Knee For Me, CEO

Chapter 4 - The Shadow of the Truth

“If you don’t drive faster, Sebastian, I’ll grab that wheel and run us both off this bridge.”

Aria didn’t have to raise her voice. Even whispering, she cut through the roar of rain hammering the windshield.

She sat rigid in the passenger seat of Sebastian’s silver Aston Martin, her hands locked so tight around the dashboard her knuckles looked bloodless. Her eyes never left the red taillights of a black sedan slipping into the gray wash ahead.

“I’ve got it, Aria. Just breathe,” Sebastian said. His jaw clenched like he was grinding his teeth to dust.

“Breathe? You told me your house was a fortress. You promised he was safe!” She spun on him, eyes blazing with something almost feral.

“You let her in. You let her near my son. If she hurts him, I won’t just take your money. I’ll make sure there’s not enough left of the Crowne name to carve on a headstone.”

Sebastian took the hit. No argument. Every word she threw felt earned. He pressed harder on the gas. The engine howled; the car fishtailed but caught grip, surging forward.

He knew Isabella. He knew her vanity, her greed, her desperation. She wouldn’t kill the boy. Not yet. Leo was her bargaining chip, her leverage.

She’d head for the old Crowne boathouse up on the north shore. The thick stone walls there would block any GPS trackers on her car.

“She’s going for the coast,” Sebastian muttered, swerving around a semi that blasted its horn, long and low.

“Why? She wants to take him out of the country?”

“No. She wants a trade. Isabella never moves unless there’s a price. She wants me to hand over the evidence, her embezzlement for Leo.”

Aria leaned back, chest heaving. “She’s an i***t. She thinks this is chess. She has no clue I’m fighting for my life.”

They left the main highway behind, twisting onto a narrow road with ancient oaks clawing at the fog. The rain pounded down, wipers slapping uselessly across the glass.

Up ahead, the black sedan slammed its brakes, tires shrieking as it slid toward the boathouse gate.

“There!” Aria yelled.

Sebastian stomped the brakes. The Aston Martin skidded, stopping inches from the other car’s bumper.

Aria didn’t wait for the car to stop, she threw open the door and bolted out, not caring about the rain, not even glancing at the mud soaking her silk suit. She sprinted for the heavy wooden doors.

“Aria, wait! She might be armed!” Sebastian shouted, scrambling after her.

Aria didn’t slow down. She slammed her shoulder into the side door, and the old hinges groaned, giving way.

Inside, the boathouse was freezing, stinking of salt and gasoline. Up in the rafters, a single yellow bulb flickered, swinging shadows across the floor. Isabella stood in the middle, blonde hair plastered to her face, eyes wild.

She gripped Leo by the arm. The boy sobbed, his face red, streaked with grime.

“Let him go, Isabella,” Sebastian’s voice rang out as he stepped into the light. He looked possessed, shirt soaked through, eyes sharp and ice cold.

“Stay back!” Isabella screamed, yanking Leo closer to the water’s edge where a speedboat waited. “Don’t come any closer, Sebastian! One more step and I’ll ruin you.

I’ll tell them everything. I’ll tell them about the boy. I’ll tell them how you set up your own lover to keep your precious stocks safe!”

Aria stood frozen. She sucked in air like she’d been punched. “What did you just say?”

Isabella laughed, high and brittle, echoing off the metal roof. “Oh, he didn’t tell you? The fearless CEO forgot to mention he knew the signatures were fake.

He knew three days before the police came for you, Aria. But the merger was on the line. If scandal hit the Vale family, Crowne shares would nosedive.”

Aria turned, slow and stiff, to Sebastian. The world seemed to tilt. The rain faded to a dull buzz.

“Is it true?” she whispered.

Sebastian went white. He didn’t look at her, just kept his eyes locked on Isabella. “It’s not that simple. I was trying to fix it without…”

“You knew?” Aria’s voice barely made it out. It vibrated with something dangerous. “You knew I was innocent before they even cuffed me?”

“I was told the documents were untouchable!” Sebastian yelled, finally cracking. “My mother, the lawyers, they said if I tried to stop it, they’d bury you deeper.

I thought if you went quietly, I could get you out in a few months. I didn’t know they’d trap you there.”

“You chose the company over me,” Aria said. Not a question just cold truth.

“Look at him!” Isabella jabbed a finger at Sebastian. “He’s a coward, Aria. Always has been. He let you rot so he could keep his throne. And now he wants to swoop in and play the hero?”

Leo burst into tears. “Mama! I want to go home!”

That broke through Aria’s fog. The betrayal felt like a hole right through her chest, but she couldn’t fall apart now. Not with Leo still in Isabella’s grip.

