Chapter 14: The First Crack
1842 Words
Three days passed in a fragile, suspended silence.
No threats from Victoria. No messages from unknown numbers. Harold Blackwood kept his word—or at least, he kept his distance. The truce held.
But truces don’t last forever. I knew that. Alexander knew that. Even Theo knew that.
He spent those three days rebuilding his digital empire. The tablet never left his hands. He coded while eating breakfast, while watching cartoons, while sitting on the balcony with his stuffed whale tucked under his arm.
“Victoria is hiring a new legal team, ” he announced on the second morning, not looking up from the screen.
I set down my coffee. “How do you know?”
“I’m monitoring her email. ” He glanced at me. “She’s not very good at passwords. ”
Alexander, sitting across the table, raised an eyebrow. “You’re monitoring her email?”
“And her texts. And her phone calls. ” Theo took a bite of oatmeal. “She’s planning to file a motion in family court. She wants to argue that Mommy is an unfit parent because she ‘fled the jurisdiction’ with you. ” He looked at Alexander. “That means she’s going to try to take me away. ”
The room went cold.
Alexander’s jaw tightened. “She won’t succeed.”
“She has a lot of money, ” Theo said. “Money talks. ”
“So do we. ”
Theo considered this. Then he nodded. “Okay. But I’m still monitoring her. ”
That afternoon, Marcus came to the penthouse.
He looked exhausted. Dark circles under his eyes. His usually immaculate hair was disheveled. He’d been fighting the press war alone.
“The Vance Group is pulling out of the contract,” he said, collapsing onto the couch. “Harold called this morning. He said Victoria threatened to expose the embezzlement if he didn’t cut ties with Sterling Designs.”
I sat down across from him. “The embezzlement she committed?”
“The embezzlement she committed. But she’s framing it as you. ”
My stomach dropped. “What?”
Marcus pulled out his phone and handed it to me. On the screen: a leaked document. Bank records showing transfers from the Vance Group charitable fund to an account in my name.
“That’s not my account,” I said.
“It’s not. But it has your name on it. Victoria forged the paperwork. She’s been planning this for months.”
Alexander took the phone, his expression darkening as he read. “This is forgery. We can prove it.”
“We can try.” Marcus leaned back. “But by the time we prove it, the damage is done. The press is already running with the story. ”
He pulled up a news site. The headline:
STERLING DESIGNS CEO ACCUSED OF EMBEZZLING FROM VANCE GROUP CHARITY
My photo. My name. My ruin.
“I need to make a statement,” I said.
“No.” Alexander set the phone down. “You need to stay silent. Let my lawyers handle it.”
“Your lawyers work for your family.”
“My lawyers work for me.” He stood. “And I’m done letting my family control anything. ”
Theo appeared in the doorway.
He was holding his tablet, his small face serious. “Mommy. ”
“Not now, baby.”
“Mommy. Look. ”
He turned the tablet toward me.
On the screen: a video. Victoria Vance, standing outside a courthouse, speaking to reporters.
“Elena Sterling kidnapped my fiancé’s child,” Victoria said, her voice dripping with false concern. “She hid him for four years. She fabricated evidence against me. And now she’s stealing from charities to fund her lifestyle.”
The reporters shouted questions. Victoria smiled—that cold, calculated smile.
“I’m asking the court to grant me temporary custody of the boy. For his own safety. ”
The video ended.
I stared at the screen. My hands were shaking.
“She’s lying, ” Theo said.
“I know, baby.”
“We have proof she’s lying. ”
I looked at him. “What proof?”
He tapped his tablet. “I recorded every conversation she had with her lawyers. Every email. Every text. ” He looked up at me. “I started recording two weeks ago. When she sent the first threat. ”
Alexander walked over, reading over Theo’s shoulder. His eyes widened. “This is enough to bury her.”
“I know, ” Theo said. “I was waiting for the right time. ”
“When is the right time?”
Theo looked at me. “When Mommy says. ”
I sat in the dark that night, staring at the city lights.
Theo was asleep. Alexander was in the guest suite, on the phone with his lawyers, orchestrating a counterattack. And I was alone with my thoughts.
Victoria wanted custody. She wanted Theo. She wanted to destroy everything I’d built.
And she was winning.
A knock on the door.
“Come in.”
Alexander entered, still in his shirt sleeves, his phone in his hand. He sat on the edge of the bed beside me.
“My lawyers think we can kill the embezzlement story in forty-eight hours,” he said. “The forged documents are sloppy. Whoever made them didn’t even match the font. ”
“Victoria was always sloppy.”
