Chapter 16
Present day
Carter
The man across the conference table broke into a relieved smile and extended his hand. Gold cufflinks flashed beneath the lights as he leaned forward, looking like a man who had just escaped a firing squad. "Congratulations, Evans. Looks like we have a deal."
His grin was wide, but Carter noticed the slight tremor in his fingers. Men only shook that hard when they were either very excited or very desperate.
Carter stood and shook his hand firmly. His own expression remained calm, controlled and impossible to read. Years ago, he had learned that celebrating too early made people careless.
"Pleasure doing business with you, Mr. Hawthorne," he said smoothly. The words were polite, but they carried finality. The company belonged to him now.
Richard Hawthorne laughed and loosened his expensive silk tie. "You know, Evans, you're impossible to read. Most people would be celebrating after a deal this size."
He grabbed a glossy black invitation from the table and slid it across the polished wood surface. "Come out this weekend. My yacht. We got champagne older than both of us, a few celebrities, and enough models. The kind of night people spend years trying to get invited to."
Carter glanced down at the invitation. Embossed gold lettering. Black velvet finish. The invitation alone must have cost hundreds of dollars. He picked it up and gave the man a small smile. "Sounds memorable."
"Oh, it will be." Hawthorne winked. "Trust me. We have every vice money can buy floating in the middle of the ocean. You don't want to miss it."
Carter tucked the invitation into his jacket pocket. "I'll keep it in mind." Then he offered a final handshake, gathered his documents, and walked out of the conference room.
As the elevator doors opened into the lobby, he pulled the invitation from his pocket. Without breaking stride, he tossed it into the nearest trash can. The card landed between an empty coffee cup and a crumpled newspaper. Carter didn't even look back.
Outside, a black Mercedes rolled smoothly to the curb the moment he stepped through the revolving doors. His driver was already out and opening the rear passenger door. The timing was perfect, as always. He slid into the back seat while adjusting the cuffs of his suit.
No wonder Hawthorne's company had been collapsing.
The man had inherited a thriving empire from his father and spent years treating it like a personal amusement park.
Booze. Parties. Women. Expensive toys. More concerned with impressing strangers than protecting thousands of employees whose livelihoods depended on him.
Under Hawthorne's leadership, the company wasn't simply declining.
It was being burned to the ground one champagne bottle at a time.
At least it belonged to Carter now.
"Take me to Lennox Tower," Carter said.
"Yes, sir."
The Mercedes pulled away from the curb and disappeared into Manhattan traffic.
Carter received invitations like that almost daily.
Weekend poker games where the buy-in cost more than a luxury apartment.
Parties hosted inside castles rented for a single night.
Exclusive ski trips in Switzerland where guests arrived by helicopter and drank whiskey worth six figures a bottle.
Entire floors of luxury hotels transformed into playgrounds for people with more money than common sense.
He had seen all of it.
And not once had he been tempted.
Most billionaires chased pleasure after they made their fortune. Carter had built his fortune chasing something else entirely. Every acquisition, every late night, every risk, every sacrifice had pointed toward a single destination. His eyes had never left that goal.
Elena Waldorf.
A small smile appeared before he could stop it.
His thoughts drifted back to Aaron and Ivy's wedding at Lake Tahoe. Back to the moonlight reflecting across the water. Back to Elena standing in front of him looking so beautiful that breathing had become difficult. Back to the kiss that had nearly destroyed every bit of self-control he possessed.
Then the smile vanished.
He unlocked his phone.
Still nothing.
His last message remained unanswered. His missed calls sat untouched. Elena had read some of them days ago and ignored the rest completely. The silence felt ridiculous considering she had been kissing him like she wanted to set the entire world on fire only days earlier.
She had kissed him back.
She had matched every ounce of his hunger with her own. For a few perfect moments, it had felt exactly like it used to. Like the years apart had never happened. Like they were still those stupidly in love college kids who couldn't keep their hands off each other.
Then she had pushed him away.
Why did you leave?
The question echoed in his head again.
What exactly was he supposed to tell her?
