The Enemy I Married

Chapter Five - The Boardroom

Maya grabbed her keys. “You’re not going in there alone.”

Sophia stood by the door with the signed confirmation still open on her phone. The screen glowed in the dim hallway light. “The board doesn’t need an audience.”

“They need to see someone on your side. I’m coming.”

Sophia didn’t argue. She didn’t have the energy left to fight the one person who still stood with her.

They took a cab to the Brooklyn warehouse. Sophia spent the entire ride staring at the newest message. The words sat clean and sharp on the screen.

*Ask about the five-year non-compete he had your father sign before he died.*

She read it three times. Each time the same cold weight settled in her chest. She didn’t know if the message was real. She only knew it made the air inside the cab harder to breathe. Maya sat beside her in silence, glancing at the phone once but saying nothing.

The cab stopped in front of the converted warehouse. Maya paid the driver and followed Sophia inside. The elevator to the second floor felt slower than usual. Sophia watched the numbers climb and tried to steady her breathing. Her hands were cold.

The conference room door was already open.

Ellie sat at the head of the long table in a sharp gray suit. Two board members flanked her—one a thin man with thinning hair, the other a woman in her fifties who avoided Sophia’s eyes. Marcus sat near the far end, hands folded tightly in front of him. A laptop in the center of the table displayed the Sterling Holdings term sheet in clean black text. The numbers looked final.

Ellie looked up the moment Sophia stepped inside. “You’re early. And you brought company.”

Maya pulled out a chair and sat without asking permission. “I’m staying.”

Ellie ignored her completely and focused on Sophia. “We’re voting at two. Sterling’s offer is clean. I assume you’re here to stop wasting everyone’s time.”

Sophia walked to the open seat across from Ellie and set her phone on the table face up. The confirmation screen was still visible. “There’s a new offer.”

Ellie raised one eyebrow. “From who?”

“Voss Global.”

The room went quiet. The thin board member leaned forward. “Voss already bid last week. We moved past them.”

“This isn’t a standard acquisition.” Sophia kept her voice level even though her pulse beat hard in her throat. “It’s a capital injection paired with a public partnership. The debt clears. Payroll is covered. Operations stay intact for the next eighteen months. And the voting shares in the trust transfer to me effective today.”

Ellie laughed once, short and sharp. “In exchange for what?”

Sophia met her eyes and forced the words out. “A one-year marriage to Alexander Voss.”

Marcus sat up straighter. The two board members exchanged quick, startled looks. Ellie stopped laughing.

“You’re joking.”

“I’m not. The term sheet is signed. Both parties. Capital moves the same day we file the license.”

Ellie stood slowly. Her chair scraped against the floor. “You signed a marriage contract with the man who tried to bury this company five years ago and you didn’t consult the board?”

“I consulted the only person who still has the authority to keep the doors open.” Sophia stayed seated even though every muscle in her body wanted to stand and move. “Me. Once the shares transfer.”

“Those shares are under my control until the board certifies you as ready—”

“Not anymore.” Sophia turned the phone so the confirmation screen faced the entire table. “Countersigned at 11:17 this morning. Voting control transfers with the agreement. You can verify it with the trust attorney. I already copied him on the full packet.”

Ellie stared at the screen. Color rose high in her face. “You went behind the board’s back.”

“I went around a board that was ready to sell us for parts without a fight.”

The thin board member cleared his throat. “We’ll need legal to review every page before anyone votes on this.”

“They’re reviewing it now,” Sophia said. “Daniel Cho from Voss Global sent the complete packet twenty minutes ago. You should all have it in your inboxes.”

Ellie walked to the window, then back again. Her heels clicked hard against the floorboards. “This is a stunt. The staff will panic the second they hear the name Voss. The press will eat us alive.”

“The staff will get paid,” Sophia said. “That’s more than Sterling promised them.”

Marcus spoke for the first time. His voice was quiet but steady. “She’s right about the money. Sterling’s offer cuts headcount in half inside sixty days. This one doesn’t. I’ve looked at both sets of numbers.”

