Warning: Mentioned Abortion, minor violence
“Erick, what the—?” Martin immediately switched tactics, clutching his bleeding nose dramatically.
“He attacked me!
I was just—”
“He’s lying,” Erick cut in flatly.
“He said—”
“ENOUGH!” Dominique burst out of the dressing room in her half-finished gown, face pale with fury.
She grabbed Erick’s arm, nails digging painfully into his skin, and dragged him outside onto the sidewalk.
The moment they were alone, she shoved him away like he was toxic.
“You humiliated me!” Dominique snapped.
“In front of everyone!
You ruined everything, Erick!”
Erick stared at her, voice low and tight.
“He talked about you like you belonged to him.
Like you were still his.”
Dominique let out a bitter, sarcastic laugh.
“So what?
Maybe I should’ve stayed with him.
I already ruined my life once by marrying you.”
Erick’s stomach twisted.
“What does that mean?”
She crossed her arms tightly.
“I wasn’t ready, Erick.”
“Ready for what?”
Dominique gritted her teeth.
“Can we not do this right now?
I still have to finish my dress.”
A cold dread settled deep in Erick’s chest.
“Dominique… were you pregnant?”
She looked away.
“I took care of it.”
The words landed like a hammer.
Traffic roared past them, but Erick felt the world go dead silent.
“You handled it?” he repeated, voice barely above a whisper.
“I wasn’t bringing a child into that family,” she hissed.
“Into that life.”
Erick stood frozen on the sidewalk.
He had just learned he could have been a father — and she had ended it without telling him.
Erick heard nothing but the rush of blood in his ears.
He thought back to a flight from Boston five years ago.
Dominique had fallen asleep on his shoulder, complaining about the pressure of her family and her longing for a life of her own.
He had listened, and he had imagined a different life for them too: a small apartment, a messy kitchen, and a child running through the halls.
He had buried those dreams years ago.
Apparently, Dominique had buried something else.
His fists clenched.
She hadn’t trusted him.
Not with the pregnancy, not with the abortion, and maybe not even with Martin.
Through the boutique window, Erick watched her.
Dominique was already chatting with a sales assistant and pointing at a dress, acting as if nothing had happened.
That was the part that hurt.
For five years, he had protected her from enemies she didn’t even know existed.
He had endured insults and hidden his true identity just to keep her safe.
Yet, she had made the biggest decision of their marriage without even telling him there had been a decision to make
His phone vibrated.
He pulled it from his jacket, hoping for a second it was her.
It wasn’t.
It was Aria Hunt.
If Aria was using the emergency channel, something was wrong.
He opened the encrypted message:
Boss.
Problem.
Helix flagged unauthorized access to core systems.
Origin: inside the Laurent estate.
A second line appeared: Someone is brute-forcing your network.
Erick stared at the screen.
His chest still felt hollow, but his focus sharpened.
Someone had been digging, and they weren’t looking for Laurent family secrets.
Someone had been digging and Erick knew exactly what they were looking for.
Quade.
***
The Laurent estate was eerily quiet when Erick returned that afternoon.
He slipped in through the service door.
In the kitchen, Mrs.
Hollis gave him a silent, knowing look.
Thirty years with the Laurents had taught her when to stay quiet.
Erick went straight to the storage room.
A hidden panel clicked open.
He placed Aria’s frequency jammer directly beneath Michel’s camera.
As he stepped out to make tea, familiar footsteps approached.
Mrs.
Hollis.
Erick melted into the hallway shadows and listened.
She rounded the corner carrying a tray.
“Earl Grey, Mr.
Erick?” she asked softly, pouring steaming tea into a chipped cup.
“You look like you need it.”
He took the cup.
The heat burned his palms, but he barely felt it.
“I’ve watched this family for thirty years,” Mrs.
Hollis murmured.
“People like them always think they know who’s beneath them.” Her eyes flicked toward the hallway.
“They’re usually wrong.”
A loud, arrogant laugh echoed nearby.
Michel.
Erick raised a finger to his lips.
Mrs.
Hollis disappeared into the shadows.
“…so fucking funny!” Michel’s voice boomed from his phone speaker as he neared the pantry.
“I rigged the feed outside that loser’s room.
Hoped to catch him jerking off or something, but nothing.
The pathetic bastard just sleeps like a corpse.”
“Get off that camera, Michel,” Dominique snapped, her voice sharp with warning.
“Oh, relax, princess…”
“You stole two hundred million from Dad’s festival project,” she hissed.
“He doesn’t know yet.
If I were you, I’d be fucking terrified right now.”
Michel’s tone turned nasty.
“You’re lecturing me?
Don’t think I don’t know about your dirty little secrets, Dominique.
The abortion.
The affair with Martin.
All of it.”
“That’s my business, you idiot!” Dominique’s voice rose dangerously.
The front door slammed hard enough to rattle the walls.
Mrs.
Hollis let out a shaky breath.
Erick stared into his tea, jaw clenched so tight it ached.
Inside the storage room, his fake smile vanished completely.
A hidden screen glowed behind a panel.
Encrypted data streamed across it.
Erick had built GD Tech long before the Laurents ever learned his name.
He scanned the latest acquisition reports and froze.
The name stopped him cold.
Victor Hale.
His childhood friend.
The man who had stood beside him when GD Tech was nothing but an idea and a borrowed server room.
The name stopped him cold: Victor Hale.
Victor was his childhood friend.
He had been there at the start, back when GD Tech was just an idea and a borrowed server room.
Erick stared at the screen.
The status read “Active partnership.” Victor hadn’t just betrayed him; he was working with the Laurents.
His phone buzzed again.
Aria: [Board meeting tomorrow.
No-show = Victor controls the story.]
Erick leaned back, eyes locked on Victor’s name glowing on the monitor.
Five years ago, the two of them had built GD Tech from the ground up.
Now Victor was standing with the very people who had spent the last five years making Erick’s life a living hell.
Erick closed the file.
For five years, the Laurent family had looked at him as nothing more than a useless son-in-law.
Tomorrow, that would change.
Chairman Quade was walking into that boardroom.
Victor was finally going to have to look the man he betrayed in the eye.,