Hey, Elena. I think your beloved aunt may have ordered a hit-and-run against my family because I refused to break up with you.
The thought alone sounded insane.
Carter dragged a hand through his hair and leaned his head back against the leather seat. He couldn't lie to Elena. Never could.The problem was that the truth wasn't much better.
Because he still had no proof.
William, Nick, and Aaron had believed him when he finally told them everything.
The cryptic conversation Julia had forced him into years ago.
The threats hidden beneath polite words.
The accident that followed shortly afterward.
Carter had expected them to laugh. To tell him grief and guilt were making him paranoid.
Instead, they had listened to every word.
Aaron had immediately started pulling favors.
The old traffic camera footage from that night was mostly useless.
The driver had worn a cap and a face covering, making identification impossible.
But one blurry frame had captured part of the vehicle's license plate.
After weeks of digging, Aaron's investigators discovered the plate belonged to a vehicle reported stolen three months before the accident. It lead nowhere.
William had urged him to file a formal complaint anyway.
He had even offered to represent him personally.
But they both knew the truth. Julia was powerful, connected, wealthy, and protected by people who owed her favors.
Without witnesses or hard evidence linking her to the accident, the case would go nowhere.
And if Carter was wrong?
If he pushed too hard and attracted the wrong attention?
His mother and little sister would pay the price.
That possibility had terrified him. After his dead beat dad who came and went as he pleased, Carter knew early on that It was his duty to look after them. Even if it meant sacrificing his own happiness.
Nick had gotten them out.
Looking back now, Carter still wasn't sure how his friend had managed it.
One day he was depressed beyond measure, guilty of failing them, looking after his ill sister and the next they were on a plane to the UK with a chance to start over.
Distance didn't erase fear overnight, but it helped.
For the first time in months, Carter could breathe without wondering who was watching.
Nick Harrington had his own reasons for leaving.
Everyone knew the Harringtons as the literal diamond kings of the country.
Yet, Nick was hellbent on steering clear of the family empire.
Serious question: why did the Harrington brothers have a desperate, burning need to prove they could make it on their own?
It was exhausting. Naturally, when he dropped the bombshell that he was starting a tech company from absolute zero, everyone figured he’d officially lost his mind.
Including Carter.
Until Nick offered him a job.
At first, it was just work.
Long hours that kept his mind occupied when grief threatened to consume him. Carter needed that more than anyone realized. If he stopped moving, stopped working, stopped pushing himself, then he'd have time to think about Elena.
So he worked.
While other employees clocked out, Carter stayed. While competitors slept, Carter studied the market. He treated success like survival itself. Every deal closed became another brick in the foundation he was building.
As years passed, the startup exploded.
What began in a cramped office with secondhand furniture became one of the fastest-growing companies in Europe.
Investors poured in billions. Competitors disappeared.
Entire industries adapted to them instead of the other way around.
Eventually Nick made him a partner, and together they transformed the company into a hundred-billion-dollar giant.
For most people, that would have been enough.
Not for Carter.
The money never mattered. What mattered was the power that came with it.
Because power was what Julia Leclair had used against him all those years ago.
While magazines chased stories about them, Carter remained mostly invisible. The man behind the curtain pulling strings nobody noticed. He began acquiring struggling companies one after another, turning bankrupt disasters into profit machines.
Each acquisition made him stronger. Hundred times richer than Julia now.
Each victory expanded his reach.
Each year brought him closer to his target.
Like a hunter waiting patiently in the dark.
And eventually prey always made a mistake.
Julia Leclair had made dozens. Arrogance did that to people.
It convinced them they were untouchable. It made them careless. It made them believe rules existed for everyone except themselves. While she spent years believing she had won, her empire had slowly begun cracking beneath her feet.
Now Waldorf Fashions was drowning.
Julia had a knack for extravagant lifestyle.
And she maintained it at the expense of Waldorf Fashions.
Debt. Bad decisions. Failed expansions. Poor leadership. The company wasn't dead yet, but the water was already above its neck.
