Chapter 515

Chapter 515:

Injury wasn’t the reaction of someone helping a married woman’s lover. It was the response of someone who cared deeply about the injured person.

“Stefan and Hannah,” Alexander said aloud to his reflection. “Not Stefan and Camille.”

The realization hit him like another punch, this one to his chest rather than his face. He had been so consumed by his assumption that every man in Camille’s life was trying to win her back that he had completely misread what was actually happening.

Alexander returned to the living room and slumped onto the couch, his mind churning through other moments when his jealousy might have blinded him to reality. How many times had he interpreted innocent interactions as threats? How many times had his need to see enemies everywhere prevented him from seeing the truth?

His laptop sat open on the side table, displaying the last encrypted message from the Guardian: Phase Three will proceed as planned. Victoria Kane and her allies must face consequences for their interference with justice. Alexander stared at the message, feeling doubt creep into his mind like ice water in his veins. The Guardian’s language had always been cold, calculated, focused on destruction rather than justice. Tonight, seeing Stefan and Hannah’s obvious care for each other, seeing Camille’s genuine sadness at his behavior, Alexander began to wonder if he had been fighting for the wrong cause.

What if Richard Lewis had been telling the truth about the court documents? What if the evidence Alexander had received about Victoria’s crimes was deliberately misleading? What if his uncle’s death was tragic but not the result of some elaborate conspiracy?

Alexander opened his uncle’s journal, the pages worn from months of reading and rereading. The entries that had once seemed like clear evidence of Victoria’s guilt now appeared different to his questioning eyes.

Victoria Kane is destroying everything I built. She planted those safety violations.

But what if Victoria hadn’t planted the violations? What if someone else had sabotaged Meridian Technologies and let Richard Pierce take the blame? The financial records Stefan and Hannah were investigating might hold answers that Alexander had been too angry to seek.

𝙁𝙞𝙧𝙨𝙩 𝙧𝙚𝙡𝙚𝙖𝙨𝙚 𝙖𝙩 𝙜Ʞ𝗅𝗇𝓸ν𝘦𝗅𝗌・𝗰𝗼𝗺

The banks are calling in our loans. Victoria’s influence reaches everywhere. Or maybe the banks were responding to legitimate concerns about Meridian’s financial stability after the factory accident. Maybe Victoria’s influence had nothing to do with it.

I won’t let her win. I won’t let her destroy what my father built.

Alexander felt tears burning his eyes as he read his uncle’s final entries. The pain was real, the desperation genuine. But pain and desperation didn’t always lead to an accurate understanding of events.

His phone buzzed with a new message from the Guardian: Your emotional attachment to your former wife is compromising the mission. If you cannot maintain focus on justice for your uncle, perhaps it’s time to proceed without your assistance.

Alexander stared at the message, feeling something cold settle in his stomach. The Guardian’s tone had shifted from supportive ally to calculating manipulator. When had their partnership started feeling more like a threat than a collaboration?

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