"You are safe. You are not physically dying. This is only a panic attack," Clara stated. Her voice was incredibly calm, perfectly steady. It was as soft as silk, yet as unbreakable as solid steel.
She shifted her position, firmly gripping Richard's broad shoulders to physically prevent his massive frame from collapsing forward onto the marble.
"Match my breathing," Clara instructed, staring directly into the terrifying depths of his dark eyes. "Focus entirely on the sound of my voice. Shut everything else out. Inhale deeply through your nose. One... two... three... four. Hold it."
Richard desperately tried to drag the air in, his entire body violently shaking as he fought his own paralyzed lungs.
"Good. Now exhale very slowly through your mouth. One... two... three... four... five."
Agonizing seconds slowly ticked by. An incredibly intimate, fragile silence descended upon them, completely isolating them from the catastrophic chaos tearing the company apart outside the door. Clara patiently, relentlessly repeated the counting rhythm. She actively ignored the horrific fact that she was physically holding the monster who had ordered the hit on her brother. In this specific, frozen second in time, the terrifying billionaire in her arms was simply a broken, suffocating man.
Slowly, almost imperceptibly, the erratic, violent rhythm of Richard's breathing began to stabilize. The wild, uncontrollable tremors racking his massive frame began to subside. His death grip on his own ruined shirt slowly loosened. The rigidly tense muscles in his sharp jaw finally relaxed.
Oxygen flooded back into his brain.
Richard's head dropped heavily forward. His damp forehead rested completely against Clara's slender shoulder. The man looked incredibly, devastatingly exhausted, as if he had just single-handedly fought a war against a hundred men.
Clara remained perfectly still. She allowed the massive man to lean his entire, heavy weight against her. She could smell the sharp, intoxicating scent of his cedarwood cologne mixed with the metallic tang of fear sweat. Their dynamic had violently, entirely flipped. The untouchable, tyrannical CEO was now completely on the floor, entirely dependent on the penniless girl he had aggressively purchased.
Several long, heavy minutes passed before Richard finally possessed the physical strength to move.
He slowly lifted his head from her shoulder. His bloodshot eyes stared deeply into Clara's face from mere inches away.
"You just saved my life," Richard whispered, his baritone voice incredibly hoarse and broken.
"I simply do not want to be the primary suspect in the murder of the Sterling Group's CEO," Clara replied flatly. She immediately tried to pull her hands away and physically distance herself.
But Richard moved faster.
His long fingers shot out and firmly wrapped around Clara's delicate wrist, utilizing whatever microscopic fraction of strength he had left to keep her exactly where she was.
Richard's dark eyes flicked down to the death warrant resting on the floor, then snapped back to Clara. The paralyzing terror had completely evaporated from his gaze, instantly replaced by a profound, agonizing sorrow and a freezing, absolute fury.
"That is my actual signature, Clara," Richard stated. His voice was terrifyingly quiet, but it vibrated with immense, contained emotion.
Clara's entire body instantly went rigid. Her suppressed rage violently boiled back to the surface. "Then why the hell are you sitting here acting like the victim"
"It was a blank piece of paper," Richard cut her off instantly. His dark eyes desperately locked onto hers, silently begging her to listen to the truth. "Five years ago, my father was lying in a coma in this exact city. The corrupt board of directors completely refused to authorize emergency corporate funds without the primary heir's official signature. I was only twenty years old. My uncle, Arthur Sterling, shoved a massive stack of completely blank corporate documents into my hands. He swore to God it was an emergency legal procedure strictly to save my father's life."
Clara's breath hitched violently. Her eyes slowly widened in absolute horror. The encrypted audio file she had hacked into just twenty minutes ago aggressively replayed in her mind. Arthur's raspy, terrifying voice ruthlessly threatening her father in the lab.
"I signed those blank pages," Richard confessed, his sharp jaw clenching so hard a muscle violently ticked. Pure, unadulterated hatred and profound regret fused perfectly in his voice. "Arthur stole my legal authority. He took that blank, signed paper and used it to officially execute your father in that laboratory, completely without my knowledge."
Clara's entire universe violently stopped spinning. The horrific truth she had been desperately hunting for was infinitely more twisted and terrifying than she could have ever imagined. Arthur Sterling was the absolute puppet master. The old phantom had ruthlessly murdered her father, and flawlessly framed his own nephew for the assassination.
Richard slowly released Clara's wrist. He picked up the death warrant from the floor and heavily pushed himself back up to his feet. The terrifying, omnipotent aura of the CEO slowly returned, but this time, it felt infinitely darker, infinitely more lethal.
"He slaughtered your father. He catastrophically sabotaged my life's work today. He desperately wants us to murder each other," Richard hissed, his dark eyes blazing with pure, lethal vengeance. He looked down at Clara. "We have the exact same enemy, Clara."
Right as Clara opened her mouth to speak, the massive double doors of the office were violently kicked open for the second time.
David stood completely frozen in the doorway. The loyal assistant's face was as white as a sheet of paper. Standing directly behind him were not the standard corporate security guards.
It was a heavily armed tactical squad of federal police officers wearing thick Kevlar vests.
"I am so incredibly sorry, Mr. Sterling," David whispered, his voice violently trembling with absolute terror.
The lead federal officer marched aggressively into the office, holding up a heavily stamped, official state warrant.
"Richard Sterling," the officer announced, his voice booming across the massive room. "You are officially under arrest. You are being charged as the primary mastermind in the multi-billion dollar embezzlement of the Mega-Medica Initiative, and for the premeditated attempted murder in the vehicular hit-and-run two days ago."
The officer pulled a pair of heavy steel handcuffs from his tactical belt. "You need to come with us right now."