ログイン~~Damon's POV~~I watched Hazel's car drive out of the garage and disappear into the bright daylight. My heart was pounding fast in my chest, but it wasn't from fear.It was from pure excitement.She had stood there, looking so powerful and beautiful, telling me she would ruin my family if I failed. The old Hazel would have cried. She would have begged me to love her. But this new Hazel had so much fire in her. She was strong, she was dangerous, and it made me want her more than I ever had before."Damon, we need to talk about those clauses!" Melissa yelled, grabbing my arm and snapping me out of my thoughts. "She is trying to trap us! Six months is way too fast to build those apartments. And putting our family assets up as collateral? If we make one mistake, she can take everything!""We aren't going to make a mistake," I said coldly, pulling my arm away from her. I couldn't stand the sound of her voice right now. She was so loud, so paranoid, and so completely different from the ele
The cold, ruthless mask I had worn in the boardroom stayed firmly in place until the elevator doors closed, cutting off the suffocating presence of the Moretti Group.But as the elevator descended toward the private executive garage, my fingers curled tightly around my tablet. The adrenaline of setting the trap was fading, leaving behind a simmering, hot anger. Damon’s audacity was growing by the hour. First the roses on my desk, and then the sickeningly familiar way he had tried to look at me in front of his entire board. He actually believed his own delusion.The elevator doors chimed and slid open to the quiet, dimly lit concrete of the VIP parking level. My private driver was already waiting beside my sleek, black mercedes, the engine idling quietly.I took two steps out of the lobby—and froze.Leaning casually against the hood of a silver sports car parked just a few spaces away was Damon. He had his hands shoved in his pockets, his suit jacket open, looking exactly like the arro
~~ Hazel's POV ~~The silence in the boardroom was absolute, heavy with a tension so thick it felt physical.I sat at the head of the polished glass table, my posture straight and my hands folded neatly over my tablet. I looked at the people sitting opposite me—the people who had once held my entire world in their hands and crushed it without a second thought."Alright Ms Saint Claire," Damon began, his voice smooth, lingering on my new name with a familiarity that made my skin crawl. "I’m glad you could make it. We’ve already laid out the terms of our original fifty-fifty proposal. E&H injects fifty million dollars, and in return, you get half the profits of our new luxury apartment complex. It’s a win-win."I let the silence stretch for a long, agonizing moment, letting them sweat. I didn't look at the proposal on my screen. I just looked directly at Damon."Fifty million is a joke," I said flatly.Melissa’s smile faltered instantly. Damon blinked, his confident expression freezing.
After the raw vulnerability of last night—of confessing my lie and melting into Kai’s absolute, protective embrace—I had expected to feel lighter. Instead, the phantom weight of that late-night text from the unknown number sat like lead in my chest.How was your day, Hazel? I believe you were thinking about me all day...don't worry I can't wait to see you tomorrow as well. I hadn't shown Kai the text. Not because I wanted to keep secrets again, I had promised him I wouldn't but because he had looked so incredibly tired, and the peaceful look on his face when he slept was something I couldn’t bear to ruin. I had resolved to handle it today, l was going to deal with Damon myself today. I arrived at my office at a normal hour, my heels clicking a sharp rhythm against the polished marble floors of the E&H Investment Company executive suite. E&H was a global giant now, and today was the day I had been waiting for. The day I finally held the absolute power of life and death over the peop
After spending time with Sophia, I felt calmer. Clearer. The suffocating fog that had been clouding my mind all day was finally starting to lift, leaving behind a sharp, undeniable truth: I couldn't keep lying to Kai.I couldn't go home and pretend everything was fine. I couldn't wake up tomorrow morning, look him in the eye, and act like my day had been completely normal. I had fought too hard to escape a marriage built on neglect and deception; I was not going to build my new life with Kai on a foundation of omission.I left Sophia’s apartment and drove straight to Kai’s mansion.It was past midnight. It was the kind of late where the streets were entirely empty, the city wrapped in a quiet, sleeping stillness. The kind of late where the rest of the world had already surrendered to the dark, leaving only the overthinkers awake.When I finally pulled up the long, winding driveway of the mansion, the warm glow of the entrance lights was still on, casting long shadows across the stone.
"First, you need to calm down," Sophia said firmly, her hands coming to rest on my shoulders, anchoring me. "You're getting all worked up, Hazel, and this is getting serious. Just breathe. Look at me and breathe."I nodded, inhaling the familiar, calming scent of her apartment, trying to quiet the erratic pounding in my chest."Second," she continued, "you need to text Kai. He is going to get incredibly frustrated if you keep ignoring him. He's already called three times, and you know him—he respects your space, but he doesn't handle silence well when he thinks something might be wrong.""I know," I muttered, staring at the dark screen. "But my head is a mess. I don't even know what to say to him.""Then let me handle it," Sophia said, holding out her hand. "Give me your phone. I'll text him for you so you can just focus on taking a breath."I unlocked the device and handed it over. She tapped her chin, her eyes scanning the screen. "What should I say? That you're in an unscheduled boa
I woke up late the next morning, to sunlight streaming through the windows in my room. For a moment I just lay there, staring at the ceiling, my mind replaying everything from the night before–the board with all those photos of me, Kai’s intense eyes, the way he had carried me inside like I already
I couldn't sleep.I lay in the guest bedroom for hours, staring at the ceiling, listening to the sounds of the house. At some point around 2am, I gave up pretending and went downstairs to the living room. I curled up on one of the couches with a blanket, my mind racing with everything I had heard at
I didn't sleep that night. I lay in the guest bedroom, which had become my usual bedroom even though I was supposed to be married, and I listened to the sounds of the mansion settling around me. I listened to Damon's footsteps as he moved through the house. I listened to him talking on the phone to
***** ~~ Hazel's POV ~~ ***** I had been planning this day for weeks. Three years. Today marked exactly three years since I became Mrs. Damon Moretti. Three years of a marriage that was supposed to change everything and instead had slowly, quietly, broken me in ways I didn't know a person could







