Chapter 14:
The days that followed were a storm of headlines, lawsuits, and whispered apologies.
Eden's name trended globally—not as Cassian Wolfe's fiancée or a pawn in a corporate scandal, but as a woman who stood at the center of the wreckage and refused to break.
Cassian watched from the shadows.
He had never craved spectacle.
But Eden? She owned it.
Not as part of his empire—
But as a force all her own.
And that, he realized,
was what scared the board the most.
Verena resigned two days after Eden's press statement went viral.
She left behind a single note on Cassian's desk:
I built an empire to survive.
You burned it to be loved.
Maybe you were braver than me.
Cassian folded the paper and tucked it into the drawer—beside Eden's first letter.
The one she'd left when she disappeared.
The past, now stacked side by side.
But Malik wasn't gone.
Not yet.
He resurfaced in Dubai.
A leaked email exposed everything:
Millions funneled from Wolfe Global's dormant shell accounts into a new venture—Crownspire Capital.
Anonymous investors. Aggressive buyouts. Familiar signatures.
Eden read the files in silence, her jaw tight.
Cassian stood behind her.
"He's making his final move."
"He's trying to gut you from the inside."
"No," he said. "He's trying to become me."
They flew to Dubai in silence.
Cassian's jet sliced through the clouds, but Eden barely noticed.
Her thoughts swirled with everything unspoken.
Malik's new office glittered like ambition—
Glass, chrome, security.
Cassian didn't knock.
The guards let him through. Of course they did.
Malik waited inside.
Hands folded.
Smile sharp.
"I wondered how long it would take you to crawl here."
Cassian's voice was ice. "You stole from our family."
Malik shrugged. "I recycled legacy. You were always the sentimental one."
Eden stepped forward.
"And what am I now? Still a liability?"
Malik's gaze flicked to her.
"You? You're the wildcard. The queen no one accounted for."
She smiled. "Then maybe it's time we change the game."
Back in London, they moved fast.
Cassian called his legal team.
Eden met with journalists.
They exposed Crownspire's rot—fraud, identity laundering, insider manipulation.
Then came the final blow:
A signed statement from Noah.
He denounced Malik's entire operation.
Confessed to years of blackmail.
Named names.
The world turned on Malik in a day.
His assets froze.
His name soured.
Crownspire collapsed.
But Cassian didn't celebrate.
He stood alone in his office, eyes on the skyline.
Power won this way…
Never stayed clean.
Eden entered without knocking.
"You look like someone who won a war and lost something anyway."
He turned. "What if I did?"
She walked to him. Took his hand.
"Then let's rebuild. But on our terms."
That night, they walked the streets of London.
No cameras.
No security.
Just them.
At the bridge over the Thames, Eden paused.
"What if we left?" she asked.
"Left Wolfe Global?"
She nodded.
He stared out over the water.
"For the first time, I can see past this city."
She smiled. "Write. Travel. Open a bookstore above a bakery."
He laughed. "You've thought this through."
"Every night since Paris."
He pulled her close. "And if I say yes?"
She tilted her head back. "Then we leave the crown… and take only the love."
The decision wasn't easy.
The board resisted.
Investors threatened.
But Cassian stood before them—calm, unshaken.
"I'm stepping down."
Gasps.
"I built this company to protect something that no longer needs protecting.
My family legacy ends with me… so something new can begin with her."
He turned to Eden in the front row.
"She's not my weakness. She's my mirror.
And in her, I see the version of me I still believe I can be."
Silence.
No applause.
No protests.
Just permission to walk away.
A month later, Wolfe Global had a new CEO.
Eden and Cassian disappeared from the headlines.
Rumors bloomed:
Lisbon. Marriage. A breakup.
Most forgot.
But in a quiet neighborhood by the sea,
Above a small bookstore with handwritten poetry in the windows,
A man and a woman began again.
No crown.
No scandal.
Just love—
And the quiet echo of a past they no longer carried.