I Was the Only Employee Sitting Alone at My Boss’s Wedding — Then Her Younger Sister Whispered a Secret That Changed Everything
Chapter 6
The investigation lasted six months.
Ethan had disappeared to Europe.
Interpol became involved.
Hartwell International survived the scandal.
Olivia had to explain the hidden transfer structures.
She cooperated fully.
She released documents publicly.
The board supported her.
But the media was relentless.
They called her naïve.
They called her careless.
Some even claimed she had been involved.
I stayed beside her through the worst of it.
Not romantically.
At least not yet.
I helped rebuild the company’s strategy division.
We discovered dozens of fraudulent transactions.
Ethan had planned to gain control of Hartwell’s voting shares and then sell several divisions to companies he secretly controlled.
The offshore structure was worth hundreds of millions.
But there was one thing he hadn’t anticipated.
Olivia’s father had left behind a second set of documents.
Natalie found them.
They were hidden inside an old piano at the lake house.
One evening, Natalie called me.
“You need to come.”
I arrived within thirty minutes.
She showed me a handwritten letter.
It was from Olivia’s father.
My daughters,
If you’re reading this, I failed to protect the company from the people around me.
But there is one person you must trust. Daniel Reed.
I stared.
Natalie looked at me.
“Why did he mention you?”
“I don’t know.”
She handed me another page.
Daniel has integrity. He will never use Olivia’s weakness against her.
I couldn’t speak.
Olivia arrived a few minutes later.
She read the letter.
Then looked at me.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I didn’t know.”
She smiled.
“My father trusted you.”
“I barely knew him.”
“He knew enough.”
She sat beside me.
For a long time, neither spoke.
Then she said:
“When I was at the altar, I thought I was choosing a future.”
She looked down.
“I was actually giving someone control.”
I nodded.
“You stopped me.”
“We stopped you.”
She smiled faintly.
“Thank you.”
Then she reached for my hand.
Her fingers rested against mine.
Neither moved.
The moment felt different.
The crisis had changed something.
Not only because of gratitude.
Because we had begun to see each other differently.
She wasn’t just my boss anymore.
I wasn’t just her employee.
We were two people who had survived something together.
And neither of us knew what came next.
