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Chapter 11 - All In

Grace POV

Grace goes to war.

She stands in her conference room at six in the morning with her entire legal team gathered around the table. Exhausted faces stare back at her. People who've been working since midnight. People who know they're about to work even longer.

"Marcus Reid orchestrated a coordinated attack," Grace says. Her voice is ice. "False documents. Fabricated emails. Regulatory accusations. This isn't sabotage. This is a conspiracy. And we're going to prove it."

She assigns everyone tasks. Financial records go to one team. Document analysis to another. Email threads to a third. She's dividing and conquering and pushing everyone to the limit because Henry is running out of time.

Because she promised to fix everything.

Grace doesn't sleep that night. She doesn't sleep the next night either. She works eighteen-hour days and then comes back for more. She questions Henry about every business decision. She traces every payment. She builds a case so methodical and so brilliant that her team watches her work and understands why she's the most feared contract lawyer in London.

Henry watches her become the most fearsome version of herself and realizes he's never been more attracted to anyone in his entire life. She's brilliant. She's ruthless. She's everything she promised she would be when she was just a girl with a broken heart and a dream of revenge.

Now she's a woman using that dream to save him.

A week passes.

Grace's team finds the first piece of evidence. A money transfer from Marcus's account to a shell company. The trail is thin but it's there. Grace traces it with surgical precision. Where did the money come from. Who authorized the payments. Who benefited.

Henry sits across from her at three in the morning with documents spread across the desk between them. They've been working for sixteen hours straight and they're running on coffee and adrenaline and the absolute conviction that they're close to something.

"There's another person involved," Grace says. She's staring at the financial records like they're a puzzle and she's about to solve it. "Marcus didn't have the inside information to do this alone. Someone was feeding him details about your business. Someone with access."

Henry's stomach tightens. He knows what that means. Someone close to him. Someone he trusted. Someone who could have walked around his company accessing whatever information they wanted.

Grace keeps working.

She pulls up more records. She traces more payments. She follows the money trail backward like she's retracing someone's steps. At four in the morning, her entire body goes still.

"There," she whispers.

Henry leans over and looks at what she's found.

A series of payments to Marcus from a shell company. The company is registered under a woman's name. Victoria Marchant.

Henry's face goes white.

Victoria.

The word sits in his chest like a bomb that's about to detonate. Victoria was his business partner for fifteen years. Victoria had access to everything. Victoria knew every strategy and every deal and every weakness in his company.

Victoria was also his affair partner during his marriage to Grace.

The thought crashes through him like a tsunami. Victoria was the reason he was distant with Grace. Victoria was the reason he was cold and unwilling to let Grace close. Victoria was the poison in everything good he had with the woman sitting across from him.

And now Victoria is destroying him.

Grace's entire body goes still.

She's staring at the screen and Henry watches the moment she understands. She watches her realize that the woman Henry cheated with is now orchestrating his destruction. She watches her understand that his affair didn't just betray her in the past. It's destroying him in the present.

And for some reason that makes the betrayal feel fresher. Like it's happening all over again.

Grace doesn't move. She doesn't speak. She just sits there and stares at the name on the screen like it's a physical manifestation of everything she's been running from.

"Grace," Henry says quietly.

She stands up.

Without looking at him. Without explaining. Without acknowledging anything that's happened in the last three weeks. Grace just stands up and walks to the other side of her office.

Henry can see her hands shaking.

"It was Victoria," Grace says. Her voice is completely hollow. "The woman you had an affair with. The woman who made you distant. The woman who poisoned our marriage. She's the one destroying you now."

"Grace, I didn't know. I had no idea she was involved."

"I know." Grace's voice is still hollow. Like the girl she became has disappeared and been replaced by something frozen. "That's what makes this worse. You didn't know. You just let her in. You gave her access to everything. And she's been using that access to destroy you ever since."

Henry stands up. He tries to move toward her but she holds up her hand.

"Don't," she says.

"Grace—"

"I need to go home," she whispers. "I can't be here anymore. I can't look at you right now. I can't look at the name on that screen. I can't breathe in the same room as this."

"Let me explain—"

"There's nothing to explain. I already know the story. I lived the story. I just didn't know there was a sequel where the woman who destroyed our marriage gets to destroy you too." Grace gathers her things with shaking hands. "I'll be back tomorrow. We'll keep working. We'll destroy Victoria the same way she tried to destroy you. But I can't do this right now. I can't be the strong one right now."

"Grace, wait—"

But she's already walking toward the door.

"You need to understand something," Grace says without turning around. "I was starting to forgive you. I was starting to believe that maybe second chances were real. I was starting to fall back in love with the person you're trying to become."

She reaches the door.

"But finding out that the woman you cheated with is now orchestrating your destruction. That changes something. It makes me understand that some wounds don't actually heal. They just scar over and then bleed again when you least expect it."

Grace opens the door.

"I'll help you fight Victoria. I'll destroy her. But I don't know if I can forgive you anymore. I don't know if I can trust that the past won't keep coming back to hurt us."

She walks out of her office and closes the door quietly behind her.

Henry stands alone in the conference room with Victoria Marchant's name glowing on the computer screen and understands something terrible.

He didn't just destroy Grace seven years ago.

He created an enemy that's going to destroy both of them.

 

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