Chapter 116: Ultimate Panic

Astrid’s pov

The message from Thalia came in the moment I got home.

"Why are you threatening him?" she asked.

She had the nerve to tell me I was the one at risk ... not him, not her. Me. The one whose sex tape was one upload away from being everywhere. She said I needed to calm down.

I stared at the screen for a moment before I typed back.

"Don’t ever talk to me like that again. You didn’t fulfill the terms of our agreement, so why would you expect me to fulfill mine?"

"Don’t start what you can’t finish, Astrid," she replied ... and went offline immediately.

She was the one daring me. What the fuck.

I sat with that anger for a long time before I forced myself to breathe through it. I had to harden myself. Whatever needed to be done, I was going to do it. My safety depended on it.

Morning came.

I woke up and Ethan was already gone.

"He didn’t even wait for me?" The shock of it stung more than I expected.

I checked my phone. I still had a few minutes before I needed to leave. I decided to go online quickly and check for any work updates I could review before heading out.

The headline hit me before I was even fully awake.

"Astrid Allen caught in a heated moment with Raven, the Minister of Foreign Affairs."

My heart stopped. I don’t know for how long ... it just stopped. I couldn’t speak. I couldn’t move. I just sat there, completely dazed.

They had added the video clip directly beneath the article.

I opened it. It was the exact footage ... me and Raven in my office.

I couldn’t even finish watching it. The scene made my chest burn like something inside me was on fire.

Then the burning turned into anger.

Ethan’s car was still in the house. I left it there and called a cab.

Ethan had to have seen it. What was I going to say to him? What could I possibly say?

After everything I had done ... everything I had tried ... I still didn’t get the upper hand. I had failed. And now it was out there for the whole world to see.

It was disgusting.

I arrived at the office and every pair of eyes in the building landed on me the second I walked through the door. Like I had been bathed in something filthy and they all knew it.

I held my head up and walked straight to my office like I had no idea what was going on.

Ivy was waiting by my door.

"Good morning, ma’am," she greeted, her voice careful.

I didn’t answer. I could tell she wanted to say more but was choosing her words.

"Mrs. Astrid ... did you see what was uploaded online?" she asked.

"Yes, I saw it. It’s fake. Someone is framing me," I said flatly.

"I suppose married people do attract many enemies," she said quietly.

I wasn’t myself. I couldn’t articulate a single clear thought. I reached for some papers on my desk and couldn’t even arrange them properly. My hands weren’t cooperating.

"Please leave that, ma’am. Let me handle it," Ivy said.

Something about the gentleness in her voice broke through me. I pressed my hand to my head and sank into my reclining chair.

"Sorry ... let me get you some water." She was already moving before I could respond.

Before the glass even reached my lips, my phone rang.

If someone had checked my blood pressure in that moment, the number would have been dangerously high.

It was Liam.

I had half-convinced myself it might be Ethan. It wasn’t.

I picked up. I didn’t even get a word out.

"To my office. Now." He cut the call.

I moved fast. Panic pushed my legs for me.

Ivy called after me that she would handle everything for the rest of the day.

I walked into Liam’s office and found him standing behind his desk, hand pressed flat against the surface, jaw tight.

"Mrs. Allen," he said. "I don’t need to go into the details of what’s all over the news this morning. I’m sure you’ve already seen it."

"Yes, sir, I have. It’s clearly a misunderstanding ... I’m being framed..."

"Whatever it is," he cut me off, "why is it you? You’re a married wolf. You shouldn’t be caught up in scandals like this."

Tears filled my eyes before I could stop them. "I don’t even know what to do or say anymore. No one gave me the chance to explain ... and now it’s everywhere." My voice cracked. "It’s all over the news."

"This is not good for the territory’s image. For any of us." He paused. "I’m sorry, but I’ll have to suspend you..."

"Sir, please..."

"You are hereby suspended, effective immediately, until this matter is fully resolved."

I had been humiliated. Completely and publicly humiliated.

My infidelity had cost me my job. And if that was what I was walking away with from this office, I didn’t want to imagine what was waiting for me at home with Ethan.

I was already expecting the worst.

"Go downstairs and collect your suspension letter in hardcopy," Liam added. "The soft copy will be sent to your email."

I cried the whole way downstairs.

This wasn’t just a hard time. It was a suffocating one ... the kind that locked every door around you and swallowed the key.

Ivy found me downstairs and pulled me into a hug. She already knew. Of course she did.

On my way out, I passed the media room. I stopped.

I wanted to look the media manager in the eyes. I wanted to see his face now that he and Thalia had gotten exactly what they’d been working toward.

"Where is the media manager?" I asked one of the women inside.

"He resigned this morning," she replied.

Just like that.

I stood there for a moment, letting that sink in. He had resigned before anyone else had even clocked into work. He had been ready. He had known exactly what he was doing and had already planned his exit.

This was more calculated than I had given them credit for.

I hoped the money Thalia had paid him was enough for him to vanish from the face of the earth ... because I had already made myself a promise. I was going to find him.

His name was Jace. The media manager. I pulled his number from the company’s internal platform and called it.

The line didn’t just go unanswered. It didn’t exist.

I called Thalia next. This was too serious for text messages.

She picked up.

"Very nice work you did this morning," I said. "I saw your handiwork."

She laughed. Actually laughed. "You always had more to lose, Astrid. You should have taken it easy with the threats."

"All I want you to know," I said, keeping my voice steady, "is to watch your back. Yours and Jace’s. Because I am a freight truck, and I will not stop until I have crushed both of you completely. Nothing will be left. I promise you that."

"This call is being recorded," she said. "You’ve just implicated yourself further."

"Fuck you," I said ... and ended the call.

I hurled my phone at the wall.

It always came back to me. Every single time, it was me at the center of some scandal ... and footage was always involved. The first time, it was murder. Now it was this. It took too much out of a person to be Astrid Allen. It was too heavy a weight for one set of shoulders.

I was burning from the inside out.

Then the front door opened and Ethan walked in.

The panic I had been carrying dissolved into something quieter ... something that felt almost like surrender. I made my peace with whatever was about to happen between us. Whatever came next, I was going to face it.

Whatever was going to be, was going to be.