Chapter 6: Surrender and Ruin

The storm broke just before midnight.

It had been brewing for days—thick clouds rolling over the city skyline, the kind of darkness that felt like a warning. But the real storm was inside me, inside my chest, inside the choices I’d been avoiding for too long.

I’d known this night was coming. Alexander had warned me. My father’s empire would not survive him. And neither, in many ways, would I—at least not the version of me that still flinched at wanting him.

The penthouse was glowing with low light, all warm gold and shadow, when I stepped out of the elevator. I didn’t need to knock; the doors slid open like the place already belonged to me.

Alexander was waiting.

He sat in one of the leather armchairs by the fire, whiskey in hand, a man carved of arrogance and danger. His jacket was gone, his shirt sleeves rolled to his forearms, the veins in his hands stark as he tipped the glass and took a slow sip.

“You came,” he said, and it was not a question.

I shut the doors behind me. “You sai