Chapter 2 - The Marriage Nobody Understood
Elena did not go home.
The home Damian knew was no longer hers.
Maybe it had never truly been.
Instead, she went to the thirty-eighth floor of Voss Tower, a private level Damian had spent years believing belonged to institutional investors.
The elevator opened into a quiet office overlooking Manhattan.
No assistants waited.
No photographers.
No luxury designed for display.
Only dark wood, glass, and a single framed photograph on the wall.
Elena stopped in front of it.
She was twenty-six in the picture.
Her father stood beside her.
Behind them was a construction site and a temporary sign bearing three words.
VOSS GLOBAL HOLDINGS.
“You kept it.”
The voice came from behind her.
Elena turned.
The man who had opened the file during Damian’s humiliation entered the office.
His name was Jonathan Mercer.
Publicly, he was listed as CEO of one of Voss Global’s largest operating companies.
Privately, he had worked for Elena’s father before Elena had even graduated from college.
“It belongs here,” Jonathan said.
Elena touched the edge of the frame.
“My father thought Damian could become better.”
Jonathan said nothing.
“So did I.”
“You protected him for seven years.”
“I protected the company.”
Jonathan watched her.
“That isn’t the same thing.”
Elena finally looked at him.
“No.”
“It wasn’t.”
Her marriage to Damian had begun before he had money.
That was the part nobody knew.
When they met, Damian Cross had been ambitious, charming, and almost recklessly confident.
Elena had admired that confidence because she had spent most of her life surrounded by men who inherited certainty with their last names.
Damian had inherited nothing.
He had built his first company from a rented office and two borrowed computers.
Elena invested anonymously.
Then again.
Then again.
Whenever Damian believed he had found another brilliant investor, Elena had been behind the corporation writing the check.
She wanted him to know the feeling of building something himself.
She never expected him to mistake support for superiority.
Jonathan placed a folder on her desk.
“There’s a problem.”
Elena opened it.
“What kind?”
“We completed the first asset review.”
“And?”
“Seventeen million dollars is missing.”
Elena’s eyes narrowed.
“From where?”
“Three operating companies.”
“When?”
“Over twenty-six months.”
She turned another page.
Transfers.
Consulting fees.
Acquisition deposits.
Payments to companies with unfamiliar names.
“Damian?”
“We can’t prove it yet.”
Elena looked at the destination accounts.
One appeared repeatedly.
NORTHSTAR ADVISORY LLC.
“Who owns Northstar?”
Jonathan hesitated.
“That’s where it gets complicated.”
He handed her one final page.
Northstar was registered through a trust in Delaware.
The beneficiary was hidden.
But the authorized representative was not.
May you like
Elena read the name twice.
Veronica Lane.
