No flowers for the dead - Chapter 5: Chapter 5
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The day after Elias turned his back on the Vale legacy, the silence came for them both.
It came in unanswered calls. Cancelled contracts. Headlines that danced around the truth with polished, poisonous language:
“Vale Empire Heir Under Pressure Amid Personal Scandal.”
“Weybridge Alliance Quietly Withdrawn.”
“Sources Say Rift Between Elias Vale and Family Widening.”
And Alina? She became invisible overnight—because power had a way of erasing people who didn’t fit the script.
She stood in the penthouse kitchen, fingers trembling slightly as she scrolled through the news on her phone. The comments were brutal. Ruthless. People called her a distraction. A nobody. A stain on the Vale name.
And Elias… he said nothing.
He had locked himself in the study since dawn, taking calls, issuing counter-statements through the company’s PR arm, pushing against a wall that had been building since before he was born.
The empire was fighting back.
Alina stared at the closed study door. For the first time, she wondered—not if he loved her, but if love was enough. If it could survive the way power punished disobedience.
When the door finally opened, Elias looked… exhausted. His suit jacket was gone, sleeves rolled, his eyes rimmed red from hours of confrontation.
“They froze three of my accounts,” he said quietly. “Board called an emergency vote.”
Her heart dropped. “They’re trying to take it from you.”
“They won’t. Not yet.”
Not yet.
He walked to her, rested his hands on the counter like the marble was the only thing holding him up. “We need to disappear for a while.”
Her breath caught. “Disappear?”
“Paris. Istanbul. Dubai. Anywhere but here. Just a few weeks. Enough time to buy space. I’ll liquidate what I can under a different shell—keep us moving.”
Alina stared at him, unsure whether to scream or cry. “You want to run.”
“I want to survive.”
“I want to matter,” she said, her voice low. “I want to be more than a secret escape plan.”
Elias flinched. He took a step closer, eyes blazing. “You’re not a secret, Alina. You’re the only thing real in my entire damn life.”
But the truth bled between the words—the ache of everything left unsaid, and everything still tethering him to a legacy that wouldn’t let him go clean.
They were trapped in a game neither of them had the power to win without losing something precious.
That night, he made love to her like a man saying goodbye—slow, deep, desperate. Like the world could come crashing down the next morning and he didn’t care, as long as she remembered how it felt to be wanted by him.
But afterward, as he traced his thumb over the curve of her shoulder, his voice broke into a whisper:
“If anything happens to me… run.”
She turned her face into his chest, refusing the words. “Don’t say that.”
“I have to. You need to know.”
“No,” she whispered, gripping his arm tighter. “You don’t get to leave me with nothing.”
But in her gut, in the part of her that had always known this fire would take something from them—she heard the truth echo.
He was preparing her.
Because something was already closing in.
It came in unanswered calls. Cancelled contracts. Headlines that danced around the truth with polished, poisonous language:
“Vale Empire Heir Under Pressure Amid Personal Scandal.”
“Weybridge Alliance Quietly Withdrawn.”
“Sources Say Rift Between Elias Vale and Family Widening.”
And Alina? She became invisible overnight—because power had a way of erasing people who didn’t fit the script.
She stood in the penthouse kitchen, fingers trembling slightly as she scrolled through the news on her phone. The comments were brutal. Ruthless. People called her a distraction. A nobody. A stain on the Vale name.
And Elias… he said nothing.
He had locked himself in the study since dawn, taking calls, issuing counter-statements through the company’s PR arm, pushing against a wall that had been building since before he was born.
The empire was fighting back.
Alina stared at the closed study door. For the first time, she wondered—not if he loved her, but if love was enough. If it could survive the way power punished disobedience.
When the door finally opened, Elias looked… exhausted. His suit jacket was gone, sleeves rolled, his eyes rimmed red from hours of confrontation.
“They froze three of my accounts,” he said quietly. “Board called an emergency vote.”
Her heart dropped. “They’re trying to take it from you.”
“They won’t. Not yet.”
Not yet.
He walked to her, rested his hands on the counter like the marble was the only thing holding him up. “We need to disappear for a while.”
Her breath caught. “Disappear?”
“Paris. Istanbul. Dubai. Anywhere but here. Just a few weeks. Enough time to buy space. I’ll liquidate what I can under a different shell—keep us moving.”
Alina stared at him, unsure whether to scream or cry. “You want to run.”
“I want to survive.”
“I want to matter,” she said, her voice low. “I want to be more than a secret escape plan.”
Elias flinched. He took a step closer, eyes blazing. “You’re not a secret, Alina. You’re the only thing real in my entire damn life.”
But the truth bled between the words—the ache of everything left unsaid, and everything still tethering him to a legacy that wouldn’t let him go clean.
They were trapped in a game neither of them had the power to win without losing something precious.
That night, he made love to her like a man saying goodbye—slow, deep, desperate. Like the world could come crashing down the next morning and he didn’t care, as long as she remembered how it felt to be wanted by him.
But afterward, as he traced his thumb over the curve of her shoulder, his voice broke into a whisper:
“If anything happens to me… run.”
She turned her face into his chest, refusing the words. “Don’t say that.”
“I have to. You need to know.”
“No,” she whispered, gripping his arm tighter. “You don’t get to leave me with nothing.”
But in her gut, in the part of her that had always known this fire would take something from them—she heard the truth echo.
He was preparing her.
Because something was already closing in.
End of No flowers for the dead Chapter 5. Continue reading Chapter 6 or return to No flowers for the dead book page.