Chapter 26
Carter
The chill in the room was a distant thing, kept at bay by the warmth of Elena’s skin against his.
She sat in his lap on the heavy armchair, bare except for her bra, her head resting perfectly in the notch of his shoulder.
Carter traced a slow line down her spine, wishing he could freeze this exact second.
For the first time in years, the heavy, constant noise in his head had gone quiet.
Then, she shivered.
"I should get my clothes," she murmured, already shifting against him.
"Don't you dare," Carter teased, his voice low as his hands wrapped tighter around her waist, anchoring her. He nipped playfully at her jawline.
"I refuse to believe your clothes are more comfortable than this. I’m a perfectly good human blanket, Elena."
Elena let out a soft, breathy laugh, the sound vibrating against his chest. "You’re a distraction is what you are."
"Guilty," he smiled, but the warmth slipped away as she detangled herself from his grip anyway.
He watched her step across the hardwood floor, his eyes tracking the elegant curve of her back. When she reached for her panties and slipped them on, he didn't even try to hide how much he was enjoying the view. But his playful expression froze when she stopped dead in her tracks.
His stomach tightened before he even saw what had caught her attention. He already knew.
Elena bent down and picked up a loose sheet of paper. The moment she turned it over, Carter saw Julia's name staring back at him from the page.
Her brow furrowed as she read it. The easy, contented smile she'd been wearing moments ago disappeared, replaced by a look of growing confusion.
"Carter? Why does this investigation report have Julia’s name on it?"
The air in the room suddenly turned into ice. Carter sat up, his muscles locking, every instinct screaming at him to grab the paper, to hide it, to protect her from what was on it. But he didn't move. He couldn't.
Elena didn't wait for his answer.
A sudden wave of suspicion took hold of her. She moved quickly, scooping up the remaining papers he’d knocked from the desk earlier.
Mentally, Carter kicked himself for such a rookie mistake. How could he keep the important papers lying around on his desk? But could anyone blame him? Given how annoyed she'd been with him ever since he came back, he hadn't, even in his wildest dreams, expected Elena to show up at his apartment.
She turned around, the documents trembling in her hand, her eyes wide and demanding.
"What is this? Why are you investigating my aunt?"
Carter swallowed the dry lump in his throat. He forced his hands to remain open, palms up, trying to project a calm he didn't feel. It was time now, he had to tell her the truth. He wouldn't be able to keep it hidden any longer. His voice was barely a whisper when he spoke,
"Because she’s the one who ordered the hit and run on my family, Elena. "
The world seemed to stop. Outside, the sky finally broke, a heavy, deafening crack of thunder rattling the windowpanes. Rain began to lash against the glass, casting long, ominous shadows across the room.
Elena flinched as if he had struck her.
"What... What are you talking about? No. No, that’s impossible. This can't be true."
She shook her head rapidly, backing up a step, her body rejecting the words before her mind could even process them. "It’s a mistake. Carter, think about it—you only met once and why would she ever do something like that?"
"Because I refused to break up with you." Carter’s voice was barely a whisper, yet it carried the weight of years of accumulated frustration.
He rose to his feet slowly, hands slightly raised to show he wasn't a threat. He could see the agonizing fracture in her expression, and it tore at his chest. He wanted to hold her, but he knew he’d lost the right to.
"No," she breathed, her voice cracking.
"You're misunderstanding a coincidence."
"It’s the truth, Elena. Sadly, it is." He took a cautious step forward, desperate to soften the blow of a truth he knew she didn't want to hear. Winning didn't matter to him—he couldn't care less about being right. All he cared about was the raw pain bleeding into her eyes.
"After our graduation ceremony, she came to me. She told me I was too poor for you. That I'd never be enough. Then she offered me a check to disappear from your life."
He paused, the memory bitter on his tongue. "When I refused it, she looked me dead in the eye and hinted that my family would pay for my arrogance. Four hours later, the accident happened."
Elena’s chest heaved as she looked at him. He saw the flash of pure anguish in her eyes right before her defenses went up like a steel wall. In an instant, her vulnerability weaponized into sharp anger. "What proof do you have? Do you have a license plate? A witness? Anything?"
