HIS SECRET ADDICTION

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Alex's Pov

Eleanor died at 3:47 AM with Damien holding her hand and me standing uselessly in the corner.

I shouldn't have been there. But when I'd tried to leave, Damien had grabbed my wrist without looking away from his grandmother.

"Stay," was all he said.

Afterward, Damien sat perfectly still, not crying, not speaking.

"I'm sorry," I whispered.

"She liked you." He finally looked at me. "She made me promise to fight for you. She changed her will last week. Left you ten percent of her shares in the company."

I felt like I'd been punched. "What?"

"She said you'd need leverage against the board." He laughed bitterly. "Even dying, she was playing chess."

"I can't accept that."

"You don't have a choice. It's done."

The next seventy-two hours blurred together. Funeral arrangements, lawyer meetings, board notifications. Damien moved through it all like a robot. I tried to give him space, but he kept pulling me into meetings, introducing me as "Eleanor's choice for the board."

Catherine cornered me after one particularly tense session. "This is inappropriate."

"I didn't ask for this."

"But you're accepting it. If you take that seat, you're declaring war on everyone who's been running this company for twenty years."

Maya caught me afterward at the reception. "You've been glued to Damien's side for three days. And his grandmother left you part of the company. How long?"

I couldn't lie anymore. "Almost a year. We met online. Before Austin."

She stared at me. "Jesus Christ. Do you love him?"

"Yes," I admitted. "But I can't be with him without everyone thinking I slept my way into power."

She pulled me into a hug. "You're an i***t. Take those shares. Join that board. Help him fight."

Damien appeared beside us. "The board called an emergency meeting for Monday. They're voting on whether to accept Eleanor's will or challenge it. And they're voting on us—whether our relationship warrants my removal as CEO."

"They can't fire you for being in a relationship."

"They can if they prove I promoted you unfairly." He stopped pacing. "Catherine has evidence that this has been going on since Austin."

"How do we convince them what we have is real and has nothing to do with business?"

"I don't know. Eleanor would have known, but she's gone." His voice cracked. "She left me a letter: 'Don't let them make you choose. Build something better instead.'"

I stared at the words, and suddenly everything clicked. "She's not telling you to fight them. She's telling you to make them irrelevant. What if we didn't fight for your position? What if we did something else entirely?"

"We have three days to develop a proposal that saves both our careers."

"Then we better get started."

We worked through the weekend. By Sunday night, we had something that might actually work.

Monday morning, I met Damien outside the boardroom.

"Ready?" he asked.

"No. You?"

We walked in together.

Catherine sat at the head of the table. "Mr. Ross. Mr. Parker. Please sit."

We remained standing.

"We'd prefer to stand for this," Damien said. "We're stepping down. Both of us. Effective immediately."

The room erupted.

"In exchange," Damien continued, "the board accepts Eleanor's will without challenge. And we use our combined shares to propose a new structure—a split. We take our shares and launch a subsidiary in New York. Separate management, separate board, but still under the parent corporation."

Catherine flipped through the folder we handed her. "This is insane."

"This is evolution," I said. "Or you can say no, and we launch a competing firm."

The silence stretched.

"The board needs to discuss this privately," Catherine said.

We walked out.

In the hallway, I grabbed Damien's arm. "Did we just commit corporate suicide?"

"Probably. But we have each other. Eleanor was right—that's enough to build on."

An hour later, Catherine called me privately. "Eleanor left you those shares because she knew I'd underestimate you." She showed me an email from Eleanor: "Alex will surprise you. When the time comes, trust him."

"I'm voting yes on your proposal," Catherine said. "But I'm retiring, and Eleanor wanted you to have my shares too. All fifteen percent."

I found Damien and told him everything. Then we went to the lawyer's office.

Inside Eleanor's envelope was a note: "Alex, stop being afraid and marry my grandson. He's terrible at asking for what he wants. The ring is in the safe deposit box. Key attached."

We went to the bank. Damien took the ring, then got down on one knee.

"Alex Parker, I know this is insane. But I've been in love with you since message number forty-seven. Eleanor was right—we can build something better together. Will you marry me?"

"Yes," I said. "But I'm not wearing the ring until after the board vote."

That night, Catherine called. "The board voted. You have your subsidiary."

We had seventy-two hours to set up an entire New York operation.

Wednesday, the announcement went out. The media went crazy.

We ignored it all.

Within weeks, we signed office space, hired employees, and landed our first client.

Two months later, Damien found me working late. "We got the Henderson contract. The full account."

I pulled Eleanor's ring from my desk drawer. "I've been carrying this around for eight weeks waiting for you to ask again."

"Really?"

"Really. Let's do it this weekend. City hall, just us and Maya."

We got married Saturday afternoon. Maya cried. We had pizza after and went back to work Monday morning as Alex Parker-Ross and Damien Parker-Ross.

Three months later, Catherine called. "The Austin board wants to buy you out. Fifteen million for your shares."

I looked at Damien. "Counter at twenty-five and the Austin building's third floor. We want a satellite location."

She called back. "Twenty-two million and the third floor."

"Deal."

That night, lying in bed, Damien asked, "Do you ever regret it? Taking the hard road?"

"Every day," I admitted. "And then I wake up next to you and remember why we did it."

My phone buzzed with an email from Maya: "Check the news. We just got mentioned in Forbes."

The article was titled "How Two Executives Turned Corporate Scandal Into New York's Hottest Startup."

"We're never living this down," Damien said.

"Worth it?"

"Absolutely worth it.”