Chapter 7.

The boardroom door clicked shut behind her.The sound was soft. Final.

Evelyn didn’t move.

The polished table stretched in front of her, long and cold under the white lights. The chairs were already filled. Papers stacked neatly. Pens aligned and eyes waiting.

Lucian sat at the head.

He didn’t blink.

Her throat tightened, she walked forward anyway.

Each step felt louder than it should have. Her heels struck the floor sharp, steady, betraying nothing. But her palms were damp. She pressed them against the side of her skirt before taking her seat.

No one spoke.

A file slid across the table toward her.

The sound of paper against wood scraped through the silence.

“Review page twelve,” Lucian said.

His voice didn’t rise, didn’t soften. It simply existed.

She opened the file.

Numbers. Signatures. Projections.

Her eyes moved, but the words swam. Her pulse thudded in her ears, loud enough she wondered if the others could hear it.

“Page twelve”.

Her fingers paused.

There it was.

Her name.

Printed cleanly beneath a recommendation she had never approved.

Her stomach dropped so fast it almost hurt.

She looked up.

Lucian was already watching her.

Not surprised, not angry.

Just watching.

“I didn’t sign this,” she said.

Her voice came out thinner than she meant it to.

A few board members shifted in their seats.

One of them cleared his throat.

Lucian leaned back slowly, steepling his fingers. “Your authorization code is attached.”

She flipped the page. She saw it “it was really there”

A weight settled on her chest, pressing down until breathing felt like work, like something invisible had wrapped around her ribs and pulled.

“That’s not possible,” she said.

The room felt smaller, the air warmer.

Across the table, Sophia adjusted her pen. Her expression smooth. Calm. Too calm.

Lucian’s gaze didn’t leave Evelyn’s face. “Are you implying a security breach?”

The question wasn’t loud.

But it landed heavy.

A sudden warmth flared up, leaving her throat tight and unsteady.

“I’m saying I didn’t approve this.”

Her fingers pressed harder into the paper.

Lucian tilted his head slightly.

“And yet it carries your clearance.”

The room felt silent again.

Not confused silence, but waiting silence.

Evelyn could feel it now, the subtle shift. The weight leaning toward her. The quiet curiosity. Would she fold? Would she panic?

Her heartbeat kicked harder.

She forced herself to breathe in slowly,then out.

“If there’s been a breach,” she said carefully, “then we should investigate it immediately.”

No tremor this time.

Across the table, someone scribbled something down.

Lucian’s jaw flexed once.

“Of course,” he said.

But he didn’t look convinced.

The meeting continued.

Voices blurred together. Contracts. Expansion plans.Risk assessments.

Evelyn wrote notes she barely processed. Her handwriting pressed deeper into the paper with every sentence. By the end of the hour, the tip of her pen had nearly torn through the page.

When the meeting finally adjourned, chairs scraped back in unison.

People avoided her eyes as they filed out.

Sophia paused beside her.

For half a second.

“You should be more careful,” she murmured, not looking at her.

Then she walked away.

Evelyn’s fingers curled into fists beneath the table.

Careful.

Lucian remained seated.

Of course he did.

She stood slowly, gathering her file.

“Stay,” he said.

The door shut behind the last board member.

The silence that followed was thicker than before.

Evelyn turned.

Lucian rose from his chair, he didn't rush nor was he slow but measured.

He walked around the table.

Each step deliberate.She held her ground.

Even when he stopped only a few feet away. Up close, his presence felt different. Not louder. Just heavier. Like standing too close to the edge of something steep.

“You didn’t authorize it,” he said.

It wasn’t a question.

“No.”

His eyes searched her face. Not casually but intently. As if looking for cracks.

“You understand what this looks like.”

Her jaw tightened. “Like someone is trying to use my name.”

His gaze moved down briefly to her hands.

She hadn’t realized they were shaking and were clasped together.

Lucian noticed.

Of course he did.

“You need to lock your access tighter,” he said.

“I already have.”

“Not tight enough.”he said.

Her chest knotted and burned, restless with a burning fire she couldn’t name. “So this is my fault?” she said.

His expression didn’t change.

“I didn’t say that.”

“But you’re thinking it.”

The words slipped out before she could stop them.

The room throbbed with silence, sharp and restless, each glance between them like a spark waiting to ignite.

His eyes darkened slightly.

“You’re in the middle of something bigger than you realize,” he said quietly.

Her breath caught in her throat.

“Then tell me what it is.”

The plea sat between them before she could swallow it back.

Lucian’s jaw hardened.

“If I tell you everything,” he said, “you won’t sleep.”

A chill ran down her spine.

“I’m not sleeping anyway.”

For a split second, something shifted in his expression.

