Chapter 23 #2
No—her family was broken. But that meant she carried the weight of them, the burdens they dumped on her shoulders, the baggage of their debts, addictions, and constant manipulations. Heavy, suffocating, expensive baggage.
She had drawn a line today, told them no for the first time in… she couldn’t even remember how long. But that didn’t mean she wouldn’t go back. That she wouldn’t eventually cave and bail them out again. Because no matter how many times they hurt her, they were all she had.
Giselle sighed heavily, staring out the bus window. What would it take to cut them off completely? To walk away and never look back? Could she even survive the guilt?
Her family didn’t love her. They… needed her. Relied upon her.
That truth sat heavy in her chest, a dull ache she refused to acknowledge for too long. They kept her around because she was useful, because she paid for their addictions, because she was easy to manipulate. But love? No. Love shouldn’t feel like this.
The bus turned right, but Giselle was lost in thought, eyes unfocused as the city blurred past. It wasn’t until the bus stopped at a red light that something caught her eye.
Men were unloading boxes from a delivery truck.
That wasn’t unusual. But what they were doing next had her sitting up straighter, her breath catching in her throat.
They were opening the boxes.
Not all the way—just enough to pull something out, slipping the product into a smaller box before sealing the original container back up. Then, as if nothing had happened, they placed the tampered boxes back into the truck, the stolen goods disappearing into an unmarked van nearby.
They were stealing.
And suddenly, it all made sense.
Giselle fumbled for her phone, her pulse hammering. This was it. This explained why Dimitri’s shipments left the port intact, but arrived at his retail stores missing inventory. The missing pieces weren’t getting lost in transit—they were being stolen before they reached their final destination.
Mystery solved!
Except… she wasn’t celebrating. Because there, standing amongst the men orchestrating the theft, was a familiar face.
Elliot.
Her former boss.
Giselle’s stomach clenched, bile rising in her throat. What the hell was he doing there? Why was he involved in this?
No wonder the discrepancies in the accounting records had never been flagged. If the person responsible for tracking the shipments was part of the theft ring, of course, the numbers wouldn’t raise alarms.
But why?
Elliot had been a lot of things—a condescending jerk, an arrogant boss, a lazy manager—but a thief? Had he always been involved in this? Or had something changed?
And more importantly… was he desperate enough to do something even worse?
Giselle’s hands trembled as she raised her phone. She had to tell Dimitri. Now.
What was Elliot doing?
Giselle’s fingers trembled as she angled the camera to capture the theft. She needed proof, needed to document this so she could show Dimitri exactly what was happening to his shipments.
But just as she began recording, her breath caught in her throat.
Another figure moved into the frame—one she knew far too well.
Craig.
Her big brother.
Giselle’s stomach dropped. Her hand shook so violently that she almost dropped the phone.
Craig was frantically pulling items from the boxes, stuffing them into the smaller containers with an urgency that screamed of desperation. He wasn’t just helping—he was in deep, actively working alongside the others, a willing participant in the theft.
Her big brother was stealing.
Not just stealing, but stealing from the man she—loved?
Yes. Loved.
The realization washed over her like a tidal wave. She loved Dimitri. And her brother was betraying him.
Betraying her.
The pain that hit her was sharp and immediate, like something inside of her had been ripped open.
This was her family, her blood, the one person who was supposed to have her back.
She’d excused Craig’s mistakes for years, convinced herself that he was just lost, that he wasn’t bad, just…
struggling. But this? This wasn’t an accident. This wasn’t some drug-fueled mistake.
Craig was part of this. He was part of the reason Dimitri’s shipments had been disappearing, why she’d spent the past month chasing shadows and coming up empty-handed.
The betrayal was suffocating.
The bus lurched forward as the light turned green, the scene disappearing from view. But the damage had been done.
Giselle slowly lowered her phone, her fingers tightening around it like a lifeline. She couldn’t breathe past the ache in her chest, couldn’t think beyond the crushing weight of what she’d just seen.