Ellie turned on him. “Stay out of this, Marcus.”

“I’m still a board member. Robert would have wanted the company to survive.”

“Robert isn’t here.” Ellie planted both hands on the table and leaned toward Sophia. Her voice dropped, cold and precise. “You think marrying Alexander Voss makes you strong? It makes you his problem. He will own every decision you try to make. Every public appearance. Every vote. And when the year is up, you’ll have nothing left but his last name on a divorce paper and a company he can still strip the moment it suits him.”

Sophia’s throat tightened. The old urge rose fast—look down, apologize, make herself smaller so the room would stop staring. She had done it for years. It had never protected anything that mattered.

She forced her chin up instead.

“Then I’ll deal with that in a year,” she said. “Right now I’m dealing with keeping this company alive and the people on the second floor employed. That’s more than this board has managed in the last six months.”

The conference room door opened without a knock.

Daniel Cho stepped in first, tablet in hand. Alex Voss followed.

Every head in the room turned.

Alex walked to the empty chair opposite Sophia and sat as if he had been invited hours earlier. He wore a dark suit, no tie. His expression gave nothing away. Daniel remained standing near the wall, silent and watchful.

Alex looked at Ellie first. “The capital transfer is already queued with the bank. It executes the moment the marriage license is filed tomorrow morning. Until then, no one in this room signs anything with Sterling Holdings.”

Ellie straightened. “You don’t give orders in this building.”

“I do when my money is the only thing standing between this company and a rejected payroll on Monday.” Alex’s voice stayed even, almost bored. “The board can vote to accept the partnership or watch the accounts freeze. Those are the only two options left.”

Sophia watched him. He still had not looked at her once since he entered the room.

The woman board member asked carefully, “And the marriage itself is non-negotiable?”

“Yes,” Alex said. “It’s the structure that makes the capital possible under the current agreements. Without it, the offer disappears and you go back to Sterling’s terms.”

Ellie smiled, cold and sharp. “Then let’s make sure everyone understands exactly what Miss Hale just agreed to. She sold herself to keep the lights on. I want that language on the record.”

Sophia felt the words hit like a physical blow. Heat climbed her neck and burned behind her eyes. She opened her mouth, but Alex spoke first.

“What’s on the record is that Hale Media remains operational, the employees keep their jobs through the next eighteen months, and the trust shares move to the person Robert Hale named in his will. Everything else is noise you can repeat to the press if it makes you feel better.”

He finally turned his head and looked directly at Sophia. His eyes were flat and unreadable.

“City Hall. Nine o’clock tomorrow. Don’t be late.”

He stood. Daniel opened the door. Alex walked out without another word or glance.

The room stayed silent for three full seconds after the door clicked shut.

Ellie picked up her phone, already scrolling. “I’m calling the trust attorney right now. This agreement doesn’t hold until every signature is verified and every clause is examined. No one leaves this room until I have answers.”

Sophia’s phone buzzed on the table.

A new message from the same unknown number.

She hesitated, then opened it.

*He’s using you the same way he used me. Ask him about the will clause he didn’t mention. Ask him about the non-compete. Ask him what happens to Hale Media if you try to leave before the year is up. — V.*

Sophia stared at the screen. The words sat there clean and precise, each one landing harder than the last.

Maya leaned in and read over her shoulder. Her expression changed.

“Who is V?” Maya asked under her breath.

Sophia didn’t answer. She couldn’t. The initials felt deliberate. Personal. Dangerous.

Ellie was already speaking into her phone in a low, urgent voice near the window. The two board members had their heads together over the laptop. Marcus watched Sophia with quiet worry.

Sophia locked the phone, but the message stayed fixed behind her eyes.

Tomorrow morning she was supposed to stand at City Hall and sign a marriage license with Alexander Voss.

Tonight she had questions she was no longer sure she wanted answered.

And someone named V already knew more about the deal—and about Alex—than she did.