She spent a year pretending her billionaire boss didn’t affect her—until she kissed his face on a Forbes poster and heard his real voice say, “Interesting feedback technique, Miss Summers.”

Daniel dragged Emma into an adjacent private office and slammed the door shut.

"I didn't do it, Daniel!" Emma said instantly, her eyes filling with frustrated tears. "I swear to God, I didn't send those emails! Someone hacked my digital key!"

"I know you didn't do it, Emma," Daniel said softly, stepping close and cupping her face in his hands. His thumbs gently wiped away a stray tear from her cheek. "Breathe. I know it wasn't you."

"How do you know?" she sobbed softly. "The signature is mine. The timestamp is real."

"Because you were in my office at four o'clock yesterday," Daniel said, his eyes burning with conviction. "You were drinking bourbon with me and telling me I was a dangerous man. You weren't at your computer."

Emma let out a ragged breath, the tension leaving her body as she leaned into his touch. "Then who?"

Daniel pulled out his phone and dialed a short code. "Marcus," he said to his head of cybersecurity. "Activate the ghost protocol on Emma's terminal. Run a mirror trace on her routing key for yesterday at 16:00 EST."

He put the phone on speaker. A few seconds later, a rapid clicking sound echoed through the speaker, followed by the voice of his chief security engineer.

"Got it, Mr. Whitmore," Marcus said. "The routing key was accessed remotely through a secondary relay server located in Manhattan. The IP address belongs to a workstation on the sixty-fourth floor."

"The legal department," Emma gasped, remembering where she had printed the presentation the morning before.

"Who was logged into that terminal?" Daniel demanded.

"Senior Legal Counsel—Richard Vance," Marcus replied. "Julian Vance's cousin."

Emma's jaw dropped. "Richard Vance... he was the one who offered to help me clear the printer queue when I was printing the presentation on Monday morning! He must have cloned my access card when I handed him my badge!"

Daniel's face transformed into an expression of absolute, terrifying fury.

"Marcus," Daniel said coldly. "Send the complete audit trail, the IP logs, and the remote access video feed directly to Pendelton's tablet right now. And then call NYPD Corporate Crimes Division. Have Richard Vance arrested at his desk within ten minutes."

"Right away, sir."

Daniel ended the call. He turned to Emma, his hands dropping to her waist, pulling her close against him.

"You see?" Daniel whispered, his lips brushing against her temple. "I told you. Nobody touches what's mine."

Emma looked up at him, her heart beating wildly. "What's yours?"

"You," Daniel said simply, his voice thick with emotion. "You're mine, Emma. In the boardroom. In my life. Everywhere."

Ten minutes later, they walked back into the Apex boardroom.

Pendelton was staring at his tablet, his face pale. The rest of the board was in absolute shock.

"Mr. Whitmore..." Pendelton stammered, standing up and extending a trembling hand. "I... I don't know what to say. The security logs... Richard Vance..."

"Save it, Pendelton," Daniel said, ignoring the extended hand. He picked up the master acquisition contract from the center of the table and handed the pen to Emma.

"Miss Summers," Daniel said, his voice echoing with absolute pride. "Do us the honor of signing as the primary executive authority for Whitmore Enterprises."