로그인~ DAMIEN ~Alexandre's laptop was delivered to my office three days after his transfer to the secure facility.The female detective team had already extracted everything they needed from it for the criminal case.What remained was handed over to us under the terms of the ongoing civil investigation into Richard and Jessica's conspiracy charges.Roman placed it on the meeting table and opened it without asking. I sat across from him with a cup of coffee and watched him work.He was better at this than I was. He had a talent for sorting through documents and finding details most people would overlook. It was one of the reasons I handed tasks like this to him. I preferred watching his reactions while he dug through the information.The first interesting reaction came less than five minutes later."Damien.""What?"He turned the laptop toward me.The screen displayed a folder system that filled the entire page with dozens of subfolders arranged by name.Richard Moreau.Jessica Dominix.J
~ EVANGELINE ~I found out about Victoria on the morning I was discharged from the hospital.Damien was at the nurses' station signing the last of my discharge papers while I finished getting dressed in my room. Every movement pulled at the healing wound on my side, forcing me to move slower than I wanted, but at least I was finally leaving.The door opened quietly.I looked up and found Roman standing there.The expression on his face told me immediately that he had news. The problem was that he wasn't sure whether I would want to hear it or not."What happened?" I asked before he could speak.Roman stepped inside and closed the door behind him."Victoria Blackwood tried to leave the country last night."My hands paused on the buttons of my shirt."She did?"He nodded."The moment she learned you were pressing charges against her, she made arrangements to leave. She had a private car taking her to JFK. Her luggage had already been shipped ahead, and she booked a one-way ticket to Lon
~ DAMIEN ~The moment I stepped back into Eva's hospital room, I noticed the change.I knew it was a bad idea letting that woman in. What do I say to ease her mind?“ Eva?”“ Hmm.” she was staring out the window when I entered. The late afternoon sunlight spilled across the bed, casting a soft glow over her face."You okay?" I asked as I closed the door behind me.She looked over her shoulder and gave me a small nod."Yeah."But she went silent again, not saying anything. Finally, she let out a long breath."I think so."I walked over and sat beside her. The redness around her eyes hadn't disappeared completely. She had clearly been crying, though she was trying hard to pretend otherwise."Margaret told me about Thomas," she said after a moment.I nodded. “ That's good news. I can dig more and give you more information about him if you want.” Eva looked down at her hands. And then she shakes her. "No. Maybe not now. I will do that later, who knows? But she said he was kind."Her vo
~ EVANGELINE ~The problem with surviving was that eventually you had to stop moving.And again, the chaos ended and the adrenaline faded and the hospital gets quiet and there was nothing left to do except lie in a bed and let everything you had been outrunning finally catch up with you.And it caught up with me at approximately 3 AM on the second night.I wasn't asleep. I hadn't been sleeping well since they admitted me. Maybe on the way, I got a good sleep but that's all. But every time I closed my eyes I was back in that white room and in a wedding dress, I didn't want to wear but had no choice. I decided to lay in bed and start counting the tiles the way I used to count things when I was a child.I counted them six times and when the door creaked open quietly. I turned my head and Damien stood in the doorway.He was in a hospital gown with a heavily bandaged shoulder. His left arm was in a sling. His hair was slightly disheveled.He looked terrible but at the same time, he looke
~ EVANGELINE ~The ambulance arrived eleven minutes after Roman called it in.I know because I counted.Damien wouldn't let go of my hand the entire time we waited. He sat on the floor beside me with his back against the wall and his injured shoulder pressed against mine and neither of us spoke much. There wasn't much to say. We were both injured while just trying to stay present in the same room at the same time after everything that had tried to keep us apart.The priest was still alive when the paramedics finally came. It was the first thing I asked when I heard the sirens.Roman confirmed it before I finished the question. He is alive but in a critical situation but still alive.I closed my eyes and exhaled.One of Damien's men had kept pressure on his wound from the moment the firefight ended. The old man had lost a lot of blood but he was breathing and his pulse was stable by the time they loaded him onto the first stretcher.I made myself a silent promise that I would find ou
~ DAMIEN ~Everything happened all at once. I can't even explain it. First, it was Alexandre's finger tightening on the trigger. I was already preparing, calculating the angle that I would jump to and what I would do to him. My shoulder screamed in protest as I started to slip to the side.But Eva moved faster than me. What was she thinking? She threw herself sideways directly into the path of the bullet that Alexandre had fired. The sound of the shot was deafening in the enclosed range of the room.Eva made a sound I never want to hear again for the rest of my life until I die. She stumbled a little and I saw her falling. Whatever trance I was in broke and I caught her before she hit the floor."Eva." My arms closed around her, trembling so bad. "Eva, look at me, please."She opened her eyes softly but I could tell even that took an effort. She looked up at me with an expression caught somewhere between shock and pain."I'm okay." Her voice came out breathless. Gunshots are
~ EVANGELINE'S POV ~My head was pounding when I opened my eyes. I instantly regretted it as sunlight streamed through the windows like tiny knives stabbing my brain.Fuck! Where was I?I looked around and noticed I was in a different guest room. This wasn't the room I had been staying in.Wait. Ho
~ DAMIEN'S POV~ I stared at my laptop screen but couldn't focus on the words. The events of yesterday still played in my head and I couldn't get the images out of my mind. My head kept playing out an imaginary Eva standing alone in that ballroom. Surrounded by our enemies. I even saw a video of
~ EVANGELINE ~ The room stayed frozen after Roman's question. "What about Lily?" Damien asked, still looking calm. I stared at him, curious about who this Lily was that made him tense up. "Well? Are you going to answer him?" Damien's face went cold. "It's none of your concern." "None of my
~ EVANGELINE ~The hall exploded after Damien's announcement.Cameras flashed everywhere. Reporters screamed questions. People rushed toward the stage from all directions."Damien! How long have you known about Evangeline?""Is the marriage real or fake?"Damien's security guards moved fast. They s







