Chapter 24
“We’re going to bring him down, I promise.”
The fourth night after everything that happened unfolds in Nerissa Ashcombe’s apartment with a tense stillness, broken only by the occasional clatter of keys.
Within those walls, the space has become a makeshift refuge where the outside world feels distant and hostile.
Seraphina has been sitting at the computer for over six hours.
Her fingers move quickly across the keyboard, though loose strands of hair fall across her forehead and her reddened eyes reflect her accumulated exhaustion.
Beneath that facade of absolute concentration, the emotional turmoil of the last few days still beats relentlessly, a wound that will be almost impossible to heal.
However, alongside that pain has also emerged the need to find a solution, even though she can no longer change certain things.
Nerissa watches her from the kitchenette as she slowly stirs a cup of coffee neither of them needs.
The gray sweatshirt she’s wearing is too big for her and gives her a vulnerable appearance that contrasts with her usual poise.
They’ve only managed to get a few hours of sleep each night since everything blew up.
“You need to rest a little,” Nerissa murmurs, approaching from behind. She places a hand on the back of the chair and feels Seraphina’s muscles tense for a moment before relaxing beneath her touch. “You’ve been sitting there all day.”
Seraphina lets out a long sigh and runs a hand over her face, rubbing her eyes wearily.
“I can’t stop now,” she replies, without taking her eyes off the columns of numbers filling the screen. “Time is against us.”
Maeve is sitting on the living room floor, surrounded by folders and handwritten notes spread out like a chaotic map.
Her fingers tap relentlessly on the corporate tablet that Seraphina managed to save from the progressive credential lockdown ordered by Adrian.
Callum, Nerissa’s brother, is leaning against the wall by the large window, checking his phone with a frown and holding a low-voiced conversation with a contact in the financial district.
His presence adds a more grounded note to the group, a practical and direct energy that complements the others’ tension.
“They’re going to shut down all remote access before dawn,” Maeve tells them after checking the information she requested. “The IT team is wiping the servers fast. If we want to download more material, it has to be now. We won’t get another chance.”
Callum ends his call and slips his phone into the back pocket of his jeans.
“I have three companies registered in different parts of Europe,” he explains. “They all converge at the same brokerage firm. Something doesn’t add up here.”
Seraphina looks up and glances at them all.
“I’m sure it all leads back to Adrian. He must be hiding something huge that both I and the merger audit team missed.”
Nerissa sets her coffee cup down next to the computer and places a hand on Seraphina’s shoulder.
Just a week ago, the woman sitting beside her was trapped in an immaculate mansion, surrounded by a perfect lawn and empty social obligations.
Now she’s hiding in a borrowed apartment, wearing someone else’s clothes, chasing evidence that could save her—or destroy her even further.
“Eat something, please,” Nerissa insists, kneeling beside her so they’re at eye level. “Even if it’s just a little fruit or a piece of toast. We’re making progress together.”
Seraphina closes her eyes for a second and shakes her head.
“Later,” she replies.
“You’ve been saying ‘later’ since yesterday afternoon, Seph,” Nerissa says, stroking the back of her neck with slow, comforting motions. “You can’t keep punishing yourself like this. At some point, your body is going to say enough is enough.”
Seraphina runs a hand over her face and exhales heavily.
“I promise I’ll do it in a little while.”
“All right,” Nerissa whispers. “But remember, we’re all here for you.”
Seraphina glances around, still unable to believe that both Maeve and Callum have forgiven her and are willing to help.
“I’ve dragged all of you too far into this,” Seraphina says, almost ashamed. “And you shouldn’t even be involved.”
Callum pushes away from the wall and approaches her with a serious but determined expression.
“I’m here because I want to be. Because I hate injustice,” he says without a trace of drama. “And because that bastard has ruined your career. I’m not going to stand by and watch him destroy your lives too.”
Maeve looks up and nods in agreement.
For the first time in many hours, a small smile almost crosses Seraphina’s face, though it never quite materializes. But Nerissa senses the momentary relief in her breathing, as if, for an instant, the ice surrounding her had cracked.
Seraphina’s phone suddenly vibrates on the table. The change in her expression is immediate and visceral. She grabs the phone so quickly she nearly knocks a folder onto the floor. Elliot’s mother’s number appears on the screen.
She answers on the first ring, rising nervously to her feet.
“Listen to me… please,” she begs, walking toward the hallway in search of some privacy. “I just want to talk to them for five minutes. I won’t argue with you, I promise. Just… let me hear their voices.”
The silence on the other end seems to last forever. Nerissa looks away and bites her lower lip.
“No, I’m not going to tell them anything that might confuse them,” Seraphina continues, her voice broken with grief. “I’m begging you. They’re my children.”
When she returns to the living room several minutes later, Seraphina is still holding the phone in her hand, her jaw completely rigid. She’s on the verge of breaking down.
“What happened?” Maeve asks.
It takes Seraphina several seconds to answer as she slowly sinks into the chair.
“They won’t let me talk to the kids,” Seraphina replies, covering her face with her hands.
“Oliver keeps asking if what’s on the internet is true.
They’re picking on them at school too. And their grandmother thinks the best thing is to ‘give them stability’ until Elliot decides what to do. ” She sobs. “I’ve ruined their lives…”
Nerissa feels a stab of pain in her chest seeing her like this, because Seraphina has always seemed unbreakable to her. Even during the darkest moments they’ve shared. But now she looks like nothing more than a desperate mother trying to reach her children through a pane of bulletproof glass.
A pane of glass that others have erected.
