"Should we let her in?" Ester asked, her eyes fixed on the security monitor displaying the gate.
Dominic leaned over her shoulder, his proximity sending a faint chill of awareness down her spine. On the screen, Chloe looked nothing like the polished, arrogant woman who had strutted into the Blackwood mansion hours ago. Her platinum hair was matted by the rain, her red dress was torn at the hem, and she was clutching a heavy cardboard box as if her life depended on it.
"She's at my gate at two in the morning," Dominic said, his voice a low, dangerous rumble. "She either has something I want, or she's finally realized that being Xavier's 'Queen' is a one-way ticket to a prison cell. Either way, she's not here for a social call."
"She looks terrified, Dominic," Ester whispered.
"Good. Terror usually makes people honest," Dominic replied. He tapped a button on the intercom. "Let her through. Escort her to the holding room in the west wing. Do not let her bring that box inside until it's been scanned for explosives."
Ester turned to him, her brows furrowed. "Explosives? You think Xavier would go that far?"
"Xavier is a desperate man, Ester. And desperate men don't play by the rules of architecture. They play by the rules of survival," Dominic said, his expression hardening into the mask of the cold CEO. "Stay here. I'll handle this."
"No," Ester said, her voice firm as she stood her ground. "She came for me as much as she came for you. I want to hear what she has to say."
Dominic studied her for a moment, his blue eyes searching hers. A small, proud smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. "Very well. But stay behind me. I don't trust a woman who steals husbands for a living."
Ten minutes later, they stood in a sleek, glass-walled conference room in the mansion's west wing. Chloe was shivering in a chair, a silver space blanket draped over her shoulders by one of Dominic's security guards. The box sat on the table between them, already cleared by the sensors.
"Talk," Dominic commanded, not bothering to sit down. He stood with his hands in his pockets, looming over the room like a silent judge.
Chloe looked up, her mascara running down her pale cheeks. She looked at Ester, her eyes filling with fresh tears. "He's going to kill me, Ester. Or he's going to make sure I take the fall with him. I overheard him on the phone with his offshore lawyer. He's already drafting a statement saying that I was the one who manipulated the books, that I embezzled the funds for the Emerald City project."
Ester felt a cold shiver. "Embezzled? What are you talking about? The project hasn't even broken ground yet."
Chloe let out a shaky, hysterical laugh. "Ground? Ester, there is no money for the ground. Xavier spent the initial investor deposits six months ago to cover the losses from his failed tech venture in Dubai. He's been running Blackwood Corp like a Ponzi scheme."
"The Dubai venture ...." Ester breathed, remembering how Xavier had told her it was a 'minor setback' that wouldn't affect the firm. "He told me the audit was clean."
"Because he forced me to forge the audit!" Chloe cried, slamming her hand on the table. "He said if I didn't do it, he'd expose my past, how I was never a licensed CPA, how I grew up in foster care with a criminal record. He owns me, Ester! Or he did until tonight."
Dominic stepped forward, his eyes narrowed. "And what's in the box, Chloe? Why bring it here?"
Chloe pushed the box toward them. "It's the 'Black Ledger.' The real one. It shows every cent he moved, every bribe he paid to the city council members to get the Emerald City zoning approved. It even has the original contracts he made me sign under duress."
Ester reached into the box, pulling out a thick binder. She flipped through the pages, her heart sinking as she saw her own signature forged on dozens of documents. "My God, e was setting me up to be his scapegoat from the very beginning. If the project failed, I was the one who signed off on the illegal materials. If it succeeded, he got the glory."
"He never loved you, Ester," Chloe said, her voice dropping to a whisper. "He used to laugh about it. He called you his 'Golden Ghost.' The one who did all the work while he sat on the throne. He only married you because he knew you were too kind and too loyal to ever look at the bank statements."
Dominic's jaw tightened so hard Ester thought it might snap. The air in the room seemed to drop ten degrees. "He laughed about her?"
Chloe nodded frantically. "The night he proposed to me—the real proposal, six months ago—he toasted to 'the woman who built my empire and the woman who would help me spend it.' He's a monster."
Ester sat down, feeling the weight of the betrayal like a physical blow. She looked at the forged signatures, the clear evidence of a five-year plan to destroy her life while stealing her talent. "I was so stupid. I gave him everything. My youth, my work, my trust."
"You weren't stupid, Ester. You were betrayed by someone who should have been your protector," Dominic said, his hand landing firmly on her shoulder. His touch was the only thing keeping her grounded. He looked at Chloe, his eyes turning to ice. "Why should I help you? You were a willing participant in this until the ship started to sink."
"Because I have the one thing that can put him in jail for twenty years," Chloe said, reaching into her damp dress pocket and pulling out a small, silver USB drive. "This isn't just about money. It's about the safety violations."
Ester frowned. "Safety violations? The structural integrity of Emerald City was perfect. I checked the math a thousand times."
"Your math was perfect," Chloe agreed. "But Xavier switched the steel suppliers. He bought cheap, sub-standard scrap metal from a black-market dealer in Eastern Europe and pocketed the difference, nearly fifty million dollars. He was going to build your city on a foundation that would have collapsed within five years."
Ester gasped, her face going white. "He would risk thousands of lives? For fifty million?"
"To him, people are just numbers on a spreadsheet," Chloe said. "He has a flight booked to the Cayman Islands for tomorrow night. He's going to dump the company, leave you with the lawsuits, and vanish with the cash. He doesn't know I found out about the flight."
Dominic took the USB drive from her hand, his expression unreadable. He looked at his head of security, who was standing at the door. "Take her to the guest suite in the basement. Lock the door from the outside. No phones, no internet. If she's lying about any of this, she's going straight to the police herself."
"I'm not lying! I swear!" Chloe shouted as she was led away. "Check the drive, Dominic! Check the files for 'Project Icarus'!"
The room fell silent once more. Ester looked at the mountain of evidence in the box, then up at Dominic. "Project Icarus. He really thought he could fly that high and never get burned."
"He didn't count on the sun being me," Dominic said, his voice cold and flat. He turned to the computer on the desk and plugged in the drive.
His fingers flew across the keyboard, his face illuminated by the blue light of the monitor. Ester watched him, her mind racing. If what Chloe said was true, Xavier wasn't just a bad husband. He was a criminal on a global scale.
"Dominic?" she asked softly. "What do you see?"
Dominic stared at the screen for a long time, his eyes widening slightly—a rare show of emotion from him. He scrolled through a list of names, his grip tightening on the mouse.
"It's worse than she said, Ester," Dominic whispered.
"Worse? How?"
Dominic pointed to a folder at the bottom of the list. It was labeled with a date from seven years ago—the year they graduated university.
"He didn't just steal your designs, Ester. He's been working with my uncle's rival firm since senior year. He was paid to make sure you never got that scholarship to London. He was paid to keep us apart."
Ester felt the world tilt. "What? Who would pay him for that?"
Dominic looked at her, his eyes burning with a dark, ancient fury.
"The same person who is currently standing in my driveway, demanding to see his 'daughter-in-law.' Xavier's father isn't bankrupt, Ester. He's been the one pulling the strings this whole time."