---- Chapter 14 Eliza POV: The fall of the House of Robinson was swift and brutal. The news of the sanctions, coupled with the legal challenge to their patent and the explosive video of Alton Thornton confessing to my kidnapping and planned murder, created a perfect storm. The stock price didn't just fall; it evaporated. Small shareholders dumped their stocks in a panic. The board was in open revolt. An emergency meeting was called to discuss a hostile takeover bid from a mysterious overseas investment firm. Cash fought it, of course. He fought it with the last vestiges of his Robinson pride. But he was a king with no army. The shareholders, desperate to salvage what little they could, voted overwhelmingly to accept the offer. The day of the final negotiations, | walked into the Robinson Tower boardroom as the lead counsel for the acquiring firm. The moment Cash saw me, standing at the head of the table where his father used to sit, the blood drained from his face. Every ounce of fight, of arrogance, of bluster, left him. In his eyes, | saw the dawning, horrific understanding. It was me. It had always been me. ---- "Good morning, Mr. Robinson," | said, my voice crisp and professional. "Shall we begin?" He stared at me, his mouth slightly agape. He looked like a man who had seen a ghost. A beautiful, vengeful ghost in a killer pantsuit. "Eliza..." he whispered, his voice cracking. "It's Ms. Fuentes," | corrected him coldly. "Or, in this professional setting, 'Counselor' will suffice. Now, if you could please direct your team to cooperate with our due diligence process, we can make this as painless as possible." The color returned to his face in a rush of fury. Before anyone could react, he crossed the room, grabbed my arm, and dragged me into an adjoining office, slamming the door behind us. "Let go of me," | said, my voice low and dangerous, yanking my arm from his grasp. "Why?" he demanded, his voice a raw mix of pain and confusion. "Eliza, why are you doing this?" He started to spew a torrent of pathetic, self-serving excuses. The leg injury was real, he just "recovered" faster than expected and wanted to surprise me. His marriage to Catherine was a business arrangement, a sham, it meant nothing. My mother's death was a tragic accident. "Don't you dare," | hissed, my voice shaking with a rage so ---- profound it was visceral, "speak her name." The force of my fury stunned him into silence. "You talk about love," | said, my voice trembling. "Let me tell you what your 'love' felt like, Cash. It felt like my mother having to endure your family' s snide remarks for years. It felt like being thrown into a kennel and mauled by dogs while you walked away with the woman who put me there. Did you know about that? Did Catherine ever mention that little detail?" He stared at me, his eyes wide with genuine shock. "The kennel? | thought... she said you wandered in there by accident." "And you believed her," | said, a bitter, humorless laugh escaping my lips. "You always believed them. Never me." | took a deep breath, the icy calm returning. "And that was before your father and your wife decided to have me killed." "No," he said, shaking his head, a reflexive denial. "My father... he wouldn't..." | took out my phone and played the video. The scratchy audio filled the small office. Alton's voice, cold and precise, detailing his plan for my "accident at sea." Catherine's gleeful agreement. Cash watched, his face turning a sickly shade of grey. He stumbled backward, his hand going to his mouth as if he were ---- going to be sick. The image of his family, the one he had chosen over me, shattered into a million pieces. "Did... did she do anything else to you?" he stammered, his eyes pleading. "She sent people after me when | left New York," | said, my voice devoid of emotion. "They spread rumors in my small town. That | was a prostitute, a homewrecker. That I'd had an abortion. | lost my first job because of it. | couldn't go to the grocery store without being whispered about, pointed at. | never understood how someone could be so filled with hate." | had channeled that hate. | had used it as fuel. It had driven me through sleepless nights of studying, through the brutal competition of the legal world. It had forged me into the weapon that was now pointed at his heart. "| clawed my way up, Cash," | said, stepping toward him as he shrank back. "| took every case no one else wanted. | worked harder, was smarter, and was more ruthless than anyone. All for this moment." | leaned in close, my voice a whisper. "The moment | could stand here, as the person who owns your entire world, and watch you lose everything."