Chapter3
1077 Words
*Elara's POV*
My grandfather's handwriting was careful and deliberate. The handwriting of a man who had chosen every word knowing he would not be alive to explain them.
"Elara",
I am sorry I was a stranger to you. That was my failure, not yours. But I have watched you from a distance your entire life, and I need you to know, i am prouder of you than words can hold.
I also need you to know the truth. Because nobody else will tell you.
Caden Ashford did not fall in love with you at that gala. He was sent there. His father, Roman Ashford, approached me eighteen months before your meeting with a business proposal ... a merger between Cole Industries and Ashford Corp. I refused. My company was never for sale.
Roman found another way in.
"You."
Caden was instructed to find you, court you, and marry you. The plan was simple, as your husband, Caden would have legal leverage over any inheritance that came to you. They have been waiting, Elara. Patiently. For me to die."
I am sorry, my darling. I am so deeply sorry that my empire made you a target.
But I chose you because I know what you're made of. And I need you to be smarter than all of them.
Do not let them win.
All my love,
Grandfather.
---
I folded the letter.
Set it on the desk.
Stood up.
Sat back down.
Stood up again.
"He was sent." I said it out loud to the empty room because I needed to hear it in my own voice. Needed it to be real and not just ink on paper. "He was sent to find me."
Every memory hit differently now.
The way Caden had smiled at me across that gala. The early proposal at just eleven months ....It was faster than anyone expected. His mother's cold welcome should have deterred me. His father's strange, calculating warmth was weird as well. How could I have missed this?
Roman Ashford had always been too warm.
Now I knew why.
My phone was in my hand before I made the conscious decision to pick it up.
I didn't call Caden.
I called the one person I should have called hours ago
---
"Zara. I need you."
My best friend's voice sharpened immediately. "Where are you? What happened? Are you crying—"
"I'm not crying." I wasn't. I was somewhere past crying. "I left him this morning."
She paused Then screamed... "Finally." Then .... "Wait, are you okay?"
"No." Honesty felt clean. "But I will be. I need you to call your brother."
She fell silent.
"Elara..."
"I need Rhys, Zara."
There was more silence, it was loaded and careful.
Rhys Carter. Zara's older brother who was a corporate strategist. The most dangerously intelligent man I had ever met and the one person I knew who could go to war with the Ashfords and not flinch.
We had a complicated history that I had spent two years carefully not thinking about.
"Elara, Rhys is..."
"I know what he is." I picked up my grandfather's letter. "I also know what I just inherited. And I need someone who knows how to protect it." I paused. "Please."
Zara exhaled. "Alright, I'll call him."
Rhys arrived in twenty minutes.
Which meant he was already close. Which meant Zara had called him before she hung up with me.
Rhys Carter walked into Graham Holt's office like he owned it ....his shoulders were straight, his dark eyes that missed absolutely nothing. He was the kind of man who made a room feel smaller just by entering it. Not because he was loud. Because he was certain.
He looked at me, our eyes met and lingered.
"You look terrible," he said.
"You look like someone who should be helping me instead of narrating my appearance."
Something shifted at the corner of his mouth. Not quite a smile. "There she is."
He sat across from me without being invited. Picked up the letter without asking and read it without a word.
I watched his jaw tighten on the third paragraph.
"Roman Ashford." His voice was low and controlled. The voice of a man storing rage for later. "Of course."
"You knew about them?"
"I knew Roman was looking for a way into successful companies." He set the letter down and met my eyes again. "I didn't know he'd use you to get to your grandpa"
Something about the way he said it "use you" made my chest ache in a different way than Caden ever had.
"I need to hit back," I said. "Before they find out I know. Before Caden tells his father about the divorce and Roman starts making moves on the company."
Rhys leaned forward, placing his elbows on his knees. Thinking.
"How long before the inheritance is legally transferred to you?"
"Graham said seventy-two hours."
"Then we have seventy-two hours before Roman realizes his plan just collapsed." His eyes were sharp and focused in a way that made me feel, for the first time today, like I wasn't alone in this.
"He's going to come for you, Elara. The moment that money lands in your name..."
"I know."
"You need to look untouchable before that happens."
"I know."
He studied me for a moment. Long enough that I had to work to hold his gaze.
"I have a proposal," he said.
"Of course you do."
"Roman Ashford is terrified of one thing ...competition he can't buy." He paused. "What if you walked back into their world on my arm? Not as Caden's discarded wife. As Elara Cole. Heiress. And my..." another pause "business partner."
I raised an eyebrow. "Business partner?."
"To start." His expression didn't flicker. But something in his eyes did. "We make them believe we've been planning this longer than they have. We make Caden look like the fool. And we protect your company before Roman can touch it."
I looked at him.
At this man who had shown up in twenty minutes without a single question.
"Why would you do this?" I asked quietly. "What do you get?"
Rhys Carter looked at me for a long, unreadable moment.
"Let's ca
ll it unfinished business," he said.
My phone buzzed on the desk between us.
Caden's name lit up the screen.
We both looked at it.
"Don't answer," Rhys said.
I dropped the phone back on the desk and shook Rhys hand.
"Deal".
- Writer
