Winning Back His Ex's Wife's Broken Heart by Hayley

Chapter 97

Sarah's

pov.

The past few weeks had pushed me further than I ever thought I could go.

Sitting in the dimly lit room with Richard beside me, a file of secrets splayed across the table, I felt something strange-a calm I hadn't felt in ages. Maybe it was because, for the first time, we were moving as one. Whatever came next, we'd face it together.

James hovered at the edge of the room, his presence reminding me of how far we'd come, how we'd gone from fearing him to needing his help.

I still didn't trust him fully, but in this fight, he was an essential piece. He'd been our link to the network, revealing things we'd never have known otherwise.

"Here it is," James said, pointing to a creased map on the table. "They keep their ledger, the core of their operations, here." His finger rested on a small, out-of-the-way warehouse marked on the map. Richard leaned over, studying it with narrowed eyes. "So all their dirty dealings, the whole network's transactions... it's all stored in this one place?"

James nodded. "They think no one would dare go near it. But they don't know you're desperate enough to try."

I swallowed hard, my fingers running over the edges of the papers in front of me. This was it.

This ledger was the key, the Achilles' heel of the network. If we could get our hands on it, we could bring the whole operation down.

But the reality of what we were planning hit me. "And once we have it?" I asked, my voice barely above a whisper. "They'll come after us, won't they?" Richard looked at me, his hand finding mine under the table. His touch was warm, steady, grounding me. "Yes," he said simply.

is our chance, Sarah. Our only

he was saying. We'd both been through so much, and yet, here we were, willing to risk it all one more time. "Then let's do it," I said, trying to steady my voice. "We can't keep

we'd agreed. "Tomorrow night," he said, packing up the map. "We'll go

lines on his face, the slight furrow in his brow. There was a strength in him now that hadn't been

scared?" I asked, not sure if I wanted

chuckle. "More than I'd like to admit. But I'm more scared of

I was scared, too-terrified, actually.

sleep. My mind kept spinning, thinking of

Richard and I were still standing. Together. The trust we'd built, the battles we'd won-none of it had come easy, but it was

I whispered in

he murmured, turning

to make it

even though his voice was quiet, there was a certainty in it that made me believe

checked the contents of my bag a dozen times, my hands shaking despite my best efforts to keep calm. This was happening. We were really doing this. Richard watched me, his gaze soft

eyes. There was no turning back now. We left, heading toward the warehouse with nothing but the clothes on our backs and the knowledge that we'd

loomed in front of us, dark and silent. James had

he

and every step we took seemed to echo through the empty hallways. We followed James down

it," he murmured, pulling out a small set of tools to pick the

edge. As the lock clicked open, a rush of adrenaline shot through me. This

the room, shelves lined the walls, stacked with boxes and files. And in the middle of it all, there it was-the ledger. A thick, leather-bound book that seemed to hold all the answers, all the secrets we'd been searching for. Richard picked it up, his hands steady but his expression grim. "This is it," he said quietly, flipping through the pages. Each line was a transaction, a record of every underhanded deal, every betrayal. It was all here. "We have enough to take them down," I whispered, hardly able to