Chapter 15
847 Words
Fireproof
The walls felt closer than usual.
Leona stood in the middle of Elias’s penthouse—glass windows framing the skyline, rain streaking down like the world was grieving with her. Her arms were crossed tight, like she could hold herself together with sheer force of will.
The clinic was shut. Her accounts frozen. Her staff scattered and frightened.
Vivienne hadn’t just attacked her.
She’d humiliated her.
And worse—she’d done it with a smile.
Leona turned to the windows, watching headlights move like tiny flickers of life below. She whispered, “It’s not just about business anymore. She made it personal.”
Behind her, Elias’s voice was low. “Then we hit her where it hurts.”
She turned. “What if I don’t know how to hit back that hard?”
Elias walked toward her, steady and fierce. “Then let me remind you.”
By morning, the war room was ready.
A spare room in Elias’s building, now transformed—blueprints, files, news clippings, and a dozen photos of Vivienne’s web of connections. It looked like a crime scene from a conspiracy thriller.
“We’re going scorched earth,” Elias said. “No mercy.”
Leona glanced at a document pinned to the board. “Vivienne owns shares in a charity that’s laundering funds. Quietly. Under the radar.”
“Exactly,” Elias said. “It looks good on paper, but if we trace the donors—”
“We’ll find offshore shell companies,” she finished. “Some tied to real estate scams. Probably in someone else’s name.”
“Someone like her son,” Elias muttered.
Leona blinked. “Wait. She has a son?”
“Two,” he said. “But the younger one—Daniel—he’s the golden boy. Never public. Never part of her business officially. But everything goes through him.”
Leona picked up a file. “We take him down, she bleeds.”
“Exactly,” Elias said. “We can’t beat her in the boardroom. So we burn the board down.”
Later that afternoon, Leona went back to the clinic.
The doors were still chained. The “Closed” sign stared at her like a slap. But she wasn’t here to grieve. She was here to remind herself what she was fighting for.
As she stood outside, a woman approached—mid-50s, holding a little boy’s hand. Leona recognized her immediately. Patient. Mother. One of many.
“You’re Dr. Vale,” the woman said gently.
Leona nodded.
“We heard… I’m so sorry. My son’s asthma’s been under control for the first time in years because of you. What they’re doing—it’s wrong.”
Leona blinked back the burn behind her eyes. “Thank you.”
“No,” the woman said. “Thank you.”
The boy looked up at Leona. “You’ll come back, right?”
Leona knelt beside him. “I will. I promise.”
Back at the penthouse, Elias was on the phone, voice sharp.
“I don’t care what strings you have to pull. Get me the original ledger. I want the real numbers. The ones Vivienne buried.”
He hung up and turned to Leona.
“We have a lead. Daniel funneled nearly two million into a luxury condo complex listed under a fake foundation. It’s tied to three politicians.”
Leona raised an eyebrow. “You planning on blackmailing them?”
“I’m planning on forcing them to pick a side. Vivienne can’t protect them all.”
A slow smile spread across her face. “You really are dangerous.”
“So are you,” Elias said. “You just haven’t admitted it yet.”
That night, Elias poured them both a drink. The whiskey burned, but it was a good kind of burn. Cleansing.
“I keep thinking,” Leona said, eyes on the fire. “If I’d just taken her deal… maybe the clinic would still be open.”
Elias sat beside her. “You’d be surviving. Not living.”
Leona looked at him. “Is that what this is? Living?”
“No,” he said. “This is fighting to live. There’s a difference.”
She turned toward him. “And us? What are we?”
He didn’t look away. “Something that wasn’t supposed to happen. But it did.”
The silence between them pulsed.
Then—softly, without fanfare—she leaned in. Their lips met. No pretense. No performance.
Just fire. Real and undeniable.
The kiss changed everything.
Not because it was perfect, but because it was real.
The lines had officially blurred.
No more pretending.
The next morning, Elias handed her a folder. “This is it. The paper trail. Daniel’s fraud. If we leak this—she can’t spin it.”
Leona flipped through the documents, heart pounding. “This will destroy her.”
“Yes,” Elias said. “But it will make us targets.”
“We already are,” Leona whispered.
She looked up at him.
“Let’s end this.”
- Writer