“Not sloppy. Desperate. ” He looked at me. “She knows she’s losing. That’s why she’s going public.”
“She’s not losing. She has the press. She has the court of public opinion. ”
“She doesn’t have Theo.”
I laughed bitterly. “She doesn’t want Theo. She wants to hurt me. ”
Alexander was quiet for a long moment. Then he reached for my hand.
“Then we don’t let her.”
“How?”
“We fight. ” His fingers intertwined with mine. “We release Theo’s recordings. We expose Victoria for what she is. And we do it together. ”
“Together.”
“Together.”
I looked at our hands. His was warm. Steady. The hand of a man who had spent four years regretting.
“One chance,” I said.
“One chance. ”
He lifted my hand to his lips. Kissed my knuckles. The same gesture as before, but different now. Deeper.
“I’m not going to waste it, Elena.”
The next morning, I woke to the smell of coffee and the sound of Theo’s voice.
He was sitting on the floor of the living room, his tablet in his lap, talking to someone on speakerphone.
“No, you need to release the documents at the same time, ” he said. “If you stagger them, she’ll have time to spin the story. ”
I walked in, still in my robe. “Who are you talking to?”
Theo looked up. “Alexander’s lawyers. ”
“You’re advising Alexander’s lawyers?”
“They’re not very good with technology. ” He went back to the tablet. “I’m helping them set up a secure server for the evidence dump. ”
Alexander emerged from the guest suite, already dressed in a charcoal suit. He looked at Theo, then at me.
“He’s been up since five, ” Alexander said. “He hacked into the court’s filing system and found Victoria’s motion. ”
“She filed it last night,” Theo added. “She’s asking for an emergency hearing. Tomorrow. ”
My blood ran cold. “Tomorrow?”
“Tomorrow at nine. ” Theo looked up. “But don’t worry. I already filed a response. ”
I stared at him. “You what?”
“I filed a response. Under your name. ” He turned his tablet toward me. “I used the electronic filing system. It’s not hard to forge a digital signature. ”
Alexander walked over, reading the screen. His expression shifted from shock to something like awe.
“Theo. You can’t forge a signature.”
“I just did. ”
“It’s illegal. ”
“So is what Victoria did. ” Theo’s voice was calm. “I’m just leveling the playing field. ”
I sat down on the couch, my head in my hands.
My four-year-old son had just committed a federal crime. To protect me.
“Theo,” I said. “You can’t do that.”
“Why not? ”
“Because… because it’s wrong.”
“What Victoria did is wrong. ” He set the tablet down and walked over to me. He put his small hand on my knee. “I’m not going to let her take me away, Mommy. And I’m not going to let her hurt you. ”
I pulled him into my arms. He let me—for once, not complaining about the hugging.
“You’re four years old,” I whispered into his hair.
“I’m advanced. ”
I laughed. I couldn’t help it.
Alexander knelt down beside us, his hand on Theo’s back. “We’re going to win this,” he said. “But we’re going to win it legally. No more forged signatures. ”
Theo pulled back, looking at Alexander. “Fine. But I’m keeping the recordings. ”
“You can keep the recordings.”
“And I’m monitoring her emails. ”
“You can monitor her emails.”
Theo considered this. Then he nodded. “Okay. But I want a goldfish. ”
Alexander looked at me. I shrugged.
“You can have a goldfish, ” Alexander said.
Theo smiled—that rare, beautiful smile.
“His name is going to be Mr. Bubbles the Second. ”
That night, after Theo was asleep, I found Alexander on the balcony.
He was staring at the city lights, a glass of whiskey in his hand. I stood beside him.
“Your son is a criminal,” I said.
“Our son. ” He glanced at me. “And he’s not a criminal. He’s a strategist. ”
“He forged my signature.”
“He protected you.”
I leaned against the railing. “What happens tomorrow? At the hearing?”
Alexander set his glass down. He turned to face me. “We go in together. You, me, and Theo. We present the evidence. We expose Victoria. And we ask the court to dismiss her motion. ”
“And if the court doesn’t dismiss it?”
“Then we fight.” He reached for my hand. “Together. ”
I looked at our hands. His fingers intertwined with mine. Warm. Steady. Real.
“One chance,” I said.
“One chance. ”
He pulled me closer. Not kissing me—not yet—but close enough that I could feel his breath on my face.
“I’m not going to waste it, Elena.”
“You said that already.”
“I’ll say it every day until you believe it. ”
The city glittered below us. The stars watched from above.
Tomorrow, we would go to war.
Tonight, we stood together.
End of Chapter 14
- Writer
