Chapter 20

Kian's POV

The slap still burned. Not the sting on my cheek, but the sound it made in the cold night air—the sound of her final, definitive rejection. "I want you to act like nothing ever existed between us because let's be honest... it didn't."

Lies. All lies. I’d spent two years convinced she was gone because she hated me. Now I knew she was gone because she…fearedme. And she’d replaced me with Elijah.

I don't remember leaving the curb. I don't remember the drive. I only remember the blinding, visceral need to turn the noise in my head into quiet static. I found the most expensive bottle of scotch in the house. And I gulped it down, ignoring the burning sensation in my chest.

Hours later, the penthouse was a wreck. A dozen empty glasses lay scattered. I was sprawled on the cold marble floor. The chill was the only thing that felt real. 

The television was showing a silent, looping clip of Eliora and Elijah—the golden couple, the successful entrepreneurs, the fiancés. Every time her face flashed on the screen, the pain in my chest intensified, a searing acid.

She is mine. She was always mine. That ring is a lie.

A pounding at the door. I tried to shout "Go away," but it came out as a wet cough. The door burst open.

Julian and Drew.

"Kian! What the hell happened?" Julian's voice was sharp, laced with genuine fear.

Drew looked at the mess, the discarded suits, the spilled liquor, and immediately started moving toward the kitchen for water. 

 What the hell is all this man?” Julilan said, disbelief washed over his face. 

The last time they ever saw me this way was when Eliora left and was nowhere to be found. 

Julian knelt beside me, smelling of clean air and panic. "We've been calling you. Your security team couldn't get a hold of you. What is this, Kian? Is this about the leak?"

I managed a dark, broken laugh. "The leak? No. The leak is corporate nonsense. This is Rora. She hit me. She... she told me it didn't exist. Two years, Julian. Two years I spent trying to forget something that was never real."

I pushed myself into a sitting position, leaning my head against the cool wall. My head hurts so bad it seems like I have been run over by a bulldozer but ignored it. 

The thought of how I found her came to mind and I laughed.

"I know why you're here," I slurred, looking at Julian. "You and Drew." I waved a dismissive hand. "Forget it. It doesn't matter."

"What are you talking about, Kian? We came here because you sounded like death on the phone last night—"

"The address," I interrupted, staring at the floor. "The apartment. I know how she hid it. She used a shell corporation registered in Zoey's mother's name. It was clever, actually."

I needed them to know I wasn't an idiot. I was a meticulous businessman. "I had been tracking her business movements for months, trying to find any capital expenditure that didn't fit the Elijah narrative. When the headline leaked the one that mentioned her location was undisclosed I used the panic as an excuse." I laughed and looked up, my vision blurred.

I shook my head and continued, "I told my security chief to audit all her corporate assets, focusing on any property purchased right after she disappeared. We found the shell company. It was tucked away, clean, discreet. The address led right to her."

I stopped, realizing the silence in the room. Drew was back now, holding a glass of water, his face unreadable.

"I went there," I whispered, the rage returning. "I went there to tell her I was protecting her from the corporate threats. I went there to demand the truth. And she slapped me. She said I was never worth it."

Drew finally spoke, his voice low and cautious. "Kian, you have to stop. You're obsessed with a woman who moved on."

"Moved on?" I spat the words out. "You think I don't know the truth about that sham engagement?"

I dragged myself over to a side table and managed to grab my tablet. I fumbled through the files, finally pulling up a digital file.

"The engagement. The public proposal. The ring." I jabbed the screen with a trembling finger, showing them the corporate finance report. "I paid a freelance journalist to investigate Elijah's liquid assets. The ring cost five times his net worth. The engagement party venue was booked under a PR dummy corporation. It's a deal, Julian. A merger. They're using the 'marriage' to reassure investors and hide the debt Elijah's company is carrying."

Julian's eyes widened, a flicker of something—disgust? admiration?—crossing his face. "You paid someone to dig up dirt on her fiancé?"

"He's not her fiancé!" I yelled, throwing the tablet across the room. It shattered against the wall. "He's her corporate puppet! She's running from me right into a fake life with a man who needs her money!"

Drew flinched, pulling his phone out of his pocket. It buzzed rapidly. He looked at the screen, then at Julian.

"I... I have to go," Drew said quickly, his gaze darting between the mess and Julian. "Something urgent came up. I'll call you later."

Before Julian could protest, Drew was gone, leaving the two of us alone in the wreckage.

Julian didn't try to stop Drew. He simply turned back to me, his gaze softening. He didn't offer a drink or a lecture. He just watched the pieces of me break on the floor.

"Kian," Julian said quietly, his voice a steady anchor in my storm. "You know what this is, don't you?"

"It's pain. It's betrayal," I muttered, burying my head in my hands.

"It's love," Julian corrected, his tone firm. "Pure, stupid, agonizing love. You didn't do a multi-million dollar corporate espionage investigation because you were mad about an ex-wife. You did it because you're terrified she's permanently gone."

I shot my head up. "No! Don't you dare say that word! I don't love her! I hate her! I hate that she walks around here, pretending our life together meant nothing! I hate that she makes me feel like this!" I gestured wildly at the mess. "Love is soft, Julian. This is rage. This is an obsession. This is revenge."

"You want revenge for her leaving you. And the only revenge you can think of is exposing her lie and forcing her back into your truth," Julian said calmly, meeting my frantic eyes. "But if you expose her, Kian, you destroy the only thing she cares about. And that is not hate. That is a desperation born of deep, crippling love."

I didn't answer. I couldn't. The denial was my last defense, and Julian had punched right through it. If it was love, then it was a cruel, twisted kind that made me want to crush her just to prove she was mine.

I swallowed, the tears finally starting to burn my eyes. "She doesn't want me, Julian."

“How sure are you about that?” he asked.

I'm not. But the look on her face… the look on her face. “I- I” I couldn't find my voice. “I made her cry.” The realization hit me hard, I felt a fresh weight of pain.

Julilan sighed, rubbing his palm down his face. "Then, that's a good sign.”

“What?”

“If she cried because of you it means she still feels something for you.” I stared at him, my heart hammering a sudden, panicked rhythm against my ribs.

Julian stood up. "Get some sleep, Kian. You need to be sober for what's coming next."

He walked toward the door, then stopped, his hand on the frame. He looked back at me, his face grave.

"I haven't told you everything yet. And you weren't in a state to hear it. But you need to know this: Eliora has been protecting a secret far bigger than any corporate debt. And it's going to change everything."