Bride of Revenge

Chapter 6: Rising Stakes

That evening Damon Valerius was handed two reports each hitting him like punches to the ribs. The initial one was the legal notice confirming that Eliza Sterling now possessed ten percent ownership of his infrastructure division along with a significant position on the board. The second report was more devastating. It detailed the intelligence briefing revealing how his smear campaign had failed exceptionally quickly and how Marcus Thorne had blindly fallen into the legal snare Eliza had prepared for him.

Damon stayed within his study on the lower level of Valerius Tower, a floor rarely visited by others. The chamber featured wood and glossy leather crafted with a single intention. Authority. Choices. Command. This was the place where he managed affairs that never made it to board meetings or conference rooms.

He flung the folder over the desk and observed it slide to a halt.

"She was aware, " he murmured softly. His tone held significance, rather than a loud cry. "She anticipated the smear before it arrived. She prepared the rebuttal ahead of my briefing the team."

Mr. Finch, the attorney, swallowed nervously. He had seen Eliza endorse the divorce documents years before and her unwavering gaze had remained etched in his memory.

“Public opinion is clearly on her side, at the moment " Finch remarked. "She appears to be resilient. Composed. Ethical. Your shares dropped today. Investors are responding to the Foundation scandal and her unexpected purchase.”

Damon remained silent. His fingers lingered on the folder. The one concerning Marcus. The one he feared.

He opened it more and fixed his gaze on the emphasized name: Marcus Thorne.

The metadata led back to Marcus’s former office, within Valerius headquarters. Damon sensed a wave of revulsion building inside him.

"Marcus is an idiot, " he whispered. "A feeble individual who constantly sought to fault others. Involving my business in his vendetta was the error he will ever commit."

"His decision-making has been awful since the estate failure " Finch remarked. "He has been struggling for years. Now the issue is what Ms. Sterling plans to do with the proof. Financial Crimes has already become involved. They will connect his leak to the Thorne downfall five years back."

At last Damon raised his gaze. His eyes were icy, motionless and utterly inscrutable.

"She isn’t targeting Marcus, " Damon stated. "Her real aim is the Valerius accounts linked to that downfall. She intends to exploit the probe to explore every hidden trace we've ever left."

Finch paused. "Sir she might be more familiar with the family finances than we thought. She reviewed her husband's records for three years. She also had access to your fathers directives. She could be more knowledgeable about the Valerius inheritance, than some of your board members."

Damon sensed a gradual deep coldness take hold within his chest.

Eliza Sterling was constantly undervalued. She played the role of the wife the courteous daughter-, in-law the lady who remained by his hospital bedside for three years. Nobody noticed a mourning partner. No one suspected that she was absorbing every detail around her while the world overlooked her.

He now understood that she had made use of those years.

---

Sloane Ashford lingered in the penthouse clutching a glass of wine. The city lights shimmered through the floor-, to-ceiling windows. She couldn’t take pleasure in any of it. She had caught bits and pieces. Eliza secured the board seat. Marcus being charged. The charity event descends into chaos.

She walked back and forth until Damon came into the room. His arrival was like a tempest.

Sloane moved closer to him; her fury barely held back. "She embarrassed me, Damon. Right, before the city. She implied Marcus would end up in jail and dared me to confront her. Your former wife is completely unmanageable. Why did you allow her to get that board position? We could have tied her up in court for years."

Damon halted his steps. The expression he directed at her drained all the color from her complexion. He didn’t perceive a companion. He perceived an individual. He perceived someone concealing something.

"We offered her that seat because she held influence " Damon whispered. "Marcus ending up in prison shouldn't concern you. Unless there's something you're withholding."

Sloane’s breath hitched. For an instant she appeared remorseful then swiftly covered it up with indignation.

"Unless I worry about our reputation " she retorted sharply. "If Marcus falls, the media will investigate the Thorne scandal. That will bring our engagement into view. Our future might come under scrutiny. Damon, we can't let her advance any further. She must be stopped. Whether, by means or not."

She moved nearer. Spoke in a softer tone.

Marcus continues to possess those files. The ones he collected prior to your accident. The ones concerning your grandfather’s shell companies and the merger. If Eliza locates them she will ruin everything your family established. She might seize the empire.

Damon noticed his heartbeat ease. Her statements were, like blades each uncovering a truth he wished was untrue.

"Those documents were eliminated " he stated. "My grandfather guaranteed me that."

"Marcus duplicated them " Sloane murmured. "He constantly held power over us. He intended to return them for money after we got married. He claimed to have kept them secure."

Damon gazed at her unblinkingly.

She was not telling the truth any more.

Perhaps she was sharing a half-truth.

In any case he detected fear in her gaze, the fear she concealed throughout the charity event, the very fear she had kept secret for years. Sloane was not concerned about status or matrimony. Her concern was about being uncovered. Marcus probably held some power over her well.

"Where have the files gone?" Damon inquired.

Sloane paused. She glanced aside briefly then compelled herself to hold his gaze.

He mentioned they were encoded. Kept in the Thorne estate. Inside his fathers safe.

Damon sensed a calmness within himself. She was concealing something. Possibly everything.

For the moment he required the honesty she was prepared to provide.

---

The morning Eliza Sterling got an email labeled CRITICAL. It came from Mr. Chen, the individual who had assisted her family for years.

"He has taken action, " Mr. Chen documented. "Marcus Thorne contacted recovery experts last night. He aims to reclaim documents from the Thorne Family Estate before officials confiscate them."

Eliza was seated in her office, sunlight streaming over her desk. With hands she finalized a merger agreement. After years she sensed the future shifting favorably towards her.

She glanced over the message more and let herself smile gently.

" Desperation already, " she whispered.

She. Grabbed her keys.

Marcus Thorne wasn’t searching for records. Definitely not at this time.. With such haste. He was, after something, riskier. Something linking him to an act. Something Eliza had quietly doubted.

She was convinced that Marcus was aware of the cause of the accident that left Damon in a coma.

She thought he had taken part in it.

She thought that another person had assisted him.

"Mr. Chen " she instructed, "notify the police regarding an intrusion, at the Thorne Estate. Keep the source of the report confidential. Also advise them to approach the situation with caution."

"Do not go by yourself, " Mr. Chen advised. His tone shook with worry.

"I am not attending as a victim " Eliza responded. "I am going to gather proof that's rightfully mine."

She donned her trench coat. Stepped outside.

Her movements were composed. Her heartbeat remained even. The atmosphere surrounding her seemed energized, nearly electric.

Marcus Thorne, Sloane Ashford and Damon Valerius each thought they were safeguarding their heritage. They assumed Eliza’s actions were driven by pain and retaliation.

They were wrong.

Eliza pursued the truth.. Truth was the keenest tool of all.

They had made her a target before.

At this moment she was the one laying the snare. The Thorne Family Estate contained the clues to the accident, the controversy, the money and the treachery that had shattered her existence into two.

She came back to that location not as a woman but as a shrewd hunter.

The stakes had never been higher. And she had never felt more ready.