Everyone else saw a struggling fashion company.
Opportunity presented itself to Carter.
As a major investor, he now had access to internal reports, financial records, databases, communications, and personnel files. He had people quietly watching for anything unusual. Anything hidden. Anything that could connect Julia to activities she'd spent years burying.
Anything that could destroy her.
When he was finished, Julia Leclair would have nothing left.
She will behind the bars where she she belonged
A cold smile touched his lips.
She had once shown him exactly how powerless he was. She had forced him to choose between the woman he loved and the safety of his family. She had made him feel small, helpless, insignificant. Like a boy standing before a hurricane.
Never again.
That boy was gone.
The man sitting in the back of the Mercedes had built empires from nothing.
He could move markets with a phone call.
CEOs feared his interest in their companies because it usually meant change was coming.
His wealth wasn't merely money anymore. It was influence woven through industries, governments, and boardrooms.
Power radiated from him now.
The power like deep oceans and approaching storms. The kind that didn't need to announce itself because everyone felt it eventually.
And Elena Waldorf was still his.
The certainty settled deep inside him.
He had never stopped loving her.
Never stopped wanting her.
Never stopped planning a future with her.
He had spent every second becoming someone worthy of her. Someone who could protect the people he loved.
Whatever it took, he would win her back.
And this time, Julia Leclair won't be able to harm his family. He won't let her keep him apart from Elena.
"We're here, sir."
Carter blinked as the driver's voice pulled him from his thoughts.
****
Carter glanced out the window.
The Mercedes had stopped in front of an unremarkable gray building downtown. Nothing about the exterior attracted attention. Which was precisely the point. Real investigators didn't operate from glass towers with their names on the doors.
They worked where nobody noticed them.
Carter stepped out and entered the building. The office inside reflected its owner perfectly.
Functional. Efficient. Unpretentious.
Maps covered entire walls. Surveillance photographs sat pinned beneath colored markers. Filing cabinets lined one side of the room while several large monitors displayed data streams and security footage. There wasn't a single decoration in sight.
Lennox hated decorations.
The retired military intelligence officer believed every object in a room should serve a purpose.
Including people.
Lennox looked up from his desk as Carter entered.
His steel-gray hair was cut military short despite retirement. The former colonel possessed the kind of face that seemed carved from stone. Years in intelligence had taught him how to observe everything while revealing absolutely nothing.
"Evans."
"Lennox."
The older man slid a thick folder across the desk.
"Everything we gathered from Julia Leclair's vacation last month."
Carter sat down and opened it.
Dozens of photographs.
Travel records.
Credit card transactions.
Flight manifests.
Hotel bookings.
Exactly what he had requested.
"Anything useful?" Carter asked.
Lennox leaned back in his chair.
"Oh, yes."
That got Carter's attention.
Lennox tapped a photograph near the top of the pile.
"According to everyone around her, she spent two weeks vacationing in Switzerland."
Carter frowned. "And?"
"She wasn't in Switzerland."
"Where was she?"
"Singapore."
Carter's eyes narrowed.
"Business?"
A strange smile appeared on Lennox's face.
The expression looked unnatural, as though he rarely used it.
"You tell me."
He reached into the folder and pulled out another photograph.
Then he slid it across the desk.
Carter looked down.
The image had been taken from a distance at a waterfront restaurant overlooking the marina. Julia sat at a private table beneath soft evening lights. Across from her sat a man in an expensive navy suit. Their chairs were angled far closer than necessary.
Far closer than business partners usually sat.
Julia was laughing. Not her polished public laugh. A genuine one. Carter didn't know she was capable of one.
One hand rested lightly on the man's forearm. The man's attention never seemed to leave her.
There was nothing openly inappropriate in the photograph.
Nothing anyone could point to as proof.
Yet something about it felt... intimate.
Like two people who shared secrets.
Like two people who were very comfortable with one another.
Carter's gaze moved to the man's face.
Then he froze.
For the first time all afternoon, genuine surprise crossed his features.
"Kyle Montgomery."