No flowers for the dead - Chapter 45: Chapter 45
You are reading No flowers for the dead, Chapter 45: Chapter 45. Read more chapters of No flowers for the dead.
It started with a headline.
“Elias Thorne’s Forgotten Scandal: The Settlement That Never Made the News.”
The article spread like wildfire—screens, phones, whispers in elevators and boardrooms. A woman. A lawsuit. A buried nondisclosure agreement from two decades ago, back when Elias had only just begun building his empire.
Elara read it in her office, her phone buzzing nonstop.
Rae read it in the middle of a school visit, flanked by smiling children and unknowing eyes.
Neither of them said a word until that night.
⸻
They sat across from each other in Elara’s living room.
Outside, the city pulsed with judgment and speculation. Inside, they said nothing for a long time.
Rae broke the silence.
“Did you know?”
Elara shook her head slowly. “Not this. I knew he wasn’t perfect. But this?”
Rae exhaled sharply. “It doesn’t matter what the truth is, does it? Just the headline.”
But it did matter. Because they had built everything so far on transparency. On cleaning the blood from the marble their father had laid. Now the stain was louder than the stone itself.
⸻
The woman’s name was Ava Moreno.
A former employee. Young, bright, and quietly erased.
The article revealed a payout, a gag order, a file sealed by the same lawyers who still served the company today.
Elara’s hands trembled as she flipped through the old reports Rae had pulled. Her father’s signature. The date.
“Twenty-two years ago,” she murmured. “I was a child.”
“That doesn’t make it less real.”
“No. But it makes it… not ours.”
Rae looked up, fierce. “Except now it is.”
⸻
The board was panicking.
Investors demanded statements.
Advisors urged silence.
But Elara and Rae had already made their decision.
They held a press conference—together. No legal filters. No PR spin.
Just truth.
“We cannot speak for the choices our father made,” Elara began. “But we will speak to what we choose now.”
Rae stepped beside her. “We’ve reached out to Ms. Moreno. Not as an obligation—but as a promise. We believe in listening. In repairing, where we can. In building something worthy of trust.”
“And we will never bury the truth,” Elara added. “Even when it costs us.”
⸻
The fallout was immediate.
Some shareholders pulled out.
Two executives resigned.
One news anchor called it “the beginning of the end.”
But others stayed.
New voices rallied.
And within the quiet, something deeper began to grow—a respect not based on image, but integrity.
Not everyone was ready for that.
But the ones who mattered most were.
And Ava Moreno?
She sent a letter.
“Thank you. Not for fixing the past. But for refusing to repeat it.”
“Elias Thorne’s Forgotten Scandal: The Settlement That Never Made the News.”
The article spread like wildfire—screens, phones, whispers in elevators and boardrooms. A woman. A lawsuit. A buried nondisclosure agreement from two decades ago, back when Elias had only just begun building his empire.
Elara read it in her office, her phone buzzing nonstop.
Rae read it in the middle of a school visit, flanked by smiling children and unknowing eyes.
Neither of them said a word until that night.
⸻
They sat across from each other in Elara’s living room.
Outside, the city pulsed with judgment and speculation. Inside, they said nothing for a long time.
Rae broke the silence.
“Did you know?”
Elara shook her head slowly. “Not this. I knew he wasn’t perfect. But this?”
Rae exhaled sharply. “It doesn’t matter what the truth is, does it? Just the headline.”
But it did matter. Because they had built everything so far on transparency. On cleaning the blood from the marble their father had laid. Now the stain was louder than the stone itself.
⸻
The woman’s name was Ava Moreno.
A former employee. Young, bright, and quietly erased.
The article revealed a payout, a gag order, a file sealed by the same lawyers who still served the company today.
Elara’s hands trembled as she flipped through the old reports Rae had pulled. Her father’s signature. The date.
“Twenty-two years ago,” she murmured. “I was a child.”
“That doesn’t make it less real.”
“No. But it makes it… not ours.”
Rae looked up, fierce. “Except now it is.”
⸻
The board was panicking.
Investors demanded statements.
Advisors urged silence.
But Elara and Rae had already made their decision.
They held a press conference—together. No legal filters. No PR spin.
Just truth.
“We cannot speak for the choices our father made,” Elara began. “But we will speak to what we choose now.”
Rae stepped beside her. “We’ve reached out to Ms. Moreno. Not as an obligation—but as a promise. We believe in listening. In repairing, where we can. In building something worthy of trust.”
“And we will never bury the truth,” Elara added. “Even when it costs us.”
⸻
The fallout was immediate.
Some shareholders pulled out.
Two executives resigned.
One news anchor called it “the beginning of the end.”
But others stayed.
New voices rallied.
And within the quiet, something deeper began to grow—a respect not based on image, but integrity.
Not everyone was ready for that.
But the ones who mattered most were.
And Ava Moreno?
She sent a letter.
“Thank you. Not for fixing the past. But for refusing to repeat it.”
End of No flowers for the dead Chapter 45. Continue reading Chapter 46 or return to No flowers for the dead book page.