Elena POV
Elena sat in Nathan Cross's office and felt like she was sitting inside a fishbowl.
The entire wall behind his desk was glass. The city sprawled beneath them. Forty-two floors up and the world looked small. Elena looked small. She felt small.
Nathan sat across from her wearing a charcoal suit that probably cost more than her apartment. His dark eyes moved across her face like he was reading something. His expression was calm. Too calm. Like he already knew everything she was about to say.
"So tell me about yourself, Sophie," Nathan said. His voice was quiet but it filled the whole room. "Why do you want this job?"
Elena's heart was hammering so hard she thought he could probably hear it.
"I've always been interested in technology," Elena said in Sophie Morgan's careful voice. "And your company is the most innovative in the industry. I wanted to work for someone who's changing the world."
Nathan nodded slowly. He wasn't writing anything down. He wasn't taking notes. He was just watching her like she was the most interesting thing he'd ever seen.
"What are your qualifications?" he asked.
Elena rattled off Sophie Morgan's resume. The fake jobs. The made-up experience. The lies that she'd spent weeks rehearsing. Nathan listened without interrupting. His eyes never left her face.
"You've worked as an assistant before?" he asked.
"Yes. For two years at Henderson Tech. And before that at Digital Solutions."
Both lies. Both companies that didn't exist. Both references that were paid actors answering phones.
Nathan leaned back in his chair. He was quiet for a long moment. Elena felt sweat starting to form on her palms. She pressed them against her legs so he wouldn't see.
"What do you know about my company?" Nathan asked.
This was it. This was where Elena had to be careful. She couldn't know too much. Sophie Morgan wouldn't know the things Elena Park knew.
"I know you're in technology," Elena said carefully. "I know you've built Ashcroft Innovations into a very successful company. I know you're a visionary."
Nathan smiled. But it wasn't a real smile. It was the kind of smile a predator makes right before it attacks.
"That's what the news says," Nathan said quietly. "But that's not what you know, is it, Elena?"
Elena's blood stopped moving.
Her mouth went dry. Her hands went numb. She couldn't think. She couldn't breathe. She couldn't do anything except sit there and watch her entire plan fall apart.
Nathan stood and walked toward her. He didn't move fast but Elena felt like she was watching something dangerous approach. A lion moving through tall grass. A shark cutting through water.
He stopped in front of her and Elena had to tilt her head up to see his face.
"Your real name is Elena Park," Nathan said quietly. "You're an investigative journalist. You've been investigating me for two years. You got encrypted files from Marcus Chen. You created Sophie Morgan's entire identity using forgers in Brooklyn. The references are all fake. The employment history is all fake. Everything about Sophie Morgan is fake except her driver's license and bank account."
Elena stood up. Her legs felt weak but she forced herself to stand because she refused to let him look down at her while this was happening.
"How did you—" Elena started.
"I didn't build a ten-billion-dollar empire by being naive," Nathan said. His dark eyes looked even darker this close. "I see threats the way other men see air. When a woman with perfect credentials suddenly appears in my life, I notice. When her background is almost too clean to be real, I investigate. I always investigate."
Elena's mind was racing. She had to run. She had to leave. She had to get out of this building and warn David and figure out what to do next. Nathan was going to have her arrested. Or worse. Marcus had said that people who became problems disappeared.
Elena turned toward the door.
"Don't," Nathan said. Not a command. Just a word. But something in his voice made her stop. "If you walk out that door right now, I'll have federal agents pick you up before you reach the lobby. They'll arrest you for fraud. For identity falsification. For industrial espionage. You'll spend years in prison. And while you're in prison, Dimitri Volkov will destroy everything you love."
Elena turned back to face him. Her hands were shaking.
"Who is Dimitri Volkov?" she asked. But she already knew. She'd read the files. She knew the name. She knew the danger.
Nathan walked to his window and looked out at the city. When he spoke, his voice was different. Colder. Sadder.
"Dimitri Volkov is the man who destroyed your mother," Nathan said. "Dimitri Volkov is the man who destroyed my father. Dimitri Volkov is the man who controls both of our lives whether we want him to or not."
Elena felt like the ground had shifted beneath her feet.
"What are you talking about?" she whispered.
Nathan turned to face her. His dark eyes were empty. Like someone had reached inside him and pulled out everything that made him human.
"Your mother worked for Hartwell Textiles," Nathan said. "My father owned Hartwell Textiles. Your mother was blamed for stealing money that she didn't steal. My father took the blame in public but in private he knew the truth. Dimitri Volkov orchestrated the theft. Dimitri needed a scapegoat. Your mother was convenient. Your mother was innocent. And Dimitri didn't care because he'd already destroyed her."
Elena's chest was tight. She couldn't breathe properly.
"Your father was Richard Cross," Nathan continued. "My father. Dimitri has been business partners with my father for twenty years. Not real partners. Dimitri controlled everything. My father was just the face. Just the acceptable American businessman hiding Dimitri's operations. When my father started wanting out, when he started asking to leave the business, Dimitri couldn't allow that."
Nathan's voice dropped so low Elena had to lean forward to hear him.
"So Dimitri had my father killed," Nathan said. "The yacht fire. The one everyone called an accident. It wasn't an accident. I have proof. I have documents. I have everything you need to destroy Dimitri Volkov and take him down forever."
Elena felt like she was spinning. Everything she'd believed was shifting. Everything she'd planned was dissolving.
"Why are you telling me this?" Elena asked.
Nathan walked toward her. He stopped close enough that she could smell his cologne. Close enough that her body reacted against her will, recognizing something dangerous and powerful standing in front of her.
"Because you came here to investigate me," Nathan said. "And I'm telling you that you've been investigating the wrong person. I'm telling you that your mother's suffering wasn't my fault. It was Dimitri's fault. I'm telling you that I've been gathering evidence against Dimitri for three years. I've been waiting for someone brave enough to help me use it."
Nathan extended his hand toward her.
"I have a choice for you," Nathan said quietly. "You can expose me. You can take the evidence you have and go to authorities and destroy my company. And Dimitri wins. Dimitri stays alive. Dimitri stays free. Dimitri continues destroying people's lives."
Nathan's dark eyes held hers.
"Or you can help me," he said. "You can help me expose the real villain. You can help me destroy Dimitri. You can help me bring justice to everyone he's hurt, including your mother. But you can't do both. You have to choose, Elena. Help me expose Dimitri or expose me and let Dimitri win. You can't have both."
Nathan's hand was still extended toward her. Waiting. Offering a choice that didn't feel like a choice at all.
Elena looked at his hand. She looked at his face. She thought about her mother in the hospital. She thought about Marcus's warning about Dimitri. She thought about the photo of Nathan and Dimitri smiling together.
And she realized she had no idea what was true anymore.