Chapter11-13
1535 Words
CHAPTER ELEVEN
The Leak
The leak happened at 6:42 a.m.
Aria woke to seventeen missed calls.
By the twentieth ring, she was already sitting upright in bed, heart pounding from instinct alone.
Danger.
Something was wrong.
Very wrong.
Dante stirred beside her, immediately alert.
“What happened?”
Aria checked her phone.
Her stomach dropped.
Every major financial network in the world was broadcasting the same headline.
VOSS TECHNOLOGIES UNDER INVESTIGATION.
CONFIDENTIAL DATA LEAK EXPOSES GLOBAL CLIENT FILES.
Her blood ran cold.
“No.”
She jumped out of bed instantly.
Dante was already pulling on his shirt.
“Aria—”
“No.”
Her voice shook sharply.
That rarely happened.
“This can’t be happening.”
Within thirty minutes, the penthouse transformed into chaos.
Phones ringing.
Lawyers calling.
Investors panicking.
Stocks crashing.
And through all of it, Aria moved like a storm barely holding itself together.
The boardroom inside Voss Technologies felt suffocating.
Large screens flashed, collapsing numbers in angry red.
Executives whispered nervously.
Nobody met Aria’s eyes for too long.
Because everyone could feel it.
She was furious.
Not loud fury.
Not emotional.
The dangerous kind.
Cold enough to destroy people.
“Tell me exactly what was leaked,” she demanded.
Her head of security swallowed hard.
“Internal client contracts. Financial projections. Encryption keys. Some private communications.”
Aria’s jaw tightened.
That level of access was impossible without someone close.
Someone trusted.
Dante stood silently near the windows while investigators moved through digital reports.
Then one of the analysts spoke.
“We traced the leak source.”
The room went still.
Aria slowly looked up.
“Where?”
The analyst hesitated.
Then:
“A private server registered under Dante Kade Holdings.”
Silence.
Absolute silence.
Aria turned toward Dante slowly.
Very slowly.
He looked genuinely shocked.
“That’s impossible,” he said.
The analyst pushed forward more files.
“There’s more.”
Aria stared at the timestamps.
Encrypted transfers.
Communication logs.
Access authorisations.
All connected to Dante.
The room blurred around her.
“No,” Dante said firmly. “I didn’t do this.”
But the evidence looked devastating.
Aria’s chest tightened painfully.
Because of this feeling?
She recognised it.
The humiliation.
The disbelief.
The terrifying realisation that trust might have been a mistake.
Again.
“Everyone out,” she said quietly.
Nobody argued.
The room emptied within seconds.
Leaving only the two of them.
Dante moved first.
“Aria, listen to me.”
She stepped back immediately.
The movement hit him harder than shouting would have.
“You lied to me.”
“I didn’t.”
“Then explain the evidence.”
“I can’t.”
Wrong answer.
Pain flashed across her face before anger swallowed it whole.
“You can’t?” she repeated softly.
Dante ran a hand through his hair.
“Someone set me up.”
“And somehow every trail leads perfectly back to you?”
“Yes.”
Aria laughed once.
Sharp.
Broken.
“Do you know what’s pathetic?” she whispered.
Dante stared at her.
“I actually believed you.”
The words landed like a knife.
Because she meant them.
Every single one.
“Aria—”
“No.”
Her eyes glistened slightly now.
Not tears.
Never tears.
But close enough to matter.
“You don’t get to stand there and pretend this is some misunderstanding.”
“It is.”
“You were in my home.”
Her voice cracked.
“You were in my life.”
Something inside Dante visibly broke at that.
“I would never hurt you.”
“People always say that right before they do.”
Silence crashed between them.
Heavy.
Painful.
Dante took one careful step toward her.
Aria immediately backed away again.
That nearly destroyed him.
Because now she looked at him the same way she looked at everyone else.
Like a threat.
“Get out,” she whispered.
“Aria, please.”
“GET OUT.”
The force of her voice shattered through the room.
Dante froze.
For one second, she thought he might fight her.
Argue.
Stay.
Instead, his expression slowly closed off.
The warmth disappeared.
The softness vanished.
And suddenly, he looked like the dangerous billionaire the world feared.
Not the man who kissed her like she was something precious.
“If I walk out that door,” he said quietly, “you’re going to regret it.”
“Leave.”
A long silence followed.
Then Dante nodded once.
And walked away.
