Chapter 37 - Ashes of the Tower
Before Elena could answer, Arthur Vance quietly signaled the remaining tactical guards and board members.
"Gentlemen," Arthur commanded with an icy flick of his hand. "Leave the room. The board meeting is adjourned indefinitely."
Jonathan Hayes and the rest of the terrified directors scrambled out of their chairs like frightened rodents, practically tripping over each other as they rushed through the double doors, leaving Alexander and Elena alone in the vast, echoing silence of the executive suite.
The city of New York stretched out below them through the floor-to-ceiling glass, an endless expanse of steel and grey fog. But inside the room, the world had narrowed down to the two feet of air separating husband and wife.
Alexander took a trembling step forward, dropping to his knees directly before Elena. The proud, untouchable titan of Wall Street laid his forehead against the hem of her dark coat, his shoulders shaking with silent, wracking sobs.
"I hated myself every second of every day," Alexander choked out, his voice muffled by the heavy fabric. "Every morning I woke up in that empty penthouse, I wanted to pull the trigger. I thought I had broken you. I thought I had thrown the only pure thing in my life into the dirt to save a company that wasn't even worth your shadow."
Elena stood motionless for a heartbeat. Then, slowly, she knelt down with him on the cold marble floor. Her warm, slender hands reached out, gently framing his tear-streaked face and forcing him to look into her eyes.
"Alexander," she whispered, her own tears finally spilling over her eyelashes, tracing silver paths down her pale cheeks. "You didn't break me. You gave me the one thing that kept me alive."
"What?" Alexander breathed, his voice cracking. "What did I give you besides pain?"
"You gave me Leo," she said, her voice filled with an overwhelming, luminous tenderness. "And you gave me a reason to fight. When Arthur told me what you were doing—when he showed me how you had secretly signed over your personal life insurance and every private asset to my name before you married Julianna... I knew."
Alexander’s breath hitched. "You knew?"
"I knew that the man who broke my heart in that hospital room wasn't the man I married," Elena said softly. "The man I married was a protector who was willing to destroy his own soul so that the wolves wouldn't tear me apart. I hated the silence, Alexander. I hated every cold winter night in that little house by the sea, wondering if today would be the day Marcus found us. But I never hated you."
She leaned forward, pressing her forehead against his. The warmth of her breath, the familiar, faint scent of jasmine and rain that had haunted his dreams for a thousand nights, crashed over Alexander like a tidal wave of salvation. He wrapped his arms around her waist, pulling her tightly against his chest as if the sheer force of his grip could erase three years of agony.
"Where is he?" Alexander whispered desperately. "Where is Leo?"
"He's downstairs," Elena murmured against his neck. "In the armored suite with Arthur's private detail. He's safe, Alexander. For the first time in his life, our son is truly safe."
Alexander closed his eyes, holding his wife as the grey clouds outside began to fracture, letting the first golden beams of morning sunlight wash across the glass tower.
The war for Vance Global was over.
May you like
Or so they believed.
***