He stepped back.

“Strength isn’t loud, Evelyn,” he said. “Sometimes it’s staying still when everyone expects you to break.”

Her throat seized, trembling under the weight of what she couldn’t say. But..i..i’m not breaking.” she said, her throat tight, unable for words to come out.

His gaze dropped to her clenched fists again.

Then back to her eyes.

“No,” he agreed softly. “You’re not.”

The softness unsettled her more than anger would have.

He turned away first.

“Secure your access. I’ll handle the rest.”

Handle the rest??

She hated that part of her that felt relieved hearing it.

By the time she returned to her desk, a shiver ran through her legs, leaving them trembling and unsure.

Theo was there.Leaning against the edge of her table, arms crossed.

He straightened immediately when he saw her face.

“What happened?”

She dropped the file onto her desk harder than she meant to.

“They used my clearance.”

Theo’s face snapped into something dangerous, precise, and unreadable. “Who?”

“I don’t know.”

Her voice cracked slightly. She looked away.

Theo stepped closer.

“Did he believe you?”

She hesitated.

Lucian’s eyes flashed in her mind. That steady, unreadable gaze.

“Yes,” she said finally.

Theo studied her for a second longer than necessary.

“And?”

“And what?”

“And what did he say?”

She let out a sharp sigh, cutting through the air. “That I’m in the middle of something bigger than I realize.”

Theo froze, the air thick around him, every muscle taut and silent.

Something clenched in her gut, sharp and relentless, leaving her breathless.

“You knew,” she whispered.

His silence answered first.

Then.. “I suspected.”

Her chest seized again. “Suspected what?”

“That the board isn’t unified.”

She laughed softly but there was no humor in it.

“That’s obvious.”

“No,” Theo said. “I mean divided.”

A moment passed before the words left her lips, “Over him.” They landed with a weight she couldn’t ignore, heavy in her chest, and her thoughts went straight to Lucian.

Evelyn’s fingers pressed into the edge of her desk.

“And where do I fit into that?”

Theo’s gaze softened.

“That’s the problem.”

The elevator dinged in the distance.

Someone walked past, pretending not to look at them.

Evelyn suddenly felt exposed again like glass.

Theo lowered his voice. “You were never just an employee.”

Her heart tripped in her chest, skipping beats like it couldn’t keep up with her fear.

“Then what am I?”

He didn’t answer immediately.

That scared her more than anything else today.

That evening, she stayed late again.

The office lights dimmed one by one until only a few rows remained lit.

She decided to stay back at the office to recheck her security logs.Her computer screen glowed in the dark.

Login history. Time stamps. “There it is”she spoke to herself.

Her access code had been used at 2:13 a.m.

She hadn’t even been awake.

Suddenly she felt a sharp pain in her chest.

2:13 a.m.

Her phone buzzed.

“Unknown number”.

She stared at it for a long time then opened it.

“Next time, it won’t just be your signature.”

Her stomach seized, tight and hollow, leaving her momentarily breathless as she read the message.

Her fingers hovered over the keyboard.

Who is this? She wondered.

She didn’t send this.

Instead, she looked toward Lucian’s office.

The lights were still on.

Of course they were.

She stood before she could think twice.Walked down the quiet hallway.

Her reflection followed her in the glass walls, pale and tense.

She didn’t knock, she pushed the door open.

Lucian looked up immediately.

His eyes flicked to her face.

Then to her hand.

“You received something,” he said.

Her breath caught in her throat.

“How do you always know?”

He stood.

“Because I did too.”

Her heart slammed against her ribs.

He picked up his phone from the desk and turned it toward her.

The message on his screen read:

“She’s weaker than you think.”A dry fire curled in her throat, burning with every swallowed word.

“She?” she whispered.

Lucian’s gaze locked onto hers.

“They’re testing reactions,” he said.

She could hear her pulse sounding in her ears.

“They’re watching who we tell.”The word we hung in the air.

Her chest seized, sharp and hollow, making her unable to catch her breath.

“We?” she repeated softly.

His jaw flexed.

“If you fall,” he said quietly, “they win.”

Her eyes burned suddenly.

Not from fear.

From frustration.

From exhaustion.

“I didn’t ask to be part of this.”

“No,” he agreed. “You didn’t.”

The room fell silent.

The city lights flickered outside the glass.

“I won’t let them use you,” he said.

The words weren’t loud.

But they weren’t cold either.

Something in her chest shifted.

“You don’t get to decide that alone,” she said.

His gaze sharpened slightly.

“Then stand.”

The challenge sat between them.

Her pulse steadied.

Slowly.

“I am standing,” she said.

And for the first time since she stepped into Cross Corp she believed it.