Maiden Passion

Chapter 13

The air in the dining hall of the Laz estate was unusually tense. The chandelier above flickered slightly, casting soft light across the table. Chief Laz sipped his wine in silence, his mind whirring as he processed his latest findings. He now had confirmation: Shadrach, his longtime associate, had become a mole within Boca Holdings.

He looked across the table at Ben, who smiled easily while passing Diana a plate of roasted lamb. Chief Laz masked his suspicions behind a calm exterior. He couldn’t let on—not yet. He needed to make his next moves carefully.

He noted the gentle way Ben looked at Diana, and a part of him softened. Despite everything, his son had grown into a man capable of love and fierce loyalty. But love could also be a liability, especially with vultures like Shadrach and Frank circling. Laz made a mental note to loop Tomiwa in. The former security expert had always proven useful in dangerous times.

Later that evening, in the comfort of their private suite, Ben and Diana settled in. She wore a flowing ivory silk robe that matched the moonlight filtering through their glass windows. The scent of vanilla from a candle Diana had lit lingered in the air.

“Did Dad seem strange at dinner?” she asked, curling up next to him on their bed.

Ben offered a warm smile and pressed a kiss to her forehead. “He’s just dealing with a lot of company stress, nothing to worry about.”

But inside, Ben was battling his own storm. He couldn’t let Diana find out about Jane—not the blackmail, not the s****l tension laced with danger. He had to protect her and protect the fragile peace they’d managed to build after their whirlwind marriage.

The memory of their wedding in Gambia felt both distant and sacred. Diana’s father, a powerful Wolof legislator, had given his blessing, intrigued by Ben’s ambitions and persistence. That partnership had opened up doors for Vinx Wrist Collections, even as Ben quietly began repaying parts of Boca Holdings' debts with the profits he now earned.

Back in the present, Diana’s lips grazed Ben’s shoulder.

“You’ve been so quiet,” she murmured.

Ben turned to her, pushing away thoughts of Jane’s veiled threats and the photographs she claimed to have. He focused on his wife, on the curve of her cheek and the strength she brought into his life.

“You ground me,” he whispered.

Diana smiled, reaching up to kiss him—slowly, tenderly, but with a hunger that deepened by the second. Her hands slipped beneath his shirt, pulling him closer. He responded with a fire that momentarily drowned out the shadows.

They moved in sync, the tension between business, betrayal, and passion melting away in the haze of intimacy. The sheets tangled around them as their bodies danced, but in Ben’s mind, a part of him still fought—fought to keep Diana safe from the secret that was Jane.

As they lay spent in each other’s arms, Diana’s breathing slowed into sleep. Ben stared at the ceiling, every nerve alert. He had to act before Jane’s threats spiraled out of control. He couldn’t let her become a wedge between him and the future he was building.

Slipping quietly out of bed, he walked to his desk and opened a secure laptop. A folder labeled “Phoenix” blinked on the screen—a digital vault containing everything he’d collected so far: voice recordings, hidden footage, and encrypted messages Jane had sent.

He clicked open a recent file—a clip of Jane meeting Alex in a dimly lit bar. The two shared more than words. Alex’s hand lingered on her thigh, her smile more sinister than seductive. “Let him think he’s winning,” Jane whispered in the video. “Then we’ll take it all.”

Ben exhaled slowly. It wasn’t just about seduction or revenge anymore. They wanted to destroy everything: Vinx, his father’s legacy, and his marriage.

Meanwhile, Chief Laz sat in his study, eyes scanning through a file marked confidential. There it was in black and white: financial transactions, encrypted messages, and connections Shadrach had tried to bury. But Laz had been in the game too long to be played so easily.

“Frank,” he called out softly. The personal assistant entered quietly.

“Yes, sir?”

Chief Laz didn’t look up. “I need a background check on everyone Shadrach’s interacted with in the last six months. Use a third party. Keep this quiet.”

Frank nodded, hiding his own conflict. He had his own loyalties—ones Chief Laz hadn’t begun to suspect. As he stepped out of the room, he pulled out his burner phone and typed a message: “He’s getting close. We need to move.”

The reply came seconds later: “Keep him distracted. We’ll take care of the rest.”

Back in the guesthouse near Vinx’s downtown showroom, Jane poured herself a glass of red wine, smiling at a message that flashed on her phone.

"Soon. He won’t see it coming."

She smiled, then turned the screen off. Ben had played right into her hands. Or so she believed.

She walked to her closet and pulled out a flash drive hidden beneath a false floorboard. Inside were the real files—the ones capable of igniting a scandal that could torch the Laz empire. But there was one problem: she hadn’t expected Ben to be so… calculating.

Ben had already started digging.

And the deeper he dug, the more secrets began to surface—not just about Jane and Alex, but about Frank… and the real puppet master behind the curtain.

At that very moment, Tomiwa received an encrypted message from Ben. The subject line read, “Operation Glasshouse.” He opened it, reading Ben’s detailed findings about Frank and the shadowy figure bankrolling Jane and Alex. The data pointed to someone buried deep in the financial web—a ghost investor with connections to European cartels and ties to Mr. Shadrach.

Tomiwa stood from his apartment sofa and loaded a pistol into a side holster. Things were about to get messy.

Ben returned to bed and watched Diana sleep. He reached out and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear.

“I’ll fix this,” he whispered.

In the shadows of power and passion, loyalty and betrayal danced a dangerous tango, and the next move would decide everything.