“Isabella,” Aria said, voice flat, too calm to be safe. “You want money. You want the embezzlement charges gone. I can give you more than Sebastian ever could. I run the Thorne Group. I can buy you a new life somewhere far away. No one will know your name.”

Isabella wavered, her hold on Leo slipping just a bit. “You’re lying. You want me in jail just as much as he does.”

Aria took a step forward, hand out. “Honestly, I don’t care about you at all. I want my son. Give him to me, and I’ll transfer the offshore accounts right now. Sebastian can’t stop me. I own his debt, remember?”

Isabella’s eyes flicked from Aria to Sebastian. Greed and fear wrestled on her face. For a heartbeat, she almost seemed to believe it.

Then a floorboard squeaked behind them.

Elias, Sebastian’s head of security, stepped out of the shadows. But his gun wasn’t on Isabella. It was aimed at Sebastian.

“I’m sorry, sir,” Elias said, voice empty. “But your mother pays better. She wants the boy at the estate. A Crowne heir belongs under her roof, not with a ‘criminal’ mother or a useless father.”

Sebastian stared in disbelief. “Elias? You’ve been with me for ten years.”

Elias didn’t blink. “And your mother’s been signing the checks for twenty.”

The punch of that betrayal was almost physical. This wasn’t just Isabella’s doing. The Crowne matriarch had planned every move.

Isabella panicked. She yanked Leo and dashed for the speedboat.

“No!” Aria’s scream tore out of her.

She didn’t care about the gun, didn’t think about the traitor. She ran, full tilt, toward the dock’s edge. Sebastian dove for Elias, slamming into him. The gun went off, glass exploded from a window, raining sharp shards everywhere.

Sebastian and Elias crashed into the black, churning water, locked in a fight beneath the surface.

Aria reached Isabella just as she fumbled with the boat’s line. Words weren’t needed. Aria hurled herself at her, both women crashing to the dock.

Aria fought like someone who’d survived places where mercy didn’t exist. She rained down blows, raw and wild, until Isabella lost her grip on Leo.

“Leo! Get to the car! Run!” Aria shouted.

Leo scrambled up, bolted into the night.

Aria spun toward the water. Sebastian and Elias broke the surface, gasping. Sebastian had Elias in a chokehold, but the storm-swollen current was dragging them both out to sea.

“Sebastian!” Aria yelled.

He looked up, battered and desperate, searching her face for something, maybe hope, maybe forgiveness. For a split second, she saw the man he used to be. The man who once promised to keep her safe.

“Get Leo out of here!” Sebastian choked. “Go, Aria! Before more of them show up!”

“I’m not leaving you to die!” she shot back.

She grabbed a heavy coil of rope, flung it out to him. Sebastian caught it just as Elias slipped under, swept away by the current.

Aria hauled with everything she had. Her feet slipped on the slick wood, but she didn’t let go. Sebastian clawed his way up onto the dock and collapsed, shivering and coughing up seawater.

For a moment, they just lay there, broken and soaked, bleeding and breathing.

“You knew,” Aria whispered, tears mixing with the rain. “You let them take me.”

Sebastian’s voice cracked. “I spent every day of those five years trying to get you back. I know it doesn’t matter. I know I’m the villain in your story. But I loved you, Aria. I still do.”

Aria stood, face hard as stone. “Love is a luxury you lost five years ago, Sebastian.”

She walked away without another word. Leo waited for her by the Aston Martin, shivering. She scooped him up and held on tight.

“Mama, is the bad lady gone?”

“She’s gone, Leo. We’re leaving.”

She didn’t look back at Sebastian. Didn’t look at the wrecked boathouse or the life she’d once wanted.

But as she drove into the night, she spotted something on the floorboard, the envelope Sebastian had dropped during the chaos. And all at once, she realized just how far from over this was.

There was another signature. One that froze her right to the core.

Her father’s name, clear as day.

Aria’s hands clamped around the steering wheel until it creaked. This wasn’t just the Crownes stabbing her in the back. This wound went straight to her own family.

She caught her son’s eyes in the rearview mirror. He was the only one left who hadn’t lied.

“I’m going to burn it all down, Leo,” she said, voice low. “Every last one of them.”

Back at the boathouse, Sebastian stood alone, rain soaking through his jacket. He watched her taillights disappear, knowing she was gone, maybe for good. But he knew what she’d just learned, tucked inside that envelope.

This fight had nothing to do with mergers or money anymore. It was about a web of lies spun long before Aria ever set foot in a courtroom.

And now, finally, the one who started it all was stepping out into the open.