Chapter 335
[ 1,048 words ]
Katia’s POV
Sam looked up from her screen, her expression turning serious as she caught the edge of my tone. “I can press the forensic team to run a priority scan on his local accounts. If Jude tries to move money to an offshore entity tonight, we might catch the routing destination before the transfer clears p>
“Do it tonight,” David muttered, his hand coming down heavily on Martha’s shoulder. He looked completely worn out, the lines around his eyes deeper than they had been when the evening started. “Martha, we are leaving. Hailey, come with us to the house. Jude’s things are still over at the Whitmore Manhattan presidential suite, and I want our personal security team sent there immediately while you decide how to handle your next steps. You shouldn’t have to navigate this wreckage alone in a hotel room p>
Hailey straightened her spine, her expression hardening into something cold and operational. “Thank you, David. I want his laptop and any travel logs he left behind in that suite secured. If he has paperwork hidden there, it belongs to my legal team now p>
“I’ll have our security lock down the suite the moment we arrive at the estate,” David said. He turned his gaze toward me, his brow furrowing slightly as he studied my face. “Katia, you look completely drained. Go to sleep. We will handle the official corporate statement regarding the Windsor project at the downtown office tomorrow morning at ten p>
“I’ll be there,” I replied, keeping my voice level.
Delia finally shifted her weight from the doorway, her high heels clicking loudly against the hardwood floor as she stepped into the center of the room. She looked small, her face pale and her eyes wide with a mixture of shock and lingering bitterness. She looked at Julian, waiting for him to step forward, waiting for him to take his place at her side as her husband.
But Julian did not move. He stood right beside me, his shoulder almost touching mine, his presence solid and heavy in the middle of the room. He didn’t look at Delia. His gaze remained fixed on the open doorway where Jude had vanished.
“Julian?” Delia’s voice trembled, a desperate note cutting through her usual sharp exterior. “Are you coming p>
Julian turned his head slowly, his eyes dark and completely unreadable as he looked at her. “No,” he said, his voice dropping into a low, flat register. “Go with your parents, Delia. I am staying here to review the corporate security breach with Sam and Katia. The fact that Jude had access to our internal project files means our entire server infrastructure is compromised. I am not leaving until we trace the origin point p>
Delia flinched as if he had struck her. Her lips parted to argue, but she looked at David’s tight expression and Martha’s silent weeping, and she stopped herself. She wrapped her arms even tighter around her chest, gave me one final, venomous look, and turned on her heel.
My father guided Martha and Hailey out first, with Delia following behind them like a ghost. The heavy wooden door of the penthouse clicked shut, the sound echoing through the wide hallway, signaling the absolute end of the dinner party.
The penthouse grew entirely quiet. The massive glass windows reflecting the distant, sprawling lights of the city skyline, casting long shadows across the empty dining table and the half-eaten food.
Sam slid her tablet into her leather portfolio and stepped toward the foyer. “I’ll run the financial tracking from my office downstairs,” she said, her eyes shifting between Julian and me for a brief second. “If the offshore data updates before dawn, I’ll send a secure notification to your personal file p>
“Thank you, Sam,” I said.
Once the front door opened and closed a second time, leaving the two of us completely alone, my posture crumbled. The tight grip I had kept on my emotions broke all at once. I walked toward the kitchen island, needing a glass of water to clear the bitter taste from my throat, but the room suddenly tilted. The dark marble floor seemed to rise toward me, and my knees went weak. I reached out, my palms slamming against the edge of the stone counter to keep myself upright.
A shadow fell over the counter before I could even draw a breath.
Julian didn’t ask if I was fine. He didn’t offer a useless phrase. He stepped directly into my space, his large hand coming down over mine where I was gripping the stone, his warm fingers anchoring my cold skin against the marble.
“They’re gone, Katia,” he said, his voice a low, gravelly vibration in the silence of the room. “You can stop forcing yourself to stand p>
I didn’t pull my hand away. I couldn’t. I just leaned my weight against the counter, my eyes closed as I fought the gray edges blurring my vision. “I’m not forcing anything. I’m just tired p>
“You’re shaking,” he noted, his gaze tracking the rapid pulse jumping in my throat. He reached past me, poured a glass of cold water from the dispenser, and set it near my hand. “Drink it. Then you are going to tell me what is really happening with you p>
“I told you, it’s the lack of food,” I muttered, my voice tight as I forced myself to look up at him.
The proximity was dangerous. He was too close, his dark eyes analyzing every line of exhaustion on my face. For months, we had kept our distance in public, hiding the memory of what had happened between us behind corporate meetings and formal greetings. But tonight, the boundaries were entirely gone.
“Don’t lie to me,” Julian murmured, his hand sliding up from the counter to cup the back of my neck, his thumb resting against my jaw. The heat of his skin sent a shiver straight down my spine, melting the last of my defenses. “I’ve watched you all night. You haven’t touched your food, and your hands have been trembling since the moment you sat down. The dinner is over. The con man is gone. Why are you still holding your breath p>
I swallowed hard, the sharp wave of nausea returning with a vengeance, hot and heavy in my throat.
If you find any errors (non-standard content, ads redirect, broken links, etc Please let us know so we can fix it as soon as possible.