Chapter 44
The soft whir of the printer filled the office as yet another set of documents emerged, each page thick with dense text, official seals, and hastily scrawled signatures. Jack leaned over the desk, scanning the newest pile with a sharp eye while Emma sat across from him, her brow furrowed in concentration.
“This is insane,” Jack muttered, flipping to another page. “Every time we think we’ve uncovered the full story, another piece of the puzzle falls into place.”
Emma nodded, her hands trembling slightly as she held another report, the Buenos Aires fire emblem stamped in faded ink across the top.
“It’s like Luka planned this from the beginning, manipulating everyone to cover his tracks and make sure he came out clean.”
Jack glanced at her, his expression softening. “Including Alex.”
Emma’s stomach tightened at the mention of his name. For weeks, she had been piecing together fragments of the disaster that had haunted Alex, the same event Luka had weaponized to keep him under control. But the closer they came to the truth, the more complicated her feelings about Alex became.
Thomas entered the room, a stack of neatly organized folders in hand. His presence was calm, deliberate, as always, but there was a tension in his shoulders that Emma hadn’t seen before.
“Marcus just sent these over,” he said, placing the folders on the desk. “This should be the final batch of records from the Argentinian authorities.”
Jack immediately dove into the files, but Emma hesitated, her gaze fixed on Thomas.
“Thank you,” she said softly.
Thomas met her eyes, his expression unreadable. “You’re welcome. But I think you’re about to uncover some things that won’t be easy to process.”
Emma’s chest tightened, but she nodded. “I need to know. Whatever it is, I have to know.”
The three of them worked in silence for the next hour, each page revealing more of the tangled web Luka had woven. Financial records tied bribes to government officials, silencing reports of unsafe working conditions at a factory just outside Buenos Aires. Witness statements confirmed that safety inspections had been falsified, and emails showed a clear trail of orders from Luka to cut costs at the expense of worker safety.
But it was the final piece—a series of photographs and internal memos—that brought the full picture into focus.
Emma stared at the first image, her breath catching. It was a grainy shot of Alex standing near the burning factory, his shirt torn and bloodied, his face twisted in anguish. Workers surrounded him, some clinging to his arm as though he were their only hope.
She reached for another photograph, her hands trembling. This one was even more striking: Alex cradling a soot-covered child in his arms, her small hands gripping his neck tightly. Behind him, flames devoured the factory, smoke billowing into the dark sky.
“What the hell?” Jack muttered, rifling through a set of memos. He held one up, his brow furrowed. “This says Alex was there because he was negotiating with Luka’s people to stop the factory’s closure. He was trying to save jobs.”
Thomas leaned over Jack’s shoulder, reading the memo. His expression darkened. “This matches everything we’ve uncovered. Alex wasn’t just there as an executive. He found out about the factory’s unsafe conditions and demanded Luka fix them. When the fire started, Luka’s men bailed, but Alex stayed behind to help evacuate the workers.”
Emma pressed a hand to her mouth, her eyes locked on another memo. This one bore Luka’s signature. It outlined the cover-up in chilling detail: how witnesses were bribed, how the factory’s ownership was concealed behind shell companies, and how Alex was set up as the scapegoat to deflect blame from Luka. Her stomach churned as she read further.
“He stayed to save those people,” she whispered, her voice barely audible. “He risked everything. And Luka used it against him.”
Emma’s heart ached as the weight of the revelation settled over her. The image of Alex, bloodied and desperate, lingered in her mind. Despite everything that had driven them apart, this version of Alex—the man fighting to do the right thing—reminded her of the person she had fallen in love with.
Jack flipped through more documents, pausing at one file. “Wait a second. Look at this.” He held up a spreadsheet of transactions spanning the past five years, accompanied by a detailed ledger.
Emma leaned closer, frowning. “What is it?”
Jack scanned the entries, his voice heavy with disbelief. “It’s a record of payments made to the families of the workers killed in the fire. Annual payments. Tuition for their kids. Medical expenses. Housing.”
Thomas took the file, his jaw tightening as he read. “This isn’t just corporate restitution. These payments are personal. They’re from Alex.”
Emma’s breath hitched. “You’re saying he’s been supporting them all this time?”
Thomas nodded, his voice low. “Every year, he’s sent money to the families. Quietly. There’s no company name attached—just private accounts.”
Emma’s mind reeled. She traced the transactions with her finger, each line telling a story of quiet generosity. The man the world had painted as a cold, calculating executive had been quietly helping the victims’ families, ensuring their children could go to school, their homes were safe, and their futures secure.
Jack shook his head in disbelief. “Why didn’t he tell anyone? Why didn’t he fight back with this?”
“Because he thought it wasn’t enough,” Emma murmured. Her voice cracked as she pieced it together. “He thought he couldn’t undo the damage, so he tried to make amends in the only way he could.”
Thomas placed a hand on her shoulder, his touch grounding her. “This changes everything. Luka didn’t just frame Alex for the fire—he robbed him of the chance to tell his side. And Alex let it happen because he thought he deserved the blame.”
Emma’s heart ached as the weight of the revelation settled over her. The image of Alex, bloodied and desperate, lingered in her mind. She could see it now—the man she had loved, caught in an impossible situation, fighting to do the right thing even as the odds were stacked against him.
Jack broke the silence, his voice tight with anger. “This son of a bitch didn’t just ruin Alex—he ruined all those families who lost loved ones in the fire. And he almost got away with it.”
Emma looked down at the documents in her hands, her chest tightening. “We can’t let him get away with it. Even if he’s gone from New York, people deserve to know the truth.”
The room fell silent as Emma grappled with the enormity of what they had uncovered. Her anger at Alex for his recent coldness and his insistence on pushing her away hadn’t disappeared, but it was now tempered by something else—understanding.
She thought about all the times Alex had seemed distant, the weight he carried that he never explained. She had always assumed it was just part of who he was, a stoic man who didn’t let anyone in. But now she saw it for what it was: guilt, pain, and the burden of a choice he hadn’t been able to escape.
“He never told me,” she said finally, her voice breaking. “Not once. Not about the fire, not about what he did, or what Luka did to him. He carried this alone.”
Thomas placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder. “It doesn’t excuse everything, Emma. But it explains a lot. He thought he was protecting you by keeping you in the dark.”
Emma nodded, tears slipping down her cheeks. “And I let myself believe he didn’t care. I let myself hate him when all he was trying to do was protect me.”
Jack’s voice softened. “You didn’t know, Em. And honestly, he should’ve told you. That’s on him.”
Emma wiped her eyes, her resolve hardening. “I need to talk to him. He deserves to know that I know the truth. And I need to know why he didn’t trust me enough to tell me himself.”
