Emma looked unconvinced. "Still..."
"I’ll be back in ten," Jean assured her. "Tell Logan to wait for if he arrives first in the boardroom."
Without waiting for another protest, Jean followed the woman to the elevators. They rose in silence, the soft music playing overhead doing little to ease the chill crawling up Jean’s spine.
Ding!
The elevator stopped on the 20th floor. The woman led her down a quiet corridor lined with frosted glass doors. At the far end, she stopped and opened the boardroom door.
Jean stepped inside.
Click.
The door shut behind her.
The room was dim, only ambient light from the half-closed blinds slipping through. The long conference table stretched ahead like a runway.
And at the window, standing tall and still... was a man she never wanted to see again.
Her blood turned cold.
"Alex?" Jean’s voice faltered.
He turned slowly, face unreadable. "Jean."
She stepped back instinctively, her heels catching slightly on the carpet.
"What the hell are you doing here?" she asked, throat tightening. "How did you even..."
"I ca to stop you," he said calmly, brushing invisible lint off his cuff. "Did you think I’d let you marry him just like that?"
Jean’s fists clenched at her sides. "You’re insane."
Alex’s gaze hardened. "No. You’re reckless. Stupid. You think this marriage will fix everything? You’re humiliating the family. Do you have any idea what people will say?"
"I don’t care what people say," she hissed. "This is my life."
"No," he snapped. "This is our family’s na. And you’re dragging it through the dirt. What are you even getting out of this, Jean? Power? Revenge? Love?"
Jean laughed, cold and sharp. "You never cared about what I wanted before. Why now?"
"Because you’re not just anyone anymore," Alex stepped closer. "You’re Jean Adams. And you’ve always belonged to the family. To ."
Her stomach twisted. "I don’t belong to anyone."
Alex’s expression twisted... sowhere between rage and disbelief. "I gave you freedom. And this is how you repay ?"
Jean’s voice dropped to a deadly whisper. "Freedom? You made my life poisoned."
He raised a hand... not to hit, but to shake her into submission... but froze when Jean’s hand shot into her coat pocket and pulled out her phone. She held it up like a weapon.
"One more step," she warned, "and I will scream. I’ll make sure every office in this building hears what you’re doing."
Alex’s jaw clenched. "You wouldn’t dare."
Her phone buzzed.
A ssage from Emma... —Henry just called. Logan didn’t send anyone. Where are you?!---
Jean’s fingers trembled, her gaze locking onto the locked door.
"You tricked ..." she whispered.
Alex took a step forward. "I only did what I had to. You’re not marrying him."
Jean rushed toward the door and slamd her fists against it.
"Help!" she scread. "Security!"
_____________________________
The waiting room inside the marriage registration office buzzed with muffled chatter. The Adams Corporation shareholders were exchanging confused glances, clearly puzzled by their unexpected invitation to witness Jean Adams’ marriage... to Logan Kingsley of all people.
Logan sat at the front, legs crossed in restless patience, flanked by Henry and his legal team. His family had taken their seats nearby, already exchanging amused whispers.
"She’s late," one of the lawyers finally muttered under his breath.
Logan’s jaw flexed. He checked the ti again. Exactly seventeen minutes had passed since Henry last said, "They’re on their way."
The clock ticked too loud in Logan’s ears.
Twenty three minutes.
He had waited twenty-three minutes past the scheduled ti, and still no sign of Jean. No call. No ssage. Not even Emma’s bubbly entrance.
His grip tightened on the armrest.
Henry nervously glanced at the door, then at his phone again. The silence on Jean’s end was beginning to feel... ominous.
"I’ll try calling Emma again," he muttered.
Logan gave a tense nod, trying to mask the sinking weight in his chest. A flicker of doubt crept into his thoughts, sharp and cruel.
Did she leave?
Did she change her mind?
He rembered the way she had stared at him earlier... empty, unreadable. She hadn’t smiled. She hadn’t even looked scared. Just... numb.
And that terrified him.
Henry, oblivious to the storm brewing, casually reached into his jacket pocket and retrieved his phone... to call Emma.
His face was drained of color.
Eight missed calls.
All from Emma.
Shit why was my phone on silent!
The call connected.
His blood ran cold. He imdiately redialed her number, standing up so fast his chair screeched against the floor.
Henry turned away to whisper. Logan stared out the window, his pulse pounding like a war drum.
"Emma?" he hissed. "Where the hell are you? Why didn’t you co in with Jean? Mr Kingsley has been waiting too long for her in the registrar office."
"Henry!" Emma’s voice trembled through the speaker. "Where’s Logan? He sent soone to take Jean to a boardroom didn’t he? Why is Logan already in the marriage registry office? Why didn’t he wait?!"
Henry froze. "What are you talking about? Logan never sent anyone!"
There was a beat of silence... then the panic hit them both like a slap.
Emma gasped. "Oh my god... she’s not safe, is she?!"
Henry’s mouth went dry. "Where did the woman take her?!"
"The woman said so sort of boardroom! I didn’t think..."
Henry hung up.
____________________________
"Sir..." Henry’s voice broke his thoughts.
Logan looked over.
"She’s not here," Henry said quietly. "Emma just told ... Jean left with soone she thought you sent. To discuss sothing privately."
Logan stilled.
"I didn’t send anyone," he said slowly.
Henry swallowed hard. "Neither did I. They said she was taken to so floor. A boardroom."
The room seed to shrink around him.
"She didn’t bail on ..." Logan muttered, realization dawning. "She’s been taken."
His chair scraped violently against the floor as he stood, fury simring beneath the surface. "She didn’t leave. She was lured away."
Hannah stood too, alard. "What? What’s happening?"
Logan asked his family to stay there until he gets back.
"Get building security," Logan ordered Henry, already heading toward the elevator. "We’re going to find her. Now."
But beneath the sharp command in his voice was sothing far deeper.
Fear.
Because if sothing happened to Jean on his watch, no contract in the world could fix the hell he would bring on her enemies.
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