Part 2
The ink on our marriage certificate was barely dry when Lucas and I kicked down the polished mahogany door of Julian’s executive office at Croft Enterprises.
The plush penthouse suite reeked of Julian’s massive ego. I slammed the door behind us, my heart still racing frantically from the surreal, chaotic ceremony we had just pulled off. Two hundred guests thought Julian was just having a severe eye infection and wearing sunglasses. The priest was the only one legally aware of the name change on the documents. Legally, I was now Mrs. Lucas Croft.
“Computer is on his desk, ten o’clock,” Lucas instructed, unbuttoning his tuxedo jacket and tossing it onto a leather chair. His calm, quiet demeanor from the church was completely gone; the ex-Marine was now in full tactical mode. “My screen reader software is on the black flash drive in my left pocket.”
I dug into his pocket, my hand brushing against his warm thigh, a sudden, jarring reminder that this dangerous, capable man was now my husband. I pulled out the drive, jammed it into Julian’s sleek Mac, and booted it up.
“He’s been trying to buy me out of my forty percent of the company for pennies,” Lucas explained, walking flawlessly toward the leather sofa and sitting down, his jaw tight. “When I refused, he got desperate. Open the legal directory. Look for a file dated May 28th.”
My fingers flew across the keyboard. “Found it. ‘Transfer of Equity’.”
I clicked the PDF open and gasped, bringing a hand to my mouth. “Lucas… it’s a signed legal agreement. It says you sold your shares to Julian for two hundred thousand dollars.”
“Which I absolutely never did,” Lucas snarled, his hands balling into tight fists. “Check the notary stamp at the bottom.”
I zoomed in on the electronic seal. “Arthur Pendelton. Dated May 28th of this year.”
“Arthur Pendelton,” Lucas said, a dark, victorious smile spreading across his face, “died of a massive heart attack eighteen months ago. I went to his funeral.”
A violent chill ran down my spine. “It’s a forged notary. It’s federal fraud.”
“Keep digging,” Lucas ordered, pointing blindly toward the bright screen. “Check the outgoing corporate wire transfers for the last thirty days. Cross-reference them with Sabrina’s offshore consulting firm.”
I pulled up the master bank ledger, my eyes scanning the endless rows of numbers. My breath caught in my throat as I found the transactions. Five hundred thousand dollars. Seven hundred thousand dollars.
“He wired over 1.2 million dollars to Sabrina’s LLC,” I whispered, the nausea returning in full force. “He was draining your family’s company to fund his lavish secret life with her.”
Suddenly, the heavy electronic lock on the glass doors of the office clicked loudly.
My blood turned to absolute ice.
“Well, well, well,” a familiar, painfully arrogant voice echoed through the massive room.
Julian.
He was standing in the doorway, tanned and wearing an expensive silk resort shirt, a mocking, cruel grin plastered on his face. He wasn’t supposed to be back for a week.
“I get a frantic call from the bank about unauthorized access, and who do I find?” Julian sneered, stepping confidently into the room and tossing his luggage to the side. “My pathetic, blind brother and my disobedient little runaway bride.”
I shot up from the leather chair, pure adrenaline flooding my system. “You bastard! You left me at the altar to screw your assistant in Bali!”
Julian laughed, a harsh, grating sound. “Oh, Harper, grow up. You were getting the diamond ring and the billionaire lifestyle. Who cares if I take a vacation? But snooping in my private office? That’s crossing a major line.”
He lunged toward the desk, grabbing my arm so violently his fingers bruised my skin instantly. “Get away from the computer, you stupid bitch.”
Before I could even scream, a blur of black fabric crossed the room. Lucas moved with terrifying, lethal speed, tracking the exact sound of Julian’s voice.
Lucas’s large, scarred hand locked directly around Julian’s throat, lifting him off his feet and slamming his twin brother backward against the mahogany bookshelf. Hardcover books and heavy glass awards shattered to the floor in an explosive crash.
Julian choked, his eyes bulging as he clawed frantically at Lucas’s iron grip. “Get… off… me!”
“You put your hands on my wife again,” Lucas growled, his sightless eyes burning with lethal, terrifying intensity, “and I will snap your neck.”
Julian’s face went pale under his tan. “Your… wife?”
“Surprise, brother,” Lucas whispered. “We said ‘I do’.”
