” “I know.” “He’ll try to make you look unstable.” “I know.”
He looked at her face.
“And what?”
She looked up into his eyes.
“I don’t care anymore.” His words were steady and strong and true.
Something shifted in his face.
Almost approval.
“Good.”
The car continued through the city until Laurent Group Headquarters loomed ahead, the tall black glass tower looming like a shadow.
Amelia’s heart plummeted.
She had walked through those doors a thousand times before, as a daughter, as an employee, as someone desperately trying to earn love.
Today she came in as someone else altogether.
A survivor.
The car pulled up outside the front doors where the media had already gathered, cameras flashing, questions thrown.
Miss Laurent!
Is it true that your father is being investigated?
“Did Damien Vale use you?
“What is it down there?
She didn’t listen to a word of it.
Damien was the first out.
He held his hand out to her.
She took it, his fingers closing over hers, warm and steady, grounding her.
Security moved aside and they walked in together.
The lobby was ahead, familiar, cold, empty except for one person.
Victor, pale and nervous, next to the elevators.
He moved forward at a rapid pace.
“Amelia.”
She paused.
He turned to Damien, and back to her.
“It doesn’t have to be like this.” “Like what?
“Board meeting.
The exposure itself.
“Everything.” He moved closer.
“We can negotiate.” Amelia laughed softly.
“You took my best friend.
Victor’s face grew taut.
“That wasn’t
“Was. You are reading on g.com, the official source.
Her voice was cold.
“You helped him.
He opened and closed his mouth.
Damien moved forward a little.
“Take it. Victor’s eyes went wide. Damien”
Go on.
“Or I can transfer you.”
That threat was there until Victor moved aside.
Amelia walked to the elevator with Damien following her, the doors sliding open and closed on Victor, still standing there, fear on his face.
The elevator rose.
Twenty.
Thirty.
Forty.
Fifty.
The executive level.
The doors opened on to a hallway that ran ahead, at the end of it the boardroom where her father was already waiting.
Her heart began to race.
Damien touched her arm, lightly.
“You don’t have to say anything.” “I know,” I said.
“If you must, you can be silent.
She shook her head.
“No.” She met his eyes as he waited.
I’m done being quiet.”
He nodded once and moved ahead.
She was with us.
The doors to the boardroom were tall and heavy, formidable even from a distance.
Damien pushed them open and, in an instant, silence fell on the room.
A long table, powerful faces, shareholders, lawyers, board members and at the head of it all, Richard Laurent.
Today he looked older.
Weary.
His suit was still impeccable, his expression still controlled, but his eyes betrayed him.
“Fear.
His eyes darted from Amelia to Damien and his jaw tightened.
“Amelia.”
She walked over to the table.
“Daddy.
“You’re out of place here.”
She lowered herself into a chair.
“You shouldn’t either.”
The room tensed up.
Richard narrowed his eyes.
“You’re mistaken.”
“No.” Her voice was flat.
The mistake was thinking you loved me.
Silence.
The board looked at one another.
Richard bent forward.
“Let us handle this ourselves.”
“Like you dealt with Sophia?
His face was fixed.
“That had to be done.
“As you did with Marcus Vale?”
The name dropped like a bomb.
Richard’s mask slipped, just a little.
That’s not”
Damien came forward and put a folder on the table.
“Demonstration. Documents signed. Transfer records Reports from eyewitnesses.” He opened it slowly, and all strained to see.
Richard’s face went white.
Five years ago,” Damien said, calm and steady, “Richard Laurent ordered Marcus Vale’s murder.
A board member inhaled.
Another voice whispered.
Richard sprang to his feet.
“This is a joke. Damien turned out one page. Your signature. Transferring of money. The accident report.” He set it down.
“All of it leads back to you.”
Richard stared at the document as the silence stretched unbearably.
Then Amelia spoke.
“I spent my entire life trying to earn your approval.” She stood slowly.
“I worked harder than anyone. I sacrificed everything. I believed if I just tried hard enough, you would finally love me.” Her voice shook.
“But you never did.” She held his gaze.
“Because you don’t know how to love. You only know how to control.”
The room stayed frozen.
Richard’s face twisted.
“You have no proof.” “Actually,” Damien said, pulling out another page, “we have Victor’s testimony.”
Richard’s head snapped toward his son, who stood near the door, pale, nervous, guilty.
“Victor?”
Victor swallowed hard.
“They found everything, Father.” “You”
His voice broke.
“I didn’t have a choice.
“The evidence is compelling. Richard became very still, then laughed in a hollow, broken way. My son himself.”
Victor stared at the floor.
Damien moved forward.
“The board will vote now.” “This isn’t over,” Richard said.
“No,” Damien answered, his voice dropping to dangerous.
The board members murmured to one another.
One of them got up.
“Mr. Laurent Richard, we must go on with the vote.
“You’re leaving me?”
We are following the evidence.
Richard looked around the room to his allies, his partners, his empire, all of them watching him fall.
At length his eyes rested on Amelia.
“This is what you wanted?
“This is what you made,” she said.
He laughed bitterly.
“You think this is important?
“Yes.” Her voice hardened.
“It changes everything.
His fists clenched.
“You will be sorry.”
“I regret staying already.
The words finally landed as she’d meant them to.
Richard looked at her and for one brief second behind his eyes something broke.
Then it was gone and cold fury took its place.
“Take him away.”
Security came in.
They gathered around him and Richard straightened his jacket.
“You will pay for this.
Damien smiled.
Coldly, quietly.
“I’m counting on it.
The guards took Richard away, his footsteps echoing down the hall and then gone into silence.
The board members looked at each other.
Victor froze in the doorway.
Amelia stood motionless.
Everything was changed.
And at that moment in that room, everything changed.
Damien came to stand next to her, lowering his voice to a low.
“Are you okay?”
She faced him.
Her eyes burned but she didn’t cry.
“I will.
Good.
She looked towards the empty door her father had vanished through.
Years of domination.
Years of pain.
Years of terror.
All of it breaking down at once.
She ought to have been content.
Instead she felt hollow, as if a part of her had died with it.
But in its place had been born another, stronger part of her.
She gazed at Damien.
“Now what? Now you build back up.”
She nodded slowly.
I want to go home.
His face cleared.
Then let’s go home.
Together they made their way to the elevator.
“Amelia” Victor called to her, but she did not turn around.
The doors opened and she stepped inside, Damien following her, then the doors closed behind them as they went down.
The city was spread out below and looked different now.
Sore.
More bright.
Could be.
Amelia finally breathed out.
Damien watched her closely.
“You did good.
She nearly smiled.
I did, I said.
He reached out and took her hand.
“I’m proud,” he said.
They hit somewhere deep.
Nobody had ever said that to her before.
Not once.
Not really.
“Thank you,” she said.
He squeezed her hand.
“Always.”
The elevator stopped at the lobby and the doors opened to a wall of reporters.
But Amelia did not see them.
She saw only the way out, the freedom, the future ahead of her, and walked toward it with Damien at her side.
For the first time in her life she felt that she was choosing.
No running.
Not disgusting.
Not just to survive.
Harvesting.
And that made all the difference.