Chapter 10 Cracks in the Foundation

The article hit Monday morning like a bomb.

Elena was getting ready for work when Ruby called, her voice tight with anger. "Don't read it. Whatever you do, don't read the article."

Which of course meant Elena immediately looked it up on her phone.

**"The Bartender and the Billionaire: Inside the Relationship Destroying a Dynasty"**

There was a photo of her and Alex from the gala, looking glamorous and happy. Then photos of her in her work uniform at The Velvet Room. Her apartment building. Ollie leaving St. Catherine's Hospital looking pale and sick.

They'd included everything. Her parents' accident. Her dropped scholarship. Exact figures of Ollie's medical expenses. Speculation about how much money Alex had given her. Quotes from "anonymous sources" suggesting she'd manipulated a grieving man for financial gain.

Elena read it twice, each word like a knife. They'd taken her entire life and twisted it into something ugly and mercenary.

Her phone rang. Alex.

"Don't read it," he said immediately.

"Too late."

"Elena, it's garbage. Lies and speculation designed to sell papers. No one who matters believes-"

"Everyone believes it, Alex. That's how this works. You tell a story enough times and it becomes true." She was surprised by how calm her voice sounded. "They printed photos of Ollie. Of my sick brother. They made his cancer into entertainment."

"I'm getting lawyers on this. We'll sue for invasion of privacy-"

"And drag it out for months while more articles run and more people judge us?" Elena laughed bitterly. "Your business friend was right. I'm destroying your life."

"Stop. You're not-"

"I have to go. I'm late for work."

She hung up before he could argue. Her hands were shaking as she finished getting dressed.

At The Velvet Room, her manager pulled her aside immediately. "I need to talk to you about something."

Elena's stomach dropped. "I'm fired."

"What? No. But we've had complaints. Customers saying they don't want to be served by 'that gold-digger from the news.' Photographers outside scaring away business." He looked genuinely sympathetic. "I'm not firing you. But maybe you should take some time off until this dies down?"

"Time off" meant no paycheck. But staying meant making things worse for everyone.

"How long?" she managed.

"A few weeks? A month? I'll hold your position if I can."

Elena nodded numbly and collected her things. Outside, three photographers were waiting. She kept her head down and walked past the shouted questions, their cameras flashing like accusations.

She made it two blocks before she had to stop, leaning against a building to catch her breath. This was her life now. Photographers and articles and people thinking they knew her based on twisted facts.

Her phone buzzed constantly. Messages from Alex, from Ruby, from numbers she didn't recognize. She turned it off.

At home, Ollie was in the kitchen making sandwiches for lunch. He looked up when she entered, his expression worried.

"You're home early."

"Manager gave me some time off. Just until things calm down." She tried to smile. "How are you feeling?"

"Better than you, apparently." He set down the knife. "I saw the article."

"Ollie-"

"They had no right to use my pictures. To talk about my cancer like it's some plot point in their story." His hands were shaking. "I'm so sorry, Ellie. This is all my fault."

"What? No. None of this is your fault."

"If I wasn't sick, you wouldn't need money. You wouldn't have gotten involved with Alex. You could have just lived your life without all this-"

"Stop." She pulled him into a hug, feeling how thin he'd gotten. "You didn't ask to get cancer. And I didn't fall for Alex because of money. I fell for him because he's a good man who sees me. Really sees me."

"But now everyone thinks you're with him for money."

"Let them think what they want. I know the truth. You know the truth. Alex knows the truth. That's what matters."

But even as she said it, Elena wondered if truth really did matter when the lies were so much louder.

They spent the afternoon watching movies and pretending everything was normal. Around five, someone knocked on the door.

Elena opened it to find Marcus Chen, Alex's best friend, standing in the hallway looking uncomfortable.

"Can we talk?" he asked.

She let him in, wary. They'd met briefly at the gala but never had a real conversation.

"Alex doesn't know I'm here," Marcus said once they were seated. "And he'd probably kill me if he did. But I needed to say something."

"I'm listening."

"I've known Alex since college. He's my best friend, probably my only real friend. And I've never seen him happy until you." Marcus leaned forward, his expression earnest. "But I've also never seen him this close to losing everything. The company is struggling. The board is talking about forcing him out. Major deals are falling through."

"I know. Richard Lawrence made that very clear."

"Richard is a shark, but he's not wrong. If this continues, Alex could lose the company. And if he loses the company, he loses everything his family built. Everything his brother died for."

"What are you asking me to do?"

"I'm not asking anything. I'm just giving you information so you can make your own choice." Marcus stood to leave. "Alex loves you. Really loves you. But love doesn't pay bills or save companies or undo decades of family legacy. Sometimes the kindest thing is to walk away before everyone loses everything."

After he left, Elena sat alone in her apartment, Marcus's words echoing in her head alongside Richard's and Margaret's.

Everyone was telling her the same thing in different ways: she was the problem, and leaving was the solution.

Her phone buzzed. She'd turned it back on and now regretted it.

But it wasn't Alex. It was Dr. Kim's office: *Ollie's latest test results are in. Please call to schedule a consultation.*

Elena's hands went cold. Results that required a consultation were never good news.

She called immediately. The receptionist was sympathetic but firm-Dr. Kim wanted to see them both tomorrow at ten.

"Is something wrong?" Elena asked.

"The doctor will discuss everything with you tomorrow."

Which meant yes, something was definitely wrong.

Elena sat staring at her phone, feeling her carefully constructed world crumbling. The article, losing her job, Marcus's warning, and now Ollie's tests.

How much more could one person take before they broke entirely?

Her phone rang. Alex, again. This time she answered.

"Hey," she said, her voice hollow.

"Where are you? I've been trying to reach you all day."

"Home. I needed space to think."

"About us?"

"About everything." She took a shaky breath. "Alex, maybe everyone's right. Maybe we're not good for each other."

"Don't say that. Don't let one article-"

"It's not just the article. It's your company suffering. It's my job gone. It's photographers following Ollie to treatment. It's everything falling apart because we're too stubborn to admit this isn't working."

"It is working. We're working. The rest is just noise."

"The noise is destroying actual lives. Real consequences. Not just abstract concepts of love conquering all."

Alex was quiet for a long moment. "What are you saying?"

"I'm saying I need time. To figure out if fighting for us is brave or just selfish."

"Elena-"

"Please. Just give me a few days. I need to think."

She could hear him breathing on the other end, could imagine his expression-hurt and frustrated and scared.

"Okay," he said finally. "A few days. But Elena? I'm not giving up on us. Even if you do."

After they hung up, Elena let herself cry for the first time since the article ran. Great heaving sobs that came from somewhere deep, releasing three weeks of pressure and fear and impossible choices.

Ollie found her like that and sat beside her without speaking, just being present the way only he could.

"The test results are in," she told him when she could speak again. "Dr. Kim wants to see us tomorrow."

"Okay." He took her hand. "Whatever it is, we'll handle it. Together."

"I'm so tired, Ollie. I'm so tired of handling things."

"I know. But you're the strongest person I know. You can do this."

She wanted to believe him. Wanted to believe she was strong enough for whatever came next.

But sitting in her small apartment with her brother's thin hand in hers and the weight of impossible choices pressing down, Elena had never felt more fragile in her life.

Tomorrow would bring test results that could change everything.

Tonight, she let herself be broken.