Chapter: When trust burnsDamonThe city never really sleeps, but tonight it feels like it’s holding its breath.From my office window, the skyline blurs into streaks of white and gold, the rain turning glass into a mirror. I stare into it, but I can’t recognize the man looking back at me.There’s an untouched cup of coffee on my desk. It’s gone cold, like everything else between us.I’ve been replaying Aria’s face in my head since the moment I walked out that door — the way her voice broke when she said my name, the disbelief in her eyes. I told myself space would help. That I just needed time to think. But all it’s done is give me silence loud enough to make me hate myself.The office is empty except for the hum of the servers in the next room. My phone sits beside me, dark and heavy, waiting for a message that will never come.I should go home. I should try to fix this.Instead, I open my laptop again.The security logs are still up — I’ve
Last Updated: 2025-10-26
Chapter: The message DamonThe office hums with the quiet, expensive stillness of power — the kind that comes with success, but never peace. The glass walls around me reflect a man who looks whole on the outside but feels like cracked porcelain within.It’s been months since Aria and I came home. We’ve been trying — or at least pretending to. The world sees our reunion as some fairytale comeback. They don’t see the silence that follows our arguments, the way we sleep on opposite edges of the bed, or how her eyes sometimes drift toward the window when she thinks I’m not watching, as if freedom might still exist out there.The phone buzzes once. Then again.Cassandra.The name alone is enough to set my jaw. I hadn’t heard from her since she’d been forced out of the company last year — my business partner, my mistake, my ghost. She was brilliant and manipulative in equal measure, a woman who could make ambition sound like love.I stare at the screen for t
Last Updated: 2025-10-26
Chapter: When silence feels safe (Aria’s POV)Morning light slipped between the tall glass panes, flooding the living room with pale gold. It was the kind of light that belonged to freedom — the sort that might have once felt like a promise. Now it only burned against the inside of Aria’s eyelids when she tried to sleep.She had been here for almost a week. The apartment Cassandra arranged for her sat high above the city, built of marble, glass, and silence. The kind of place that seemed too expensive to breathe in. She hadn’t chosen it, but Cassandra’s voice over the phone had been so soft, so assuring — “You need somewhere quiet, Aria. Somewhere safe. Just until things calm down.”At first, Aria believed her. Or she wanted to.She’d wanted to believe that running had been the right choice. That the sight of Damon’s eyes when she walked away — that flash of shock and something like disbelief — didn’t mean she’d made the worst mistake of her life.The thought cam
Last Updated: 2025-10-26
Chapter: The empty house (Damon’s POV)The first thing I noticed was the silence.Not the comfortable kind that used to settle between us after long days, when the only sound was the whisper of her breath beside me. This was a heavier quiet—hollow, absolute, the kind that told me something had been taken and the air hadn’t decided what to do without it yet.“Aria?”My voice disappeared into the hallway. No answer.Her book still lay on the coffee table, the spine bent where she’d marked her page. A faint ring from her mug circled the wood—something she always scolded herself for leaving. I touched it, ridiculous as it was, because I needed proof that she’d actually been here.I checked the kitchen next. The light above the sink glowed faintly, a single lamp left on the way she always did when she expected me home late. Except tonight, the light felt like a question.Her shoes weren’t by the door.A tremor started low in my chest and rose until it fil
Last Updated: 2025-10-26
Chapter: The fracture ( Aria’s POV)The house had never been this quiet before.Even the air felt different — like it was holding its breath with me. Morning sunlight filtered through the tall windows, spilling across the marble floor in a thin, golden hush. Damon’s coffee sat untouched on the kitchen counter, steam curling faintly, as if it still hoped he’d come back to finish it.He’d left early again.The faint sound of the front door closing had woken me before dawn, followed by the soft hum of his car fading into the distance. I hadn’t asked where he was going; I didn’t need to. Lately, every answer came with the same tired phrase — “It’s work, Aria. Cassandra needs updates before the board meets.”Cassandra.Her name had started to fill the spaces between us, like a fog you couldn’t quite see but could always feel. I told myself not to let it matter. Damon was building something important — his company, his future — and she was his partne
Last Updated: 2025-10-26
Chapter: The intruder Damon’s POVThe gala hall sparkles like a jewel. Crystal chandeliers scatter light across marble floors, and the city’s elite swirl around us, laughing, clinking glasses, congratulating one another. I’ve walked this scene a hundred times, but tonight, it feels heavier.Aria is beside me, radiant in a soft emerald gown. Her presence steadies me. I smile down at her as we move through the crowd, our hands brushing occasionally. She is the calm at the center of my chaos.And then I see her.Cassandra Virelli.Tall, poised, and impossibly graceful, she glides across the room with a subtle confidence that draws every gaze without effort. Her smile is the kind that suggests she knows more than she should. I feel it immediately—the spark of danger beneath beauty.“Damon,” she says, voice smooth, melodic, as if we’ve known each other for years. “I’ve heard so much about your ventures. I hope they’re as impressive as they say.”Her eyes
Last Updated: 2025-10-26
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