Chapter 5: Deny Dante, or Lose Everything

Elena's POV

The reporters were already waiting when I arrived at the Ashford building.

They were all loaded up at the front steps and spilled onto the sidewalks. They had their cameras raised and microphones pushed forward the moment the car door opened.

The questions came in a wave, overlapping each other wildly.

“Elena, is it true you spent the night with Dante Valenti?”

“Did you end your engagement so you could sleep with your fiancé’s stepfather?”

“Claire Bennett says you planned this. Do you have any comment?”

I kept walking, keeping my face stiff, but didn’t lower my head. Inside the lobby, the air was much cooler than outside.

The employees went quiet as I passed, some even looked away, while the others stared too long.

Guess the scandal had moved faster than I had expected.

I made my way towards the main atrium, spotting Kevin already there and standing in front of a small cluster of cameras. His voice carried cleanly across the space.

“I loved her,” he said, sounding wounded and sincere. “I still do, but what she did last night with my stepfather… I can’t pretend it didn’t happen. She seduced him, destroyed our wedding on purpose.”

Claire stood beside him, her eyes red and fingers twisting the strap of her bag. And when the cameras turned to her, she let her voice break just enough.

“I tried to stop it,” she said. “I thought we were friends. I never imagined she would go that far.”

When the noticed me, Kevin's eyes snapped to me, while the cameras rushed at me.

I walked straight past them and into the elevator that led to the executive floors. Then my phone vibrated in my pocket.

I checked it fast.

Dante: Do you want me to come in?

I stared at the words for a second, then typed back.

Elena: No, just wait outside.

I need to do this alone.

The boardroom was already full when I entered, the glass walls on both sides filled with people. My father was seated at the head of the table, watching me as I stepped in.

The rest of the board watched me with carefully neutral faces, a major client’s suspension notice already on the screen at the far end of the room.

“COOPERATION PAUSED UNTIL THE “PERSONAL SITUATION” WAS RESOLVED”

Richard didn’t waste time. “Sit down, Elena.”

I remained standing though.

He continued anyway. “The company cannot absorb this level of scandal. The hotel project is at risk, clients are nervous. The board has voted to have you step aside from the project temporarily.”

Temporarily? I know better than to believe that.

He folded his hands across his chest. “There is a way to limit the damage though,” he added. “Publicly disown any relationship with Dante Valenti, and accept Kevin’s willingness to reconcile.”

He looked across the room before continuing.

“Frame last night as a moment of poor judgment under stress. Do that, and you keep your position, your team, and your access.”

Over fifty pairs of eyes stared at me as he stopped.

I could feel the trap they had forming. If I agree, I'll be allowed to stay, but only as a woman who has begged for forgiveness for choosing wrong.

If I refuse, they'll take everything they can reach.

“And if I don’t?” I asked.

Richard’s expression didn’t change. “Then your trust fund access will be frozen, your office credentials will be revoked, and your team will be reassigned.”

The last part got me thinking.

"Claire will take over your current responsibilities effective immediately."

I looked at her across the table. "Then she can have the title. She can't inherit the work in my head."

I reached into my bag, took out my employee ID, and placed it on the table.

“I’m not disowning anything,” I said. “And I’m not accepting Kevin’s forgiveness.”

No one spoke as I turned and left the room.

The walk back through the office was longer than it should have been, people stepped out of my way even when I wasn't close.

I didn’t bother stopping at my office as I glanced and found someone already boxing up things from my desk.

I went straight to the private server access, downloaded the only files that truly belonged to me, my personal design portfolio, the independent concepts I had developed outside company time, and logged out for the last time.

By the time I reached the ground floor, the loss had become real. I'd just given up my steady salary, my project database, and worst of all? Most of the client contacts I had built under the Ashford name.

What remained was the work I had done on my own, and the handful of people in the industry who trusted me as Elena, not as Richard Ashford’s daughter.

Dante was waiting outside the building, exactly where I had told him to stay. He didn’t ask what had happened, only looked at my face, then at the empty space where my ID badge used to sit on my blazer.

We didn’t speak till we were inside the elevator of the nearby parking structure. The moment the doors closed, the silence between us turned heavy.

I was still wearing the same shirt from the night before. The collar felt too tight against my throat.

Dante reached out and loosened it with careful fingers. The brush of his skin against mine sent a sharp, unwanted pulse through me.

The thought of his lips on my neck flooded my head, even the weight of his body and the way I had pulled him closer when I stopped using Kevin as an excuse.

Then he stepped closer, pressing me back against the mirrored wall of the elevator. Just enough that I felt the full length of him.

He didn’t kiss me, instead, he lifted my left hand and brushed his thumb slowly across the bruise that still lingered on my wrist from Kevin’s grip the night before.

"Say the word," he said quietly, his thumb still resting over the bruise. "Every Valenti contract with Ashford can be frozen before sunset."

I straightened. "No. I win this back myself."

Dante held my gaze for a beat, then nodded. "Your career is yours." His eyes dropped to my wrist. "Kevin touches you again, that part is mine."

He held my gaze for a long second, the air between us burning hotter with each second. And when the elevator doors opened, he stepped back first.

Outside, the rain had started, but the cameras still waited near the main entrance of the Ashford building. I walked towards them without letting myself hesitate.

“I will attend the client review hearing tomorrow,” I said clearly, loud enough for the microphones. “I will present my work. That is all.”

The questions started again, but I was already moving past them. Rain soaked through my clothes as I crossed the street fast, heading in one direction.

I spotted the black car parked a short distance away, the lead client representative, the one whose suspension notice had been on the boardroom screen.

He was standing under an umbrella near the back door, watching me approach.

And when I got within hearing distance, he cleared his throat. “I will hear your proposal. That does not mean I will sign on with you.”

Then got into the car, closed the door, and drove off into the rain.

Tomorrow's my last hope then. It's either I lose it all for good, or I lose everything I have left trying to win.

Only one way to find out now..