Part 3
Julian choked, his face turning an ugly shade of crimson as he continued to claw desperately at Lucas’s unyielding grip. “You’re… insane! Mom will destroy you for this! You can’t just take my company!”
“Mom is already here, Julian,” a sharp, aristocratic voice rang out from the ruined doorway.
Margaret Croft stepped into the shattered office, her posture rigid, her piercing eyes darting from Julian pinned against the broken shelf to me, standing trembling by the glowing computer monitor. She held a twenty percent stake in Croft Enterprises—the absolute deciding vote in any boardroom dispute.
Julian scrambled frantically as Lucas finally released him in utter disgust. Julian straightened his wrinkled silk shirt, coughing violently and gasping for air. “Mom! Thank God. Lucas has lost his damn mind! They broke into my office! They’re trying to ruin our IPO!”
I didn’t wait for his pathetic lies to land. I grabbed the printed financial ledger and the forged equity transfer from the desk and marched forward, shoving the thick stack of papers directly into Margaret’s chest.
“He’s been stealing from the family,” I yelled, my voice echoing aggressively off the glass walls. “He forged a dead notary’s signature to steal Lucas’s shares, and he wired 1.2 million dollars of corporate funds to his mistress’s offshore account.”
Margaret’s face completely drained of color as she read the documents. Her hands shook violently, her manicured nails tapping against the glossy paper as the horrific truth set in. Julian stepped forward, his arrogant, untouchable facade finally cracking into a million pieces.
“Mom, it’s a massive misunderstanding. It’s an aggressive investment strategy…”
Smack!
Margaret slapped Julian so hard his head snapped violently to the side. The sound cracked through the silent room like a gunshot.
“You repulsive, greedy little boy,” Margaret hissed, her voice shaking with absolute venom. “You abandoned your lovely bride at the altar, you mocked your brother’s military sacrifice, and you ruthlessly robbed your own father’s legacy.”
Julian touched his bleeding lip, his eyes wild with sudden desperation. “I am the CEO! You need me! Without my connections, this company is nothing!”
“Not anymore,” Lucas said, his voice deadly calm as he adjusted his dark sunglasses. “I own forty percent. Harper, as my legal wife, has full proxy access. And with Mom’s twenty percent, we have the supermajority. You’re out, Julian. Effective immediately.”
“You can’t do this to me!” Julian screamed, lunging toward me again, his fists raised in a blind rage.
Before he could close the distance, I grabbed the heavy marble paperweight off the executive desk and swung it in a blinding arc. It connected with his jaw with a sickening crunch. Julian crumpled to the plush carpet, groaning in a pathetic heap.
I stood over him, my chest heaving, the adrenaline singing loudly in my veins. “I just did.”
The boardroom vote was a mere formality the following morning. Julian was escorted out of the building by armed private security, kicking and screaming obscenities in front of his own staff. The civil court quickly stripped him of his remaining personal assets to repay the embezzled funds, and the district attorney was already aggressively drafting felony fraud charges. Sabrina, realizing the money was completely frozen, dumped him via a cowardly text message and fled to Europe.
But the real, breathtaking surprise wasn’t Julian’s massive downfall. It was what happened after the dust finally settled.
Lucas and I had married out of pure spite, a weaponized, chaotic union meant to destroy a monster. But in the quiet, exhausting months of rebuilding the company and our shattered lives, the battle scars faded into something incredibly beautiful.
I found myself desperately looking forward to his dry humor over our morning coffee. I watched in absolute awe as he navigated the ruthless corporate world without ever once compromising his rigid integrity. And when he reached out to touch my face, his scarred hands tracing my features with such gentle, profound reverence, my heart raced for entirely different reasons.
Nine months later, the heavy oak doors of St. Jude’s Cathedral opened once again.
This time, there was no panic. No forged notes. No missing grooms.
I walked down the aisle in a simple, elegant white gown. Lucas stood proudly at the altar, handsome and imposing in a sharp navy suit. When I reached him, I didn’t need to grab his arm in fear. I took his strong hands in mine, leaning up to kiss him before the priest even began speaking.
Julian lost an empire because he thought we were weak. But looking into my husband’s sightless, beautiful eyes, I knew we were the strongest people in the room. We had walked through the fire, and we had built a magnificent kingdom from the ashes.
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