Chapter 103
Elara’s POV
The drive back to the penthouse was as quiet as a graveyard.
Mimi got in the car and didn’t say a single word. She just started the engine, pulled out of the parking spot. and drove. Her hands gripped the steering wheel tightly, knuckles going white, but her face was completely blank.
Elara sat in the passenger seat staring out the window, watching the city pass by in a blur. Buildings, people, cars, all of it meaningless background noise. Her mind was replaying the same scene over and over. The empty drawer. The outline in the dust where the papers had been. The proof that Penelope had been there, had searched, had found exactly what she was looking for.
Neither of them spoke. What was there to say? The damage was already done. The evidence was in the enemy hands. Penelope had won.
The silence stretched on, thick and suffocating, broken only by the sound of traffic and the occasional honk of a horn. Mimi navigated through the streets on autopilot, taking turns without really thinking about them, muscle memory guiding her back to Marcus’s building.
When they finally pulled into the garage and Mimi cut the engine, the silence somehow got even heavier. They sat there for a moment, both staring straight ahead at the concrete wall in front of them.
Then Elara opened her door and climbed out first. Mimi followed without a word.
They took the elevator up to the penthouse, the ride feeling impossibly long even though it only took thirty seconds. When the doors opened and they stepped into the apartment, Elara made it exactly three steps before her legs gave out.
She collapsed onto the couch, her body sinking into the cushions like all the strength had drained out of her at once. Her head fell into her hands, fingers digging into her scalp.
“What am I going to do now?” she asked, her voice barely above a whisper.
Mimi didn’t answer right away. She stood there for a moment, staring at nothing, then suddenly turned and walked toward the kitchen without saying a word.
Elara could hear her opening cabinets, the sound of glass clinking against glass as Mimi searched for something. A bottle pulled from a shelf, a cap twisted off.
Mimi reappeared a minute later holding a bottle of wine. She looked at the label, frowned, and shook her head.
“Nah, not strong enough.”
She disappeared back into the kitchen. More sounds of searching. More bottles being moved around.
Finally, Mimi came back out holding a bottle of vodka. “Perfect.”
She didn’t even bother with a glass. Just tilted the bottle back and took a long drink straight from it, her throat working as she swallowed. When she lowered it, she grimaced and shook her head like she was
15:04 Mon, May 11 d
Chapter 103
trying to shake off the burn.
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Then she walked back over to the couch and sat down next to Elara, the vodka bottle still in her hand.
“So what did you say?” Mimi asked, her voice a little rough from the alcohol.
Elara lifted her head to look at her friend. “What do I do now?”
Mimi took another drink from the bottle, smaller this time. She stared at the far wall for a long moment, her expression troubled.
“Well, honestly, for the first time in a long time, my answer is going to be I don’t know.” She turned to look at Elara directly. “Because I truly don’t know what to do here. This is bad, El. Really bad.”
Elara felt tears starting to prick at her eyes. Hearing Mimi admit she didn’t have a solution somehow made it more real and more terrifying.
“But,” Mimi continued, holding up one finger, “for a start, you have to tell Marcus. Like, as soon as he gets home. You have to tell him everything. That you made copies of the contract, that you left them at your old place, that Penelope and your dad went there and probably found them.”
“He’s going to be so angry,” Elara whispered.
“Maybe. Probably. But he’s the man, he’s the businessman, he’ll definitely know what to do. He’ll have lawyers or solutions or something that we can’t think of because we don’t operate in that world.” Mimi took another sip of vodka. “Because I really don’t know how to fix this, babe. This is beyond me.”
Elara buried her head in her hands again, her elbows resting on her knees. “This is the first time in a long time I’ve fucked up like this. Like, I’ve really screwed up. Completely screwed up.”
“I know.”
“What if he loses everything because of me? What if Penelope goes to the board with that contract and Marcus loses his shares and his company and everything his grandfather built?”
“Then we’ll deal with that when it happens. But right now, you need to tell him so he can start preparing a defense or whatever he needs to do.”
Elara nodded, even though the thought of having that conversation made her want to throw up. How do you tell your husband that you’ve potentially destroyed his entire life because you were careless?
They sat there in heavy silence for a few more minutes, Mimi occasionally taking small sips from the vodka bottle, Elara trying to figure out how she was going to explain this without sounding like a complete idiot.
And then, as if the universe had decided Elara had suffered enough waiting, the front door opened.
Marcus walked in carrying his briefcase, looking tired but relaxed. He’d loosened his tie and unbuttoned the top button of his shirt. When he saw Elara on the couch, his face lit up with a smile.
“Hi, love. I’m back,” he said warmly.
Then he noticed Mimi sitting there with a bottle of vodka in her hand at three in the afternoon, and his smile faltered slightly.
15:05 Mon, May 11
Chapter 103
“Oh, hi Mimi,” he greeted her, his tone a little more cautious now. “Didn’t know you were here.”
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He looked between the two women, clearly sensing that something was wrong. The tension in the room was thick enough to choke on.
“What’s going on?” Marcus asked, his expression shifting from confused to concerned. “Did something happen?”
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