Chapter 6
The screen cut to Elias, standing in front of Whitman Tower, surrounded by reporters.
He held up a stack of papers, waving them at the cameras.
“These are bank records!” he shouted. “Five million dollars, transferred from Noah’s personal account to Emily Harper’s account two days ago! The day she flew to Chicago! He paid her to lie about her ex-husband! To pretend to be his girlfriend! All to make himself look like a hero so the board wouldn’t fire him for stealing twenty million from the company!”
The crowd erupted.
Noah stared at the screen, his face white.
“That’s impossible,” he whispered. “I never transferred five million dollars to anyone. My account is handled by a private wealth manager. I have to sign off on every transfer over ten thousand.”
He called his wealth manager immediately, putting him on speaker.
“John. Did you transfer five million dollars from my personal account to an Emily Harper in the last forty-eight hours?”
There was a long pause on the other end.
“Yes, Mr. Whitman. The transfer went through two days ago. The authorization had your signature and your personal PIN. I assumed it was for the... new family you announced at the press conference.”
Noah’s hand tightened around the phone.
“I didn’t authorize that transfer, John. Someone forged my signature. Got my PIN. Freeze the account. Now. And pull every record of who accessed my account in the last month.”
He hung up, running a hand through his hair.
“Elias,” he said. “He’s had access to my accounts for years. We shared a financial team until last year. He must have kept the codes. Forged the transfer to make it look like I paid you.”
Emily sank onto the couch, her hands shaking.
Five million dollars.
It didn’t matter that it wasn’t true.
It looked true.
The bank records were real.
The signature was real enough to fool a wealth manager.
The whole world would believe Elias.
That afternoon, Victoria Whitman showed up at the penthouse.
Noah’s mother.
She was in her sixties, elegant, cold, with silver hair and diamonds that cost more than Emily’s old house.
She swept into the living room like she owned the place—which she probably did, Emily thought.
“Noah,” she said, her voice like ice. “What is the meaning of this? Elias called me this morning. Told me everything. You’re going to lose the company your father built. All for this... this girl and her baby?”
She turned to Emily, looking her up and down like she was a bug on the floor.
“Get out. Now. Pack your things and take your child with you. If you’re gone by morning, I’ll make sure Elias drops the five million dollar story. I’ll tell the board you tricked Noah. That he was a victim. He’ll keep his job. Everyone wins.”
Emily stood, her chin raised.
“I’m not leaving. Noah is helping me protect my daughter. I’m not going anywhere until Ryan is gone for good.”
Victoria laughed, a sharp, bitter sound.
“Protect your daughter? You’re using that baby to get your hands on my son’s money. You’re just like every other woman who’s ever thrown herself at him. A gold digger. Nothing more.”
“Enough.” Noah stepped between them, his voice hard. “Emily is not leaving. She stays. If you have a problem with that, you can leave.”
Victoria’s face hardened.
“You’re making a mistake, Noah. Choose her, and you lose me. You lose the whole family. Elias will take the company. You’ll have nothing. Is she worth that?”
Noah didn’t hesitate.
“Yes.”
Victoria stared at him for a long moment, then turned and walked out, the elevator doors slamming shut behind her.
That night, Emily tried to leave anyway.
She waited until Noah was in his office on a call, then packed her suitcases, strapped Lily into her stroller, and headed for the elevator.
She had to go.
If she stayed, Noah would lose everything.
His company. His family. His whole life.
She couldn’t do that to him.
She’d just stepped into the elevator when the doors slid open again.
Noah was standing there.
He’d seen her.
“Where do you think you’re going?” he asked, his voice quiet.
“Away,” Emily said, her voice breaking. “I can’t let you lose everything for me. Your mother is right. I’m nothing but trouble. You should be with someone who doesn’t bring ex-husbands and scandals and five million dollar lies into your life.”
Noah stepped into the elevator, pressing the button to stop the doors from closing.
He reached out, cupping her face in his hands.
“Look at me,” he said. “You are not trouble. You are the best thing that’s ever happened to me. Before you, I was just a guy who ran a company. I had no one. Nothing to fight for. Now I have you. I have Lily. I have something worth losing everything for.”
He leaned closer, his forehead resting against hers.
“Please don’t leave. I need you. Both of you.”
Lily chose that moment to reach out, grabbing Noah’s shirt, babbling “Dada” again.
Emily broke down crying.
She nodded, unable to speak.
Noah picked up the suitcases, took her hand, and led her back into the penthouse.
That night, they didn’t sleep in separate rooms.
Emily lay in Noah’s bed, Lily curled between them, listening to his heartbeat against her back.
He wrapped his arm around her waist, pulling her close.
“I love you,” he whispered, so quiet she almost didn’t hear it.
Emily froze.
She turned to face him.
His eyes were open, looking at her like she was the only thing in the world that mattered.
“I love you too,” she said.
And for the first time in her life, she meant it.
The next morning, they woke up to good news.
John, Noah’s wealth manager, had found the proof.
The five million dollar transfer had been authorized from a computer in Elias’s penthouse.
The IP address matched exactly.
The signature had been forged with a digital copy of Noah’s signature—stolen from a Whitman Group legal document six months earlier.
They had him.
But before they could go to the board, before they could go to the police, Elias struck again.
A text came through to Noah’s phone.
A photo.
Of Noah’s little sister, Ava.
She’d run away from home three years earlier, after a fight with Elias.
No one had heard from her since.
She was tied to a chair, gagged, her face bruised.
May you like
The caption read:
**You want your company back? You want your sister back? Sign over all your Whitman Group shares to me by five p.m. today. Or I send you her body in a box. And don’t even think about calling the police. If I see one cop, she dies. And then I go after Emily and Lily next.**
