CHAPTER 73: TAKING A BRIBE

[Carter Enterprise]

The elevator doors slid open with a sharp metallic hiss.

Evelyn didn’t wait for them to fully part—she shoved her way through, Patricia jogging behind her, whispering frantic warnings.

"Evie—Evie, slow down."

"No."

Her heels struck the marble floor like bullets with each step echoing with her fury and humiliation.

Employees scrambled out of her way as she cut across the hallway, eyes blazing, throat tight with betrayal she could taste on her tongue.

When she reached her father’s office, she didn’t knock.

She burst inside and stopped dead.

Gregory sat behind his desk and Alexander was there.

Alexander stood at the far end of the room with a file in his hand, a file she instantly recognized. It was the shares spread across the table like a bargaining chip.

Evelyn froze for a whole second, then the hurt in her chest detonated.

"What—" she breathed, voice thin with disbelief, "is this?"

Alexander looked up sharply, surprised. "Evelyn—"

"You." She pointed at him with shaking fingers. "Don’t speak."

Patricia quietly slipped inside and closed the door as if bracing for the blast.

Gregory stood. "Evelyn, listen—"

"I said don’t speak."

Her voice cracked loud enough to stun both men into silence.

Evelyn marched toward the table and slapped her palm against the file so hard the documents trembled.

"Shares?" she hissed. "Shares? That’s what this is about?"

Gregory swallowed. "Evelyn, it’s not—"

She cut him off with a bitter laugh that sounded nothing like her.

"So this whole marriage talk and this ultimatum wasn’t about my future? Or my happiness? Or what I want?" Her voice rose, trembling painfully. "It was about a deal? About shares?"

Gregory’s face paled.

"Evelyn—"

"No," she screamed. "You don’t get to make decisions for me and then pretend it’s for my own good."

She turned her head sharply toward Alexander. "And you—"

Alexander stiffened and his jaw clenched but he didn’t look away.

"You agreed to this?" she whispered. "You—you brought the papers? You signed them? Without telling me?"

His brows knitted. "I didn’t keep it from you. I just didn’t know you didn’t know."

"Oh, so that makes it better?" She laughed, breathless and angry. "So you just came here to buy me property? ’Here, Mr. Carter, here’s your daughter’s bridal price, now please let us get married.’"

Alexander’s expression cracked for the first time. "That’s not—"

"DO NOT," she snapped, "justify this. Don’t you dare."

Alexander inhaled. It was slow but unsteady. "Evelyn, listen—"

"I said shut up," she shouted, louder this time with her voice breaking in the middle.

A painful silence fell.

She dragged a hand through her hair and stepped back, breathing unevenly.

"You both decided my life without me." Her eyes glossed with angry tears. "My marriage, my name and my future. You made deals with each other and expected me to follow like a puppet."

Gregory tried again with his voice softer than before. "It wasn’t like that—"

"I don’t care," she cried. "I don’t care what excuse you give and I don’t care what justification you have.."

She then looked at Alexander again and this time her voice broke completely.

"You promised me you would fix things. You promised you would protect me and this—" she pointed at the file, "is betrayal, pure betrayal."

Alexander stepped forward, desperate. "Evelyn, I swear to you, I wasn’t—"

"GET OUT."

Alexander froze.

Gregory turned sharply. "Evelyn," he warned her.

"Get. Out," she repeated, quieter but deadlier this time, staring straight at Alexander. "I am too angry to even look at you right now."

Alexander’s jaw flexed and something raw flickered in his eyes. Hurt, shock and something darker.

He closed the file gently, straightened and said quietly, "Fine."

He gave her one last searching look but she was too furious to see any of it.

Alexander turned to Gregory with a cold expression. "Mr. Carter."

Gregory nodded stiffly.

Alexander walked past Evelyn slowly, his shoulder brushing hers ever so slightly like a silent plea which she ignored.

And then he left.

Patricia exhaled shakily. "Well, shit." She then gave Alexander a weak awkward smile which he accepted with a gentle nod.

The door clicked shut and slammed so hard the glass panels rattled.

The room felt painfully and suffocatingly empty.

"Evelyn—" Gregory started, standing from behind his desk.

But Evelyn didn’t hear anything beyond the blood pounding in her ears. Her chest heaved with betrayal, fury and humiliation all tangled into one.

"How could you?" she snapped. "How could you both do this to me?"

Gregory looked genuinely taken aback. "Evie, calm down first—"

"Don’t—" she pointed a shaking finger at him, "you dare tell me to calm down."

Patricia slipped in behind her quietly, after making sure that the door was locked so no one else could hear or see the disaster unfolding.

Gregory exhaled slowly. "Sit down, sweetheart."

"I am not sitting," Evelyn snapped. "Not until you explain to me why I woke up to the news that I suddenly have shares in the Reid Empire that are somehow tied to a marriage I didn’t even want."

Gregory rubbed his forehead, visibly tired. "Evelyn, listen to me. I didn’t do this to control you." He then looked at Patricia. "Patricia, help me explain it to her."

But Patricia raised her hand in surrender. "Sorry Mr. Carter, you are alone in this."

"You pushed me into meeting men, you pressured me and then you forced me to choose and when I finally said something, you turned it into a business transaction," Evelyn yelled again.

Gregory flinched. "It’s not like that, honey."

"You made me feel like an asset," she whispered. "Like something to be traded."

Gregory’s voice softened painfully. "Evie, I did it for your good."

"MY good?" she asked with a laugh that trembled. "My good or your ego?"

Patricia winced and murmured, ""Yeah, that one stung."

Gregory sighed heavily, looking older than she’d ever seen him.

"Evelyn," he began quietly, "I have one daughter, ONE." He emphasized on the one. "And I want her to enter a marriage where she won’t be pushed around and where she has power and respect. A voice at the table."

Evelyn shook her head. "By taking a bribe from the family?"

....