---- Chapter 14 Marcus POV: | stood in the doorway, tablet in hand, and watched my boss, Barron Carroll-the most ruthless, powerful man | had ever known-stare at an empty dining chair as if it held the secrets of the universe. He had just condemned a woman, the mother of his child, to an unknown fate without a second thought. The man was a ghost. His empire was on fire, and he was calmly watching it burn. My loyalty to Barron had always been absolute. He paid me an obscene amount of money to handle his problems, and | had always done so with efficiency and discretion. But this was different. This wasn't business. This was self-destruction. And | knew he was wrong about Cydney Velazquez. My gut, the one that had kept me alive in this cutthroat world for twenty years, was screaming at me. The tip about her kidnapping hadn't come from some anonymous source. It had been too clean, too specific. It felt like a test. Someone wanted to see what Barron would do. | made a decision. It was a risk, a massive one. But | couldn't shake the feeling that the key to this whole mess, the key to stopping this "ghost" from Zurich, was tied up in that seedy motel room. ---- "lll handle the office, sir," | said, backing out of the room. He didn' t even acknowledge me. | took a team of my most trusted men. We didn't go in with guns blazing. We went in quiet. We took the back entrance, disabling the cheap security cameras as we went. The scene in the room was exactly as it had been on the feed. Cydney was tied to the chair, her face puffy from crying. The man who had been with her was gone. But he had left something behind. A laptop, open on the table. On the screen was a single, blinking cursor. It was a trap. A honeypot. | sent my men to secure Cydney, to get her out of there. | walked over to the laptop. | knew | shouldn't touch it. | knew it was probably loaded with enough malware to take down a small country. But | had to know. | put on a pair of gloves and typed a single question into the blinking cursor: Who are you? The answer came back instantly. A single, stylized letter: V. Vance. Elara Vance. The mysterious art investor who had appeared out of nowhere a few months ago, buying up controlling interests in the subsidiary companies that were bleeding Carroll Industries dry. The woman no one had ever seen, who conducted all her business through an encrypted network. ---- My blood ran cold. Then, a new file appeared on the screen. It was a video. | clicked on it. The video was from a hidden camera, filmed in this very room a day earlier. It showed Cydney, not as a victim, but as a conspirator. She was talking to the man whose face had been in shadow. "The plan is perfect," she was saying, a triumphant smirk on her face. "Barron will think you' re working for Emerson' s ghost, seeking revenge. He' Il be so focused on fighting a phantom from Zurich that he won' t see me coming. While he ' s distracted, ' Il use my son, his only heir, to stake my claim. | will take everything. The company, the name, the fortune. It was always supposed to be mine." The video ended. She had played us all. She had faked her kidnapping, again, this time to frame a dead woman' s memory and Keenan Sullivan, all so she could make her final power play. Just then, my phone buzzed. It was a text from my man in the car. "We have Velazquez. She' s asking for a lawyer." Another text came through, from an encrypted number | didn't recognize. It was a single sentence. ---- "She's all yours. -E.V." Elara Vance. She had orchestrated this whole thing. She had let me find Cydney. She had given me the proof of her betrayal. She wasn't trying to destroy Barron' s empire from the outside. She was giving him the tools to save it. But why? Suddenly, the elevator chimed in the penthouse. | looked at the security feed on my phone. My heart stopped. Barron was no longer alone. A man was standing in his living room. Aman | recognized from countless intelligence briefings. Keenan Sullivan. He wasn't in Zurich. He was here. | ran. | sprinted through the motel hallway, shouting orders to my team. "Abort! Get back to the penthouse! Now!" But | knew | was too late. Sullivan didn't make social calls. If he was there, it was for one reason. The game was over. | burst into the penthouse, my weapon drawn. Sullivan stood calmly by the window, his hands in his pockets. Barron was still at the dining table, but he was on his feet now, his eyes blazing with a life | hadn't seen in months. "Where is she?" Barron snarled. Sullivan just smiled, a cool, infuriatingly calm expression. "She ---- ' s dead, Carroll. You killed her. But her legacy lives on. And her legacy has a message for you." He nodded towards me. "Your man here has something for you, | believe." All eyes turned to me. | slowly lowered my weapon, my mind reeling. This was all part of the plan. Her plan. Elara Vance' s plan. | held up the tablet with the footage of Cydney' s confession. "Sir," | said, my voice shaking slightly. "You need to see this." | played the video. Barron watched, his face turning from stone to thunder. The betrayal, the final, ultimate betrayal from the woman he had sacrificed everything for, washed over him. When the video ended, he was silent for a long moment. The only sound was the ticking of the grandfather clock in the hall. Then he looked at Keenan Sullivan, and his voice was a low, deadly whisper. "Tell her... tell Elara Vance... that | accept her terms. But this isn't over. Not until | see her face to face." Sullivan' s smile widened. "Oh, don' t worry, Carroll," he said, turning to leave. "You will. And it will be the last thing you ever see." In "CEO, That Intern is Actually Your Wife" by CrushReel, delve into a captivating romance where a billionaire CEO becomes contractually linked to an unexpected partner. When faced with the urgent need to fund her grandmother's critical surgery, our protagonist finds herself in a unique situation—entering a one-year contract marriage with a stranger. As the story unfolds, themes of love, sacrifice, and the complexities of modern relationships come to light. The novel offers a fresh take on the familiar billionaire romance genre by exploring the dynamics of office relationships and the intricacies of contract lovers. Discover this modern tale of unexpected connections and heartfelt emotions, available to read at CrushReel.