Chapter 304
“I’m his doctor,” Vance smiled, but the expression was strained, his eyes shadowed with something that looked like fear. “However, Anson Hyde is a very persuasive man. He doesn’t just offer money, Bella. He finds your weaknesses. He discovered a professional indiscretion from my past — something that would end my career. He has proof.”
“He’s blackmailing you?” Bella whispered, horrified.
“He wants the full file. In exchange, he makes my problem disappear,” Vance said, his voice dropping. “That would destroy Dallas. The board would remove him within the hour. Eliza would be devastated.”
“You can’t,” Bella said. “He trusts you.”
“Trust doesn’t save a man from ruin,” Vance said, his professional mask cracking to reveal a desperate man underneath. “But I’m offering Dallas a countermove. A way out for both of us.”
“What do you want?” Bella asked, her voice trembling.
“Anson’s leverage is information. Dallas’s leverage is power,” Vance said, his gaze turning clinical and intense. “I need Anson’s problem to go away permanently. I need a research grant for a private clinic overseas, effective immediately. A large one — enough for me to disappear and start over somewhere Hyde can’t find me.”
Bella felt sick. He wasn’t just asking for money; he was asking for an escape, paid for by the very man he was prepared to betray.
“You have twenty-four hours to take this offer to Dallas,” Vance whispered. “If I don’t hear from him, Anson gets the file. It’s not what I want, Bella. But it’s the move I’ll be forced to make.”
He slipped a card with his private number into her hand and walked away — not whistling, but moving with the stiff, deliberate gait of a man walking to his own execution.
Bella stood there, shaking. She thought of Dallas, who had given her a job when no one else would. She thought of Eliza, who treated her like a sister.
If this got out, they would lose everything.
She ran from the hospital as if it were on fire. She had to tell Dallas.
The fallout from the failed sabotage was swift.
At the next board meeting, Augustina Koch — Dallas’s aunt and the head of PR — swept into the room like a Valkyrie.
“We have identified a security breach,” Augustina announced, slamming a report on the table. “Internal sabotage. Miss Norton.”
Cathey, who had tried to sneak back in, shot to her feet. “That’s a lie!”
“Security footage,” Augustina cut her off. “Logs. And witness testimony. You are terminated, effective immediately. Security will escort you out.”
Two guards grabbed Cathey’s arms.
“You can’t do this!” Cathey screamed, her mask of innocence shattering. “My father owns this company! Anson promised me!”
The room went silent. Anson.
She had implicated him.
Eliza, sitting quietly at the side of the room, exchanged a look with Augustina. Checkmate.
But the victory was short-lived.
That evening, the news broke.
HYDE HEIR TO CHAMPION OUSTED KOCH WHISTLEBLOWER
Eliza stared at the TV screen in the penthouse. Anson was standing on the steps of the Hyde estate, his arm protectively around a weeping Cathey Norton. He looked into the camera — not with his usual dead eyes, but with an expression of carefully curated sincerity.