Aria stood perfectly still until the doors closed behind him.
Then the loneliness hit.
Fast.
Violent.
Devastating.
CHAPTER TWELVE
Trust Is a Weapon
Three days passed.
Three miserable, exhausting days.
The media frenzy only worsened.
Investors demanded answers.
News channels dissected Aria’s downfall like entertainment.
And everywhere she looked—
There was Dante.
His name.
His face.
His betrayal.
Or at least that’s what she kept forcing herself to believe.
Because the alternative hurt too much.
Aria sat alone inside her office late one night, staring at the city.
The building was quiet now.
Empty.
Her reflection stared back from the glass.
Tired.
Guarded.
Alone.
Again.
A soft knock interrupted her thoughts.
“Come in.”
Her assistant stepped carefully inside.
“There’s someone here asking to see you.”
“I’m not available.”
“He says it’s urgent.”
“I don’t care.”
The assistant hesitated.
“It’s Elias Mercer.”
Aria went still.
Five minutes later, Elias entered her office carrying an expression that already irritated her.
Concern.
She hated concern.
“What do you want?” she asked coldly.
Elias closed the door behind him.
“You made a mistake.”
Her eyes narrowed immediately.
“Excuse me?”
“Dante didn’t leak your files.”
Aria’s pulse tightened.
“You expect me to believe that?”
“I know how the syndicate operates.”
She stood slowly.
“And I know how betrayal operates.”
The words hit him hard.
Good.
Elias walked closer.
“Aria, listen to me carefully. They manipulated evidence because they wanted you isolated.”
“Why?”
“Because together, you and Dante are a threat.”
The statement lingered uncomfortably.
Aria folded her arms.
“You’re asking me to trust your judgment after what you did to me?”
“No,” Elias said quietly. “I’m asking you not to repeat the same mistake twice.”
That landed deeper than she wanted.
Too deep.
Elias reached into his jacket slowly and handed her a flash drive.
“This contains internal syndicate communications. Proof that Dante was framed.”
Aria stared at the drive.
“Why help me?”
Pain flickered across his face.
“Because despite everything… I never stopped loving you.”
The room fell silent.
Aria felt absolutely nothing.
And somehow that realisation felt sadder than anger.
“You should go,” she said quietly.
Elias nodded slowly.
Before leaving, he paused near the doorway.
“He really would die for you, you know.”
Then he walked out.
Aria stared at the flash drive for a long time before finally inserting it into her computer.
Encrypted files appeared instantly.
Private communications.
Surveillance logs.
Manipulated server records.
And one specific message that made her chest tighten.
Break Voss emotionally. Separate her from Kade.
Aria leaned back slowly.
Oh God.
Dante had been telling the truth.
The realisation hit hard enough to steal her breath.
Memories flooded back instantly.
His voice.
His touch.
The way he looked at her.
The hurt in his eyes when she pushed him away.
Guilt crashed into her violently.
Because she hadn’t just doubted him.
She had wounded him.
And worse?
A part of her knew exactly why.
Because deep down, Aria still expected love to betray her eventually.
Her phone buzzed suddenly.
Unknown number.
She answered immediately.
“Hello?”
Heavy breathing answered first.
Then a distorted voice.
“You should have stayed away from Kade.”
Aria’s blood ran cold.
“Who is this?”
“You built something dangerous, Ms Voss.”
The voice laughed softly.
“And now people will die because of it.”
The line disconnected.
A second later, every screen inside her office went black.
Then one sentence appeared in bright silver letters.
YOU WERE WARNED.
Aria stood instantly.
Her pulse thundered.
Security alarms exploded through the building.
“Ma’am!” someone shouted from outside her office. “We have a breach!”
But Aria barely heard them.
Because in that exact moment, one terrifying thought slammed into her.
Dante.
If the syndicate realised he failed to isolate her permanently—
They would come for him next.
And suddenly nothing else mattered.
Not pride.
Not anger.
Not fear.
Only him.
Aria grabbed her coat and moved fast.
Because for the first time in years—
The woman who trusted nobody was about to risk everything for someone else.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
What Really Happened
The truth arrived too late.
Dante had been framed.
The real traitor sat inside Aria’s executive circle the entire time.
Her CFO.
The man she had trusted professionally for years.
He sold information to the syndicate.
And now he planned to disappear.
Unfortunately for him—
Aria found him first.
- Writer