Nerissa steps closer and wraps her arms around Seraphina’s waist. Seraphina automatically rests her forehead against her shoulder, exhausted.
“They’re going to turn them against me. I’m sure of it,” Seraphina whispers against her neck. “Adrian knew exactly where to strike me. He knew this would destroy me more than losing my job.”
“You’re not going to lose them,” Nerissa says with conviction, though the truth is that she feels uncertain too. “We’ll fight for them. Together.”
“I’m already losing them,” Seraphina replies.
Nerissa closes her eyes for a moment, not knowing how to fight such deep pain. She only knows how to hold her, offering warmth and companionship.
The early morning hours pass, and exhaustion settles over the apartment, but no one gives up. It’s around 3:30 a.m. when everything changes.
Seraphina suddenly freezes. Her fingers hover motionless over the keyboard while her eyes scan the same row of numbers over and over. Nerissa notices immediately and approaches her with concern.
“What’s wrong?” she asks.
Seraphina expands a spreadsheet, then another. She opens an audit file and begins cross-checking figures manually while Callum straightens up to see what’s happening.
“Seph?” Nerissa presses.
Then Seraphina jumps to her feet, and the chair tips backward.
“Oh my God,” she murmurs.
Nerissa feels her own heart skip a beat.
“What did you find?” Maeve asks as well.
Seraphina turns the computer toward them. Her breathing has quickened, and her pupils shine with newfound clarity.
“Look at this…” she says, opening files at breakneck speed. “The bastard has been hiding transfers to limited liability companies. There are also fictitious technical commissions and consulting fees listed here.”
Seraphina points to several highlighted lines with her finger.
“He’s been making fragmented payments every two weeks,” she continues, speaking faster, swept up in the relentless logic of the discovery. “Always just below the threshold for an automatic audit, with the same recipient companies and intermediary law firms.”
Callum leans over the screen.
“This is one of the companies I told you about,” he confirms.
“Exactly,” Seraphina agrees. “Adrian has been siphoning money from the investment fund for months. He’s disguised it as consulting fees related to the merger’s upcoming sports expansion. But the recipient companies are shell corporations. There’s no actual service behind them.”
Nerissa visibly pales.
“How much money are we talking about?”
The figure appears on the screen: seven and a half million pounds.
“If the merger had gone through…” Callum begins.
“They would have found out,” Seraphina finishes. “We’ve got him.”
The apartment falls into absolute silence for several seconds. One by one, the pieces begin to fall into place in her mind. The photographs. His threat. The scandal. The simultaneous leak to the press and the board. The immediate collapse of the merger.
Seraphina covers her mouth with her hand, devastated by the truth.
“That bastard…” she murmurs in a whisper. “He just needed time to cover his tracks.”
Seraphina looks at Nerissa. Her eyes are wet with rage.
“If the merger was canceled because of a ‘moral scandal,’ no one would investigate the accounts. The board would blame what I did, not the balance sheets. When he found out about us, he knew I was the perfect scapegoat: the adulterous CFO who torpedoes a multimillion-dollar deal.”
Maeve lets out a curse under her breath.
“He turned you into a smokescreen,” she says.
Seraphina nods, her gaze fixed on the screen.
“While everyone was gawking at our photos with morbid curiosity, no one was looking at the seven-million-pound hole right in front of their fucking eyes.”
“That means he has at least one collaborator,” Callum points out.
Nerissa feels nauseous. All that destruction and public humiliation had never really been about them. It was about greed.
Seraphina slumps into the chair and covers her eyes with her hands for a long moment.
“He’s destroyed my career and your lives to protect himself…”
Nerissa gently pulls her hands away and forces her to look at her.
“And now we’re going to destroy him,” the surgeon declares. “We’re not going to let him get away with it.”
Seraphina looks at her, and something resembling hope flickers in her exhausted eyes.
“We need to get this out before they wipe the servers,” Maeve says as she works. “I’m going to make encrypted copies in three different locations.”
Callum already has his phone in hand.
“I have a trusted contact in financial crimes,” he explains. “If this is real—and it looks like it is—Adrian is finished. I’m going to call him right now so he can start laying the groundwork.”
Seraphina turns back to the computer. The devastation is still there, but now she has a clear direction. Nerissa watches her for another hour, fascinated. Even broken, even cast out of her own world, Seraphina remains the brightest mind in the room. The woman she’s in love with.
Nerissa realizes she isn’t watching a woman fall. She’s watching a woman prepare to strike back with everything she has. And now, there’s only one final step left.
Nerissa stares at the blank email screen for several minutes. Daphne Mercer’s name appears in the “To” field. Seraphina looks up, concerned.
“You don’t have to do it yourself,” she says. “I can send it to her.”
“No, I have to do it,” Nerissa replies, taking a deep breath. “I need to close this chapter of my life.”
Maeve and Callum exchange a discreet glance and step aside to give them some space. Nerissa begins typing, then attaches the summary documents, the key transfers, and all the information they’ve gathered. She then writes:
“Adrian is using you to clean up his image and Seraphina as a scapegoat for a multimillion-pound embezzlement scheme. Look at the files carefully. And decide which side of this story you’re going to be on when the board explodes tomorrow.
Because this isn’t going away. We have enough evidence to tear his version of events to shreds. ”
She reads the message twice, corrects a comma, and looks up at Seraphina. The executive is watching her from across the table, exhausted, vulnerable, and carrying a ferocity she had almost lost.
Two seconds later, Nerissa hits “Send.”
This is the first shot in a war that is only just beginning.