Chapter 517

Chapter 517:

But maybe he could still honor his uncle’s memory by finding the real truth instead of the convenient fiction he had been fed. Maybe he could still protect Camille from whatever larger scheme was unfolding around them.

The first step would be investigating the Guardian himself. Finding out who was really behind the encrypted messages and mysterious meetings. Discovering what agenda Alexander had been unknowingly serving.

As Alexander began planning his investigation into his supposed ally, he felt something he hadn’t experienced in months: hope. Not hope for reconciliation with Camille—that bridge might be burned beyond repair. But hope that he could still become the man she had once believed him to be.

The man who chose truth over convenient lies, who chose protection over destruction, who chose love over the seductive poison of revenge.

The questions that had been building in his mind finally crystallized into a single, terrifying possibility:

What if everything he thought he knew about his uncle’s death was wrong?

Victoria Kane sat in her favorite armchair by the window of her estate’s study, afternoon sunlight streaming across the financial documents spread on her lap. Three days out of the hospital, she still moved carefully, her body reminding her with every breath how close the stress had brought her to complete collapse. The cancer treatments had weakened her physically, but her mind remained as sharp as a blade.

Camille watched from the doorway, relief and worry warring in her heart. Victoria looked fragile in the oversized chair, her usually commanding presence diminished by the loose cardigan draped over her shoulders and the reading glasses perched on her nose. But her eyes burned with the same intellectual fire that had built Kane Industries from nothing.

“You should be resting,” Camille said softly, entering the study with a cup of herbal tea.

“I’ve been resting for three days. My body might be weak, but my brain is fine.” Victoria accepted the tea gratefully, her hands trembling slightly as she lifted the cup. “Besides, someone has been trying to destroy everything we’ve built. I’m not going to recover while lying in bed ignoring the threat.”

Stefan and Hannah sat at the large oak desk across the room, their laptops displaying financial records that painted a complex picture of corporate manipulation spanning fifteen years. The past week of investigation had brought them closer to the truth, but also revealed how sophisticated their enemy really was.

𝖁𝗂𝖾𝗐 𝖋𝗋𝗈𝗆 Ⳍ𝓪𝗅𝓷𝗈𝗏𝗲𝗅𝓈ꓹ𝚌𝓸𝓂

“Show me what you’ve found,” Victoria said, gesturing for them to bring their materials closer.

Hannah carried her laptop over first, settling cross-legged on the floor beside Victoria’s chair. The informal seating arrangement would have shocked Kane Industries employees who knew Victoria as an intimidating boardroom presence, but illness had stripped away some of her corporate armor. “The financial transfers we traced all lead back to shell companies,” Hannah explained, her screen showing a web of offshore accounts and dummy corporations. “But Stefan found something interesting about the timing patterns.”

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