TAMED BY MY ALPHA BOSS

THE MAN BEHIND THE WALL

The message remained on Damian's phone.

YOU SHOULD HAVE LEFT HER ALONE, DAMIAN.

I read it twice.

Then a third time.

My mind refused to accept what my eyes were seeing.

Whoever had sent it knew Damian had found me in the stairwell. They knew I had discovered my father's file. They knew exactly what we were discussing.

They weren't guessing.

They were watching.

Damian lowered his phone and immediately looked toward the security camera mounted above the stairwell.

"How long have you been in this building?" he asked.

"Since eight this morning."

"Did anyone follow you?"

"I don't think so."

"That's not an answer."

I swallowed.

"No. Not that I noticed."

His expression tightened.

"From now on, you don't go anywhere alone."

I stared at him.

"Are you giving me an order?"

"Yes."

"You're my boss. Not my prison guard."

For the first time since we'd met, something almost resembling amusement appeared in his eyes.

It disappeared quickly.

"Right now, I don't care which title you prefer."

I crossed my arms.

"And what exactly am I supposed to do?"

"Stay where security can see you."

"That's ridiculous."

"Someone entered my private office."

"And I happened to be there."

"No."

His voice became quieter.

"Someone knew you would be there."

I stopped arguing.

Because he was right.

The thought had already crossed my mind, but hearing him say it made it real.

Someone hadn't simply discovered me.

They had led me there.

The anonymous message.

The photograph.

The file.

The unlocked security system.

Everything had happened too perfectly.

I looked at Damian.

"Then this was planned."

"Yes."

"From the beginning?"

"I don't know."

His answer was honest.

And somehow, that frightened me more than if he had pretended to know everything.

---

Security arrived minutes later.

Three men searched the executive floor while another checked the cameras. Damian stayed beside me the entire time, asking questions and giving instructions with the kind of authority that made everyone move immediately.

I watched him closely.

This was the man Wellspring employees feared.

Not because he shouted.

He didn't need to.

He could silence an entire room with a look.

Eventually, one of the security officers returned.

"Sir."

Damian turned.

"What did you find?"

"The cameras on this floor were disabled for approximately seven minutes."

"When?"

The officer checked his tablet.

"Twenty-one minutes before Miss Field entered the executive office."

Damian's expression hardened.

"Can you recover the footage?"

"We're working on it."

"Do it."

"Yes, sir."

The officer walked away.

I looked at Damian.

"Seven minutes."

He nodded.

"Enough time for someone to enter, disable the cameras, plant something, and leave."

"Or wait for me."

His eyes moved toward mine.

"Exactly."

I wrapped my arms around myself.

Suddenly, the huge executive floor didn't feel luxurious anymore.

It felt like a trap.

---

We returned to his office.

I stopped at the doorway.

I had been inside only minutes earlier, but now the room looked different.

The computer was still on.

The photograph was gone from the desk.

I turned toward Damian.

"You took it?"

He nodded.

"I don't want anyone else seeing it."

"Why?"

"Because it's evidence."

I looked around.

"Evidence of what?"

"My father's history."

He walked toward a cabinet and unlocked it.

For a moment, I simply watched him.

Then he pulled out a thick black file.

He placed it on the desk.

"This is the original investigation."

I stared at it.

"You kept it?"

"I kept everything."

He opened the file.

The first few pages contained financial reports and company records. Some were yellowed with age, others marked with handwritten notes.

I leaned closer.

There were names.

Dates.

Transactions.

Then I saw it.

My father's signature.

My chest tightened.

"That's his handwriting."

Damian nodded.

"He worked directly for my father."

"What was his position?"

"Financial operations."

I looked at him.

"So my father wasn't just an employee."

"No."

"What was he to your family?"

Damian hesitated.

"Someone my father trusted."

I looked back at the file.

"Then why did everything change?"

Damian turned another page.

"The night the money disappeared, your father was the last person to access the financial system."

My stomach dropped.

"But you said he wasn't guilty."

"He wasn't."

"How can you be sure?"

"Because I was there."

I looked up.

"You were there?"

"Not when the money disappeared. But afterward."

He leaned against the desk.

"My father confronted Adrian."

"And?"

"Your father denied everything."

"Did you believe him?"

Damian's eyes darkened.

"Yes."

"Why?"

"Because I knew the evidence was too perfect."

I frowned.

"Too perfect?"

"Every piece of evidence pointed toward him. His password. His access card. His signature. His computer."

He paused.

"Everything."

