Chapter 121
Chapter 121:
“Back to work, everyone p>
She sat down. Beneath the desk, her hands were trembling — but she had won.
Vincent was pacing his office, his phone buzzing continuously on the desk.
Jocelyn entered without knocking.
“The staff knows,” she said. “The board knows p>
Vincent turned on her with pure hatred in his eyes. “You ruined everything p>
“You ruined it yourself when you hired your mistress,” she replied.
The desk phone rang. The caller ID flashed: The Wife.
Vincent went pale. His hands trembled as he pressed the speaker button.
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“Vincent.” Aunt Lily’s voice was glacial — the measured calm of someone who had already made every decision that mattered.
“Lily, honey, it’s all lies—” he started, his voice cracking on the last word.
“I received the photos,” Lily said. “I also heard about the lobby scene. And the public confession p>
A beat of silence.
“I am freezing our joint accounts. My lawyers will call you p>
Click.
Vincent stared at the phone on his desk. Without Lily, he was nothing — and he knew it.
He raised his eyes to Jocelyn. “You sent them p>
Jocelyn offered a small, unhurried shrug. “I have no idea what you’re talking about p>
“Get out,” he whispered.
She left. Walking back to her own office, she felt lighter than she had in weeks.
An hour later, as she was gathering her things to leave for the day, a courier arrived carrying a box. Inside sat a striking white orchid in a minimalist black vase. Tucked into the stem was a small, crisp envelope. The card inside was heavy cream cardstock, and it held only three words, written in elegant, sharp calligraphy:
Well done, niece.
There was no signature. But Jocelyn knew. It was from Aunt Lily — a quiet acknowledgment, and a thank you for the truth.
Across town, at Douglas Corp, Kieran sat behind his desk studying a dossier.
“Gaston Collins. Clean record. No known girlfriends,” the private investigator reported.
“What about boyfriends?” Kieran asked.
“Rumors. But no proof. He’s a ghost — pays no one, sees no one outside of his business partners p>
Kieran drummed his fingers on the desk. “If he’s a ghost, he’s hiding something. Keep digging. Look into his finances. Find out who he’s paying p>
He reached for a photograph beside the dossier — Jocelyn at the mall, pulled from the security feed. He had bribed a guard for it. She was smiling at the boy, her whole face open and easy. Happier than she had ever looked with him.
Kieran stared at it for a long moment.
Then he closed his fist around it, crumpling it slowly.
“You’re mine, Joss,” he whispered. “You just forgot p>
The next day.
Across town, in an office that felt like a sterile cage of glass and steel, another future was being negotiated with far less certainty.