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Chapter 23
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2026-01-05 21:08:45
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Between Desire and Ruin Chapter 27
City Hall had never felt so unforgiving. The chamber was all stone and symmetry, built to amplify authority and expose weakness in equal measure. Light filtered in through tall windows, pale and cool, settling over the long table where the council members sat in quiet judgment. Their expressions were polite, unreadable—professionally neutral in the way that made every pause feel deliberate.Dante stood at the podium.Ethan sat several feet behind him, hands clasped loosely in his lap, heart beating a little too fast. He told himself it was just nerves by proximity, residual tension from everything unsaid between them. He told himself Dante didn’t need him. Dante never needed anyone.The presentation began smoothly enough. Dante’s voice was steady, measured, familiar. He guided them through the opening slides with practiced ease—context, scope, intent. The words were precise, confident.Then came the questions.A councilwoman leaned forward slightly. Can you elaborate on how the revis
Between Desire and Ruin Chapter 26
The question came later than Ethan expected. It arrived not in the heat of an argument or the charged quiet of late night, but in the middle of an ordinary afternoon, when the studio hummed with routine and the city beyond the glass walls drifted in gray motion.Ethan.Dante stood beside his desk, posture composed, expression carefully blank. If anyone else had looked, they would have seen nothing out of the ordinary—just a principal addressing an associate.But Ethan felt it immediately. The tension beneath the calm. The restraint pulled too tight.Yes? he said, setting his pencil down.Dante glanced around, as if confirming privacy. Walk with me.They moved toward the smaller conference room near the back, the one rarely used except for one on one reviews. The door closed softly behind them.Dante didn’t sit. He stood by the table, hands loosely clasped behind his back, gaze fixed on a point just above Ethan’s shoulder.The meeting with Vale & Finch. What did they want?It was just
Between Desire and Ruin Chapter 25
The next morning an invitation arrived for Ethan, Coffee? No strings attached. He stared at the message longer than necessary, thumb hovering over the screen. Leo Vale’s name glowed back at him, as if it knew he would eventually look.He told himself it was professional. That clarity was overdue, that staying confused helped no one—least of all him.Still, guilt threaded through the thought, sharp and unwelcome.Dante’s face rose unbidden in his mind: the shuttered expression, the distance worn like armor, the way his voice had tightened when Luca’s name entered the room.Ethan exhaled slowly and typed a reply.Coffee sounds fine.The response came almost immediately.Tomorrow morning?Ethan agreed before he could second guess himself.The cafe was warm and understated, all pale wood and soft light, the kind of place designed to feel neutral and safe. Leo Vale was already there when Ethan arrived, standing as if he’d just stepped aside moments ago rather than waiting.Ethan, Leo sai
Between Desire and Ruin Chapter 24
The elevator bank on the twenty third floor was quiet in the late afternoon, all brushed steel and muted light. Dante stepped out of a meeting with finance still lingering behind his eyes, the numbers blurring into something abstract and sharp.He pressed the down button.Dante.The voice landed like a hand on an old bruise.Dante didn’t turn right away.Luca stood a few feet away, one hand in his coat pocket, the other resting casually against the wall as if he belonged there—as if this were not a coincidence but an inevitability. He looked exactly as he always had: composed, faintly amused, eyes too perceptive for comfort.Dante exhaled slowly and turned. You shouldn’t be here.Luca smiled. I was just leaving. Thought I’d catch you.If this is about the council, Dante said coolly, you can save your concern. The presentation went well.I heard. Luca tilted his head. Congratulations.Dante didn’t respond.Luca’s gaze drifted past him, toward the glass walled studio visible down the
Between Desire and Ruin Chapter 23
The rumors didn’t arrive loudly. They seeped in through side glances and half finished sentences, through conversations that stopped when Ethan entered the room and resumed once he left. They threaded themselves into the quiet spaces between emails, into the way people suddenly became careful with their words around him.By Wednesday, the studio felt different.Ethan noticed it first in the break room. Two associates fell silent as soon as he reached for a mug. One of them offered a smile that didn’t quite land.Hey, she said. Long week, huh?Feels like it, Ethan replied.They left moments later, coffee untouched.At his desk, Ethan put his headphones on without turning anything on. It was easier than pretending he didn’t hear the whispers drifting between drafting tables.They don’t even talk anymore. I heard Dante iced him out after the council presentation.No, I heard Ethan tried to jump ship and got caught.The words dissolved into the hum of printers and keyboard clicks, but th
Between Desire and Ruin Chapter 22
The email from the city council arrived just after dawn, blunt and unforgiving.Revised direction required. Full presentation. Forty eight hours.Dante read it twice, then a third time, jaw tightening with each pass. The Riverside project had already been stretched thin by revisions, compromises, politics. Now they wanted clarity, vision, cohesion, reassurance that the firm still controlled the narrative.Dante closed his laptop slowly.Pressure settled into him like a familiar weight. He welcomed it, usually. Pressure gave him purpose.This time, it felt different.By nine, the studio buzzed with restrained urgency. Assistants moved faster, voices hushed. Screens filled with models and diagrams, timelines collapsing inward.Ethan stood at his desk, sleeves rolled, eyes sharp despite the fatigue etched into his face. He had seen the email too. Everyone had.Dante called a brief meeting. He outlined the demands, the expectations, the tone the council would want measured, confident, dec
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