"Then why wasn't the person who framed him found?"

"Because by the time we realized he had been framed, he was gone."

My heart stopped.

"Gone?"

Damian nodded.

"He disappeared."

I couldn't speak.

My father had always been described to me as a man who died unexpectedly.

Nobody had ever said he disappeared.

Nobody had ever mentioned Wellspring.

Nobody had told me there had been an investigation.

I felt suddenly dizzy.

"You're saying my father didn't die when I thought he did?"

Damian's expression changed.

"Elena..."

"Answer me."

He hesitated.

"I don't know."

That was somehow worse.

---

I sat down slowly.

My hands were cold.

"All these years..."

I stared at the file.

"I thought I knew what happened to him."

Damian didn't interrupt.

"My mother never talked about it."

"Perhaps she didn't know."

"Or perhaps she was protecting me."

I looked up.

"Did you ever try to find him?"

"Yes."

"Did you?"

"No."

"Why?"

"Because every lead disappeared."

I stared at him.

"Just like that?"

"Just like that."

There was a long silence.

Then I noticed something inside the file.

A small envelope had been attached to one of the pages.

My name was written on it.

ELENA FIELD.

I froze.

"That wasn't there before."

Damian immediately noticed.

He took the envelope carefully.

"Don't touch it."

"I wasn't going to."

He opened it.

Inside was a single photograph.

I leaned forward.

It showed my father.

But this time he wasn't standing beside Damian.

He was standing beside another man.

A man whose face had been deliberately scratched out.

On the back of the photograph was another date.

Three days before the disappearance.

And beneath it:

HE KNOWS WHAT HAPPENED.

Damian stared at the photograph.

"Who is that?"

"I don't know."

"Look carefully."

I did.

Something about the man's clothing seemed familiar.

Not his face.

His watch.

A silver watch with a distinctive black line across the center.

I had seen it before.

But where?

I closed my eyes, searching through memories.

Then I remembered.

Emily.

She had worn a watch like that.

No.

I shook my head.

That was impossible.

Emily was too young to have been involved ten years ago.

Unless...

I opened my eyes.

"Damian."

He looked at me.

"I think I've seen that watch before."

"Where?"

"On someone at Wellspring."

His expression hardened.

"Who?"

I hesitated.

"Emily."

---

The moment I said her name, Damian became completely still.

"Are you certain?"

"No."

"That's not good enough."

"I said I think I've seen it."

He studied the photograph.

"Emily Carter joined Wellspring four years ago."

"I know."

"She couldn't have been involved ten years ago."

"I know that too."

"Then why did you mention her?"

"Because maybe she isn't the person in the photograph."

The realization came slowly.

"But she could know who he is."

Damian nodded.

"Exactly."

He reached for his phone.

"Call her."

I stared at him.

"Now?"

"Now."

I dialed Emily's number.

It rang.

Once.

Twice.

Three times.

No answer.

I tried again.

This time, the call went straight to voicemail.

Damian's eyes narrowed.

"She knows."

"You don't know that."

"She stopped answering the moment we started asking questions."

I didn't respond.

Because there was another possibility.

Maybe Emily wasn't involved.

Maybe someone was using her too.

Before either of us could say anything else, the office door opened.

Mrs. Collins stepped inside.

"Sir."

Damian turned.

"What is it?"

She looked at me first.

Then at him.

"We have a problem."

"What kind?"

"The security team found something."

She placed a small black device on the desk.

I recognized it immediately.

It was a recording device.

Mrs. Collins continued.

"It was hidden underneath Elena's desk."

My blood ran cold.

Damian picked it up.

"When was it planted?"

"We don't know."

"Can you trace it?"

"We're trying."

I stared at the device.

Someone had been listening to me.

But then Mrs. Collins added the words that made my stomach twist.

"There's something else."

"What?"

She looked at Damian.

"The device has been transmitting."

"To where?"

She swallowed.

"To an internal server."

Damian's face hardened.

"Which one?"

Mrs. Collins looked at me.

"Yours."

I felt the room tilt.

"My computer?"

She nodded.

"Someone has been using Elena's workstation to access confidential company information."

Damian slowly turned toward me.

I could see the question forming in his eyes.

Before he could ask it, every computer screen in the office suddenly went black.

Then one message appeared across all of them.

WELCOME HOME, ELENA.

My blood ran cold.

Because I had never told anyone at Wellspring that this was the first place I had ever felt like I belonged.

So whoever was behind this knew something about me that I had never shared.

And that meant the mystery had just become much bigger than my father's past.