Page 68 of So Close to You
“That bastard…” she murmurs in a whisper. “He just needed time to cover his tracks.”
Seraphina looks at Nerissa. Her eyes are wet with rage.
“If the merger was canceled because of a ‘moral scandal,’ no one would investigate the accounts. The board would blame what I did, not the balance sheets. When he found out about us, he knew I was the perfect scapegoat: the adulterous CFO who torpedoes a multimillion-dollar deal.”
Maeve lets out a curse under her breath.
“He turned you into a smokescreen,” she says.
Seraphina nods, her gaze fixed on the screen.
“While everyone was gawking at our photos with morbid curiosity, no one was looking at the seven-million-pound hole right in front of their fucking eyes.”
“That means he has at least one collaborator,” Callum points out.
Nerissa feels nauseous. All that destruction and public humiliation had never really been about them. It was about greed.
Seraphina slumps into the chair and covers her eyes with her hands for a long moment.
“He’s destroyed my career and your lives to protect himself…”
Nerissa gently pulls her hands away and forces her to look at her.
“And now we’re going to destroy him,” the surgeon declares. “We’re not going to let him get away with it.”
Seraphina looks at her, and something resembling hope flickers in her exhausted eyes.
“We need to get this out before they wipe the servers,” Maeve says as she works. “I’m going to make encrypted copies in three different locations.”
Callum already has his phone in hand.
“I have a trusted contact in financial crimes,” he explains. “If this is real—and it looks like it is—Adrian is finished. I’m going to call him right now so he can start laying the groundwork.”
Seraphina turns back to the computer. The devastation is still there, but now she has a clear direction. Nerissa watches her for another hour, fascinated. Even broken, even cast out of her own world, Seraphina remains the brightest mind in the room. The woman she’s in love with.
Nerissa realizes she isn’t watching a woman fall. She’s watching a woman prepare to strike back with everything she has. And now, there’s only one final step left.
Nerissa stares at the blank email screen for several minutes. Daphne Mercer’s name appears in the “To” field. Seraphina looks up, concerned.
“You don’t have to do it yourself,” she says. “I can send it to her.”
“No, I have to do it,” Nerissa replies, taking a deep breath. “I need to close this chapter of my life.”
Maeve and Callum exchange a discreet glance and step aside to give them some space. Nerissa begins typing, then attaches the summary documents, the key transfers, and all the information they’ve gathered. She then writes:
“Adrian is using you to clean up his image and Seraphina as a scapegoat for a multimillion-pound embezzlement scheme.Look at the files carefully. And decide which side of this story you’re going to be on when the board explodes tomorrow. Because this isn’t going away. We have enough evidence to tear his version of events to shreds.”
She reads the message twice, corrects a comma, and looks up at Seraphina. The executive is watching her from across the table, exhausted, vulnerable, and carrying a ferocity she had almost lost.
Two seconds later, Nerissa hits “Send.”
This is the first shot in a war that is only just beginning.
Chapter 25
Seraphina Chapman senses the fear the very moment the boardroom door swings open before her and all conversation around the rectangular table dies down abruptly. Everyone present seems to have gathered to witness a public execution.
Adrian Beckett sits at the head of the table with an air of self-importance that is downright insulting. Seated around him are the fund’s major investors, several board members, and two outside legal representatives who have flown in from London. None of them holds Seraphina’s gaze for more than two seconds as she enters the room.
