Chapter 14 - The Fire Below Kingsley Tower
Felix refused to leave Lily.
That decision nearly destroyed him.
Every instinct told him to race downtown.
Every lesson his family had ever taught him demanded that he protect the company.
Instead, he stayed beside his daughter.
Odette went.
So did Felix’s attorney.
Fire crews reached Kingsley Tower within minutes.
The basement sprinkler system activated.
Damage was limited.
But several archive boxes were missing.
Security footage showed a records contractor entering the area twenty minutes before the alarm.
The contractor’s authorization came from Celeste’s office.
By dawn, police had enough to obtain broader access to Arden Events records.
Celeste still denied wrongdoing.
Briggs stopped giving public statements.
Sarah sat beside Felix in the family lounge.
“You could have gone.”
“I know.”
“You wanted to.”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you?”
Felix looked through the window at Lily.
“Because this is exactly how I lost her the first time.”
Sarah frowned.
“I chose the company without knowing I was choosing it.”
He looked at her.
“I won’t make the same choice knowingly.”
Sarah said nothing.
Hours later, Odette returned carrying a metal evidence case.
Her coat smelled faintly of smoke.
“What is that?”
“One box was moved before the alarm.”
“Where?”
“To my private office.”
She placed the case on the table.
“I hid it there years ago.”
Felix opened it.
Inside were Sarah’s original notebooks.
She touched the cover of the first one.
Her name was written across it in faded black ink.
Sarah Marlowe.
For seven years, the company had claimed those notebooks never existed.
Sarah held one against her chest.
Then she cried.
Not loudly.
Not dramatically.
She simply folded over it as though someone had returned a piece of her body.
Felix looked away.
Odette did not.
She watched Sarah.
And something like shame finally reached her face.
The case also contained financing agreements.
One clause drew Felix’s attention.
If Felix failed to marry Celeste before a specified deadline, Arden Capital could demand repayment of a massive emergency loan.
The deadline was six weeks away.
Felix stared at Odette.
“So that’s why the wedding suddenly moved up.”
“Yes.”
“And if I don’t marry her?”
“The company could collapse.”
Sarah looked at Felix.
There it was.
The choice.
Lily or the empire.
Truth or survival.
Felix closed the contract.
“Then Kingsley collapses.”
Odette stared at him.
“You would sacrifice twenty thousand jobs?”
“No.”
Felix’s eyes sharpened.
“I’m going to save the employees.”
“I’m just not saving the people who created this.”
For the first time in days, he sounded like the businessman Manhattan feared.
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And Celeste had no idea what was coming.
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