Page 94 of Falling for the Grump Billionaire

“Dominic,” I say slowly. “This email—it suggests you were warned about the backdoor.”

He leans back in his chair, his face unreadable. “I don’t remember this,” he says finally. “It must’ve been buried in a flood of other reports.”

“But if you’d acted on it...” I trail off, not wanting to finish the thought.

The implications are clear. If Dominic had addressed the warning, Conrad might never have had the opportunity to infiltrate the company.

The weight of the revelation hangs heavy between us. Dominic stands, pacing to the window with his hands on his hips.

“I missed it,” he says quietly, his voice laced with bitterness. “I missed the warning, and now we’re here.”

“It’s not your fault,” I say, following him. “Conrad betrayed you—he exploited the trust you placed in him.”

“And that trust was a mistake,” Dominic mutters, his jaw tightening. “One I won’t make again.”

I place a hand on his arm, my touch firm but gentle. “Dominic, this isn’t just on you. Conrad is the one who chose to weaponize that trust. We’re going to stop him. Together.”

He turns to me, his blue eyes softer now, though the weight of his guilt remains. “You don’t give up, do you?”

“Never,” I reply, a faint smile tugging at my lips.

As dawn begins to break, Adrian sends another update, confirming the legitimacy of the email. But before we can dig deeper, Dominic’s phone buzzes with a new message.

He reads it silently, his expression darkening with every word.

“What is it?” I ask, my heart pounding.

He hands me the phone. The message is chilling in its simplicity:

“You’re not the only one with secrets, Eva. Tell him, or I will.”

Before I can respond, another message arrives—this time with an attachment. Dominic opens it, and I see the color drain from his face.

The document contains my investigation notes, from before I knew Dominic. The truth is out.

“Eva,” he says quietly, his voice razor-sharp. “What is this?”

The walls we’ve been breaking down between us feel higher than ever.

Dominic’s question lingers in the air, each word a loaded accusation. He holds my gaze, his piercing blue eyes demanding answers I’m not sure I can give.

“I can explain,” I say, my voice barely above a whisper.

“Then do it,” he replies, his tone cold and cutting.

The weight of his distrust hits harder than I expect. My heart pounds as I search for the right words, but everything I think of sounds like an excuse. I swallow hard, willing myself to face this head-on.

“When I first came to New York, I didn’t have a choice,” I begin. “The job at the paper—it wasn’t about ambition. It was survival. They gave me an assignment to investigate you, and I took it because I couldn’t afford to say no.”

His expression doesn’t shift, but the tension in his posture grows.

“So you decided to dig into my life,” he says, his voice dangerously calm. “To look for dirt, for leverage. And then what? Publish it for the world to see?”

“No,” I say quickly, shaking my head. “That’s not what happened. At first, I thought you were just another corrupt billionaire. But the deeper I looked, the more I realized that wasn’t true. Dominic, I wasn’t trying to hurt you—I was trying to understand you.”

“Understand me?” he repeats, his tone dripping with disbelief.

“Yes,” I insist, my voice breaking. “When I started uncovering what Conrad was doing—when I saw how he was sabotaging everything you’d built—I couldn’t just walk away. That’s why I stayed. That’s why I kept digging.”

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