Chapter 96
Stella’s blood ran cold. “Do you have proof?” she pressed.
“Sending it to you now.”
She hung up after saying thanks. Moments later, her phone chimed with a series of grainy, time worn photos–Anna and Emily. heads bent together like conspirators.
The images were faded, but Stella didn’t need HD clarity to recognize the smug tilt of Anna’s smile or the way Emily clutched whatever Anna had handed her, looking like she’d just won the lottery.
A slow–burning fury coiled in Stella’s chest. She knew Emily had a tendency to be a bit opportunistic, but it wasn’t a big deal. Stella had never made an issue of it.
But she never expected Anna to take advantage of that and win Emily over, making her a friend.
She had never been the type to micromanage her friends‘ social lives. If Emily really didn’t like her and wanted to be friends with Anna, Stella wouldn’t stop them.
But the idea that Emily might have been involved in the kidnapping from the beginning, helping Anna, was too horrifying for Stella to even consider.
Her phone buzzed again. “One more thing–while digging into Lionel, I noticed the Quinn family’s company is circling the drain. Looks like someone’s been systematically dismantling them behind the scenes.”
Stella had suspected as much. When the Hayes family had been in crisis, the Quinn family–supposedly their closest allies–hadn’t lifted a finger to help. That kind of calculated silence didn’t happen without a reason.
The Quinn family were all about maintaining their pristine image. They’d bend over backward to appear benevolent–unless they were in someone’s crosshairs themselves.
For the Quinn family, keeping up appearances was crucial, and it earned them a lot of respect. They were just like the Hayes family in that regard.
But the Quinn family had never stepped up when the Hayes family needed them. The Hayes family hadn’t been angry about it, which meant only one thing. The Quinn family must have offended someone over the years, and this could be their comeuppance.
Stella didn’t care about the Quinn family’s troubles, but Lionel was a different story.
She was going to make him pay.
When Jordan came back and saw that Stella had cooked again, he felt a pang of guilt. “You shouldn’t have gone to this trouble,” he murmured.
“Go ahead and eat,” Stella replied, waving her hand. “I’m fine. I just wanted to make something for you.”
Jordan’s gaze lingered–heavy with something new these past weeks. A quiet intensity that made her pulse stutter. She told herself she was imagining things.
“Let’s eat before it gets cold,” she said abruptly. “I’ve actually had an appetite lately.”
A slow smile softened Jordan’s features. “That’s progress. You should eat when you need to.” His voice carried that same gentle
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tone he reserved only for her.
They ate in silence for a while, until Jordan broke the silence. “Kevin came by the office today, Aren’t you curious what we discussed?”
“I trust you.” The words came easily, without hesitation.
Jordan’s lips quirked with bittersweet amusement. Fate had dealt him the winning hand–he knew Kevin had proposed to Stella first. Knew she’d gently refused. Then he’d entered the picture, and the fragile detente between Stella and the world had shifted.
Jordan had told Kevin it was fate talking. Inside, he knew how fate could have missed by inches.
He’d brought her home anyway, ring on her finger and shadows in her eyes, and decided he could wait. She was heres she wasn’t running.
“Kevin’s on thin ice with the Carvers,” Jordan said. “Choosing to work with me right now? Not great for his popularity contest. But I’m the only one who can shove him into the driver’s seat permanently.”
Stella met his eyes across the table. “Jordan, thank you.”
Darkness flickered behind Jordan’s composed expression. He hated it when she spoke for other men. “For?”
“For giving him a fighting chance. He’s got the brains, and his dad sees that, but without backup, the second that old man makes Troy walk out of prison, Kevin would be exiled from the family entirely.”
“Troy,” Jordan echoed, voice suddenly arctic. “He’s never walking out.”
Stella glanced at him, puzzled.
Jordan picked up the serving fork, scooped a bite, and slid it onto her plate. “Try these. You nailed the seasoning.”
Stella gave a small nod but stayed quiet. She itched to ask how he planned to fight the Carvers‘ smear campaign; two days had already passed, and the stock was in free–fall.
Still, Jordan had come home looking like nothing in the
The answer arrived before she had to speak.
world could touch him, so she let the question die on her tongue.
First came the leak: a dossier on Troy Carver–every club he’d hit, every girl he’d used, and the one he’d left dead in a motel. The police department’s official account retweeted the thread, stamping it with a blue check and the word CONFIRMED.
In a heartbeat, the internet saw Troy for what he was. The mud the Carvers had flung at Jordan dried and flaked away; forty–eight hours, and they hadn’t produced a single new document.
Jordan, on the other hand, had receipts, timestamps, and the cops on his side. Those ugly deeds were all done by Troy himself, not Jordan.
Public rage swung hard. To make amends, retail investors piled back into Jordan’s company. Meanwhile, his team slipped a few paid influencers onto the feeds: Apple–the app Jordan built–was the last honest gatekeeper on the web, scrubbing ads before they ever reached your screen.
The pitch felt true, because it was. By sunset, #Stand WithAppleFilter was trending, and angry traders were dumping Carver Group shares like they were on fire.
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Chapter 96
Aug
Norman Carver had kept his cool through market dips. This, though, rattled him. He asked–then begged–for a meeting with Jordan. Jordan didn’t even text back.
“Back then, I wanted to talk,” Jordan told Stella over late–night coffee, “and he slammed the door. Now he wants in? Not how the- world works.”
The Carvers pulled every string they had. None worked; when Jordan cut someone off, he cut deep.
Norman didn’t know what to do. That was when Kevin stepped forward. “I can try,” he told his father. “No promises, but maybe he’ll hear me out.”
Norman gave a short, humorless laugh. “Don’t waste my time. I know exactly how you feel about Stella.
“How many times have I told you–set your sights on Anna. She’s the one with pull in that family. Stella? A ghost.
“Sure, she got lucky and landed Jordan, which only makes it worse. Jordan knows you were hung up on his wife. Why the hell would he open the door for you?”