A flash of light caught her eye. Her ring. The diamond sparkled, catching the sunlight, but it felt like an illusion now. A dream she’d been foolish enough to believe in. Marriage. The future she’d been so hesitant about, so unsure of, suddenly became crystal clear.
She couldn’t marry Dimitri. Not now. Not when she knew what she knew. He would fire her—how could he not? She had undeniable proof that her own brother was part of the theft. Worse, Dimitri wouldn’t want anything to do with her. Not after this.
She could already see the disappointment in his eyes, the way his jaw would tighten, the way he’d pull back and shut her out. Dimitri didn’t tolerate betrayal. And now, that’s exactly what she represented.
All the happy fantasies she’d let herself indulge in—the stolen moments of warmth, the laughter, the feeling of belonging—shattered in an instant.
Gone.
Her future had been snatched away before she’d even fully allowed herself to believe in it.
The emptiness that followed was unbearable.
She stepped off the bus at her stop, barely aware of her surroundings.
Her feet carried her on autopilot, and when she finally looked up, her heart sank even further.
She’d gone to the wrong place. Dimitri’s apartment. Her sanctuary. Tears burned as she looked up at the building, at the home she’d let herself grow to love, the safety she’d let herself believe she deserved.
She wanted to stay.
She wanted to go inside, curl up on the sofa, and pretend that none of this was happening.
That Craig wasn’t part of the theft. That she wasn’t about to lose everything.
But she couldn’t. Her feet moved again, carrying her into the building, each step heavier than the last. She knew what she had to do.
She had to quit before Dimitri fired her. Not just because it was the right thing to do, but because she couldn’t bear to see the look in his eyes when he realized the truth.
Dimitri was strong enough to do what needed to be done.
But for once in her life, she wanted to be the one to walk away first. Firing her for being related to a thief would be one of the easiest tasks Dimitri would accomplish today.
The thought sat heavily in Giselle’s chest as she walked through the quiet lobby. It was Saturday, which meant fewer employees were milling about, but there were still people moving with purpose, their polished shoes clicking against the marble floor.
She swallowed past the lump in her throat, forcing her lips into something that resembled a polite smile as she approached the elevator.
“Good morning,” she greeted the guard standing sentry by the elevators.
“Good morning, Ms. Carrington,” the guard responded with a respectful nod. “Mr. De Luca has been asking about you.”
Her stomach clenched at those words. Of course, he had. Dimitri always seemed to know where she was, what she was doing, even before she had the chance to tell him.
The guard entered the elevator code that would take her straight to the penthouse without stopping at the executive floor. There was no way to delay what was coming.
The doors slid open, and she stepped inside, offering a weak smile as the guard met her gaze. She didn’t press a button. She didn’t have to. The elevator was programmed to take her directly to Dimitri’s home.
With every floor that passed, her breath grew shallower.
When the doors opened, she stepped out into the penthouse level, greeted more guards, nodding politely to the man who held the door open for her.
As soon as she entered the bright, sunshine-filled space, she found Dimitri, waiting for her.
His body radiated tension, his dark eyes fixed on her like he already knew.
“What’s wrong?” he demanded, striding toward her, his hands reaching—ready to pull her into his arms.
“Wait!”
Giselle lifted her hands, stopping him before he could touch her. He halted mid-step, but his expression darkened further, his body practically vibrating with frustration.
“You’re not going to want to touch me once you hear what I’ve found.”
His jaw clenched. “I knew I should have gone with you today.” He ran a hand through his hair, ruffling the usually sleek strands. “What happened? What did they tell you?”
She forced a chuckle, but it sounded hollow. Empty.
Reaching into her pocket, she pulled out her phone. “You need to see this.”
She tapped the screen, starting the video, then handed the phone to him. Dimitri watched in silence. His eyes didn’t stray from the screen. He barely even breathed. But she saw it—the shift in his posture, the tension coiling tighter and tighter with every second that passed.
When the video ended, he didn’t say anything. Didn’t ask questions.
Instead, he tossed her phone onto the sofa and stepped closer, his towering presence swallowing her whole.
“So, you know,” he said quietly.
It wasn’t a question.
And that was the worst part.
Because yes—she knew.
And now, there was no going back.