SEVEN DAYS TO SAY FOREVER

Chapter 15: The Shift in Strategy

The heavy mahogany door of the master suite closed, and the silence of the room hit me like a physical weight.

I leaned against the polished wood, my heart hammering. I reached into my evening clutch, my fingers wrapping around my phone. The downloaded file from Axel’s device was sitting there. *Client Funding: BWC Holdings Ltd.* I stared at the glowing text, my thoughts a chaotic mess. I didn't know if he was my shield or my cage, but I wasn't going to demand answers tonight. If I confronted him, he would just deploy another flawless corporate explanation.

I needed proof. And I was going to find it myself.

A sharp tap on the glass of the balcony doors made me jump. I turned, my hand dropping to my side.

Through the frosted pane, I saw a heavy winter coat and a familiar, messy shock of brown hair. Leo.

I unlocked the latch, sliding the heavy glass door open. A rush of freezing mountain air swept into the room, carrying a flurry of snow. Leo stepped inside, shivering, and pulled the door shut.

"You're out of your mind," I whispered, checking the empty hallway through the peephole. "If Axel catches you sneaking onto our private balcony, Gerald will throw you off the mountain."

"Axel is still downstairs dealing with Richard's board members," Leo said, brushing snow off his shoulders. He pulled a sleek flash drive from his pocket and held it out to me. "One of my old university roommates works in network security for the chalet’s IT contractor. He owed me a favor, so I had him flag the traffic protocols on the London project contract."

I hesitated, looking at the drive in his palm. "Leo, I shouldn't have dragged you into this. You're risking your standing with the family."

"Family is exactly why I'm here," Leo dropped his voice to a sharp whisper. "BWC Holdings isn't just a basic subsidiary. My buddy couldn't crack the full financial core, but he found enough in the network traffic to trace the capital allocation. The original routing directive came from a private account in Switzerland. It’s been sitting in a blind trust, waiting to be triggered the exact moment your firm hit a specific debt-to-equity ratio."

I froze. My balance wavered. "A blind trust?"

"Exactly," Leo said, his jaw tightening. "But here’s the kicker—the data packet he intercepted showed a secondary query on that exact blind trust less than ten minutes ago. Elena Vance is tracking the same Swiss account. She’s looking for the master authorization key."

Before I could process his words, a heavy click echoed from the corridor. The handle of the master suite door began to turn.

"Get out," I hissed, shoving Leo toward the balcony. "Now!"

I could hear Axel’s footsteps getting closer while Leo was still climbing over the balcony railing. He slid through the glass door, pulling it shut and vanishing into the dark, snowy terrace just as the main door swung open.

Axel stepped into the room.

Every trace of emotion had vanished from his features as he closed the door. He walked straight over to the wardrobe, removing his suit jacket with slow precision.

"The board meeting is fully adjourned," Axel said, his deep baritone quiet, but filling the room. "Richard signed the waiver. Dominic’s family estate has officially lost their core real estate holdings."

"Good," I said, keeping my voice level as I set my clutch down. "Then our performance downstairs was a success."

Axel turned around, unbuttoning his collar, I quickly looked away, brushing the naughty thoughts from my mind.

"You danced beautifully tonight, Hazel."

"I learned from the best, fiancé," I murmured, giving him a tight smile.

We stood only a few feet apart, pretending nothing had changed. Everything had. Axel didn't push. He didn't mention the phone, and I didn't mention the Swiss trust. We were simply waiting for the next unavoidable collision.

"You take the bed," Axel said, breaking the tension as he grabbed a spare blanket. "I’ll take the sofa by the fire. We have a long itinerary tomorrow."

"Perfect," I lied, turning toward the bathroom to change.

The next morning, the grand breakfast pavilion was packed with high-society guests sipping mimosas. The morning sun reflected a bright light off the snow outside. The moment Axel and I walked into the room, hand-in-hand, the whispers started. Clara was sitting near the central buffet, her knuckles white around her plate, her eyes tracking our joined fingers with pure, competitive fury.

But it was Dominic who drew my gaze.

He wasn't glaring. He wasn't drinking whiskey. He looked utterly exhausted, his expensive designer watch conspicuously missing, dark shadows bruising the skin beneath his eyes. He looked like a man who hadn't slept in forty-eight hours, completely humbled by the loss of his family holdings. When his eyes found mine, the arrogance was entirely gone.

"I made a lot of mistakes, Hazel," Dominic said quietly, walking straight over to our table and completely ignoring Axel. He placed a small, tarnished silver keychain on the white tablecloth right in front of my plate.

I froze. It was a tiny, hand-carved silver star. The exact token he had bought me on our first anniversary in college.

"You left this in the drawer at my old apartment," Dominic murmured, his voice cracking with a strange vulnerability that left me wondering if this was real regret or just a desperate attempt to save himself. "I couldn't bring myself to throw it away. Even after everything. I thought... maybe you'd want it back."

Axel didn't move. He simply stared at the silver star.

The room seemed to lose several degrees of warmth. I felt his hand close beneath the table, slowly, deliberately. The crystal water glass beside him splintered with a faint, sharp crack beneath the immense pressure of his grip. He never looked at Dominic. He looked only at me, his jaw locked in a tight, deadly calm.

Dominic didn't flinch. He leaned in slightly, his voice dropping to a whisper that only Axel and I could hear.

"You still think your family lost everything because of bad investments, Hazel?" Dominic taunted softly, a dark glint returning to his eyes. “Ask him whose signature was on the last document your father ever received.” Ask him why your father stopped answering your calls that summer."

Dominic turned, walking away with a quiet confidence that left the entire pavilion suffocating on the silence.

I looked down at the silver star, my heart fracturing into a thousand chaotic pieces. I slowly turned my head, my eyes meeting Axel’s. My fingers curled around the tiny silver star until its sharp edges bit into my palm.