A heavy sigh escaped Carter as his shoulders sagged. "No. Not for the crash." He looked at her, desperate for her to believe him. "But it was her, Elena. There is nobody else in this world who wanted to destroy my life this badly."
Before she could cut him off, he pressed forward, pointing at the papers in her hand.
"She is a dirty person, Elena. Look at the numbers. She has been systematically laundering funds directly out of Waldorf Fashions for the last three years. That is the real reason your family's company is failing. She’s bleeding it dry."
Elena looked down at the financial audits, her eyes scanning the forged signatures and mismatched columns.
The proof was right there, black and white.
The color completely drained from her lips.
Her knees buckled slightly, but she caught herself against the desk, her gaze snapping back up to him, sharp and accusing.
"Is this why you came back to me?" She hissed, the words laced with a sudden, devastating assumption. "To get close to the family? To get revenge?"
"No! Elena, never," Carter said, the accusation slicing right through him. "I love you. I’ve always loved you."
"Then why did you keep this from me?!" she yelled, tears finally spilling over her lashes.
"My aunt is not... she wouldn't..." She trailed off, staring at the financial papers, the words dying in her throat because her own eyes were telling her otherwise.
Carter reached out, trying to touch her arm, to offer some shred of comfort.
"I didn't have solid proof of the crash yet. I was terrified of how you would react. I wanted to protect you from the fallout until I knew for sure."
She slapped his hand away with a stinging smack. "You have no right to keep this from me! How long have you known? What else are you hiding, Carter? Tell me!"
The desperation in her voice tore down his final defenses.
Carter walked over to the desk drawer, unlocked the bottom compartment, and pulled out a manila envelope.
Elena didn't even wait for him to open it. She took one look at the shape of the envelope, her mind instantly connecting the dots. Her eyes narrowed in horror.
"The photos... the anonymous photos of Kyle cheating on me. It was you. You sent them."
"Yes," Carter admitted heavily. "But there’s more. You need to see the rest of them."
He slid the contents out onto the desk.
Elena looked down, and Carter watched her entire world shatter. The photographs through the restaurant window didn't show an innocent meeting; they showed Kyle and Julia.
The next photos, taken outside a hotel room, left no room for doubt. Julia’s fingers were tangled in Kyle’s hair as he leaned down to kiss her. Her own aunt was sleeping with the man she was married to.
Elena didn't scream. She didn't cry. A terrible, hollow silence washed over her. She looked utterly devastated, her shoulders slumping as if under the weight of a collapsing building.
Then, a wave of chaotic panic swept away the last traces of shock.
"Elena, wait—" Carter started, reaching out.
"Don't touch me!" she shrieked.
She began grabbing her clothes from the floor, her hands shaking so violently she could barely hold them. She threw her dress on, not caring how it sat, and snatched her coat off the rack.
"Elena, please, talk to me. Don't leave like this," he begged, stepping in front of the door, his heart breaking at the shattered expression on her face. "Let me explain, let me help you—"
This was exactly what he'd been afraid of. Elena was hurting, lashing out from a place of betrayal and grief.
"Do not follow me, Carter," she whispered, her voice terrifyingly steady.
She spoke with a low, dangerous fury, her voice laced with the venom of a woman pushed entirely to her limit.
"God, you must think I’m such a fool. I sat there and actually believed I was fixing my life after the divorce. I actually thought I was winning, you know? But the joke is on me. Everybody lies to me. Everyone. And I am just too blind, too stupid, to see it coming.”
She slammed the door behind her.
The sound echoed through the empty apartment, followed only by the steady, heavy drumming of the rain.
Carter’s heart sank as the weight of his mistake hit him. He had only been trying to buy her a little more time before her world shattered but he realized now, with sickening clarity, that he had only succeeded in making her feel like an idiot.
He stood frozen in the middle of the room, staring at the closed door, the phantom warmth of her embrace completely gone. For the first time, he realized that in his quest to expose the monsters in her life, he had become one to her.