Chapter 9 - Denial
686 Words
Isabella didn’t knock before entering Jacob’s office.
She never did. Not anymore.
But today felt different.
Today, she wasn’t walking into the office as someone confident.
She was walking in with questions she wasn’t sure she wanted to be answered.
Jacob was already standing near the window when she entered.
He didn’t turn around immediately.
Which told her everything she needed to know.
He had already seen the agreement.
“You went to legal,” Isabella said quietly.
“Yes.”
His voice sounded calm.
Too calm.
“And?” she asked.
Jacob finally turned.
“It doesn’t change anything.”
Isabella stared at him.
“It changes everything.”
“No,” Jacob replied firmly.
“She never used that authority.”
“That’s not the point,” Isabella said.
“She had it.”
Jacob shook his head.
“Ashley wouldn’t do something like that.”
Isabella walked closer to his desk.
“She already did.”
Jacob’s expression hardened.
“No,” he repeated.
“She helped.”
“She supported.”
“She didn’t control anything.”
Isabella stopped in front of him.
“She owned thirty percent of your company.”
“She protected it,” Jacob corrected.
“She hid it,” Isabella replied.
Silence filled the room.
For a moment, neither of them moved.
Neither of them spoke.
“She wouldn’t lie to me,” Jacob said finally.
The sentence sounded different this time.
Less confident.
Less certain.
Isabella hesitated before answering.
“Maybe she didn’t lie,” she said carefully.
“Maybe she just didn’t tell you everything.”
Jacob didn’t respond.
Because that possibility was worse.
Much worse.
“She never cared about the company,” he said after a moment.
“She only helped because she believed in me.”
Isabella folded her arms.
“And now?”
Jacob looked away again.
Now it was different.
Now Ashley wasn’t answering his calls.
Now the board was asking questions.
Now legal was reviewing agreements he had never read.
Now investors were whispering.
“She wouldn’t turn against me,” he said quietly.
Isabella didn’t answer immediately.
Because for the first time, she wasn’t sure that was true.
“You embarrassed her,” she said finally.
“In front of everyone.”
Jacob’s jaw tightened.
“I ended the marriage.”
“You replaced her,” Isabella corrected.
Jacob didn’t respond.
Because he knew the difference.
And so did she.
The silence between them stretched longer than either of them expected.
“She never told you who she really was,” Isabella said slowly.
“No.”
“She never told you what her family controlled.”
“No.”
“She never told you she saved this company.”
Jacob turned back toward her sharply.
“She didn’t save it.”
Isabella didn’t argue.
She didn’t need to.
The agreement already proved that.
“She didn’t act like someone powerful,” Jacob continued.
“She acted like someone who needed me.”
The words sounded weaker now.
Even to him.
Isabella watched him carefully.
Because she finally understood something important.
Jacob hadn’t just lost his wife last night.
He had lost someone who had been protecting him for years.
And he didn’t even realize it.
“What if she decides to step forward now?” Isabella asked quietly.
Jacob didn’t answer immediately.
Because he already knew what that would mean.
It would mean board influence.
Investor confidence shifts.
Executive uncertainty.
Leadership risk.
Everything he had built, suddenly becoming unstable.
“She won’t,” he said finally.
But the words didn’t sound convincing anymore.
Isabella noticed.
And that was when something inside her shifted.
Because she realized something she hadn’t considered before.
Ashley hadn’t just been Jacob’s wife.
She had been part of the foundation of Jones Holdings.
Which meant—
Isabella hadn’t stepped into a marriage triangle.
She had stepped into a corporate war she didn’t understand.
“And if she does?” Isabella asked quietly.
Jacob didn’t answer this time.
Because for the first time since the gala, he was starting to wonder the same thing.
- Writer
