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CHAPTER SEVENTEEN - THE AFTERMATH
Last Updated:
2025-10-14 08:29:46
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IN THE SHADOW OF DESIRE CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE - THE VILLA
AmaraThe night air was heavy with rain and electricity.The villa loomed at the edge of the cliffs, its windows lit like eyes - too bright, too still. I’d imagined this place a hundred ways when Marissa mentioned it months ago - serenity, solitude, maybe even peace. But standing here now, it felt nothing like peace.It felt like a trap.Damian’s hand was steady on the door handle. Mine wasn’t.“Are you sure about this?” I whispered.He didn’t look at me. “No.”Then he pushed the door open.The silence inside was unnatural - no staff, no sound, just the faint hiss of wind slipping through the curtains. And then, a voice.“Welcome home, Damian.”Caroline stood at the center of the room, surrounded by soft candlelight. She wore red again - a color that clung to her like sin - and in her hands was a slim leather folder.“Caroline,” Damian said, his tone a warning.She smiled, slow and deliberate. “You brought her. How considerate.” Her eyes flicked to me. “I was afraid she’d gone into hi
IN THE SHADOW OF DESIRE CHAPTER TWENTY - THE RETURN (Dual POV)
AmaraThe city looked different this time - colder, sharper. The skyline that once seemed impossibly high now just looked heavy. Like a crown on the head of a man who didn’t know how to stop wearing it.I stepped off the train with nothing but a single bag, my phone, and the note that had changed everything.You can’t hide from contracts.Whoever sent it knew exactly how to twist the knife. But instead of fear, what I felt now was clarity. I wasn’t running anymore.The cab ride to the Cole Tower was silent. When the building came into view - glass, steel, dominance incarnate - something in my chest tightened. I’d walked into this world as an outsider. This time, I was walking in as an equal - or at least pretending to be one.The receptionist blinked when she saw me. “Miss Blake?”“Yes.” My voice didn’t waver. “Tell Mr. Cole I’m here.”Her fingers hesitated on the phone. “He isn’t expecting you.”“He will,” I said simply.Minutes later, security escorted me upstairs. The elevator ride
IN THE SHADOW OF DESIRE CHAPTER NINETEEN - THE FALL (Amara’s POV)
Silence was never this loud.The morning after the gala, the Cole estate felt like a stage after a tragedy - curtains torn, actors gone, ghosts still whispering their lines. I woke to a hundred missed calls, half a dozen news alerts, and a pounding in my chest I couldn’t silence.My name was everywhere.AMARA BLAKE - DAMIAN COLE’S MYSTERIOUS ASSISTANT LINKED TO EX-FIANCÉE’S COMPANYBETRAYAL OR STRATEGY? INSIDER REVEALS CONNECTION BETWEEN COLE’S STAFF AND LAURENT HOLDINGSEach headline felt like a slap. My photo - stolen from a company event - sat beside Damian’s in every feed, my face frozen in shock, his in fury.My phone buzzed again - an unknown number.“Miss Blake?” The voice was smooth, female. Caroline. “Rough morning?”My fingers tightened around the phone. “What did you do?”“Oh, darling, don’t be dramatic. The truth has a way of surfacing.”“You leaked it.”A soft laugh. “You can’t leak what already existed. You were paid through one of my companies, weren’t you? I simply… co
IN THE SHADOW OF DESIRE CHAPTER EIGHTEEN - THE CONFESSION (Damian’s POV)
The city glittered beneath my office windows like a lie - all light and surface, no truth beneath it.I’d built my empire on precision. Numbers never lied. People did.Tonight, the lies were catching up.The reports from the gala scandal lay open on my desk - headlines speculating about Caroline’s “dramatic return,” whispering about secrets, about old flames and new distractions. Every word of it burned. But not because of her. Because of Amara.She was everywhere now - in the press, in my head, in the hesitation between my sentences.The girl who should’ve been insignificant had become the one variable I couldn’t control.“Damian.”Julian’s voice cut through my thoughts. My oldest ally. The only one who spoke to me without flinching.He shut the door quietly behind him, expression grim.“You look like you haven’t slept,” he said.“I don’t pay you to comment on my sleep.”“No,” Julian replied. “You pay me to tell you the truth.”That tone - measured, careful - always came before bad n
IN THE SHADOW OF DESIRE CHAPTER SEVENTEEN - THE AFTERMATH
The morning came too soon.Light spilled through the villa’s tall windows, brushing across the stone floors, the armchair, the stillness. The storm had passed, but its echo remained in the heavy silence that filled every room.Amara woke to the faint smell of coffee and the distant creak of footsteps. For a moment, she didn’t remember where she was. Then memory caught up, sharp and vivid.The firelight. The rain. The way he’d said her name like it was both a question and a warning.Her stomach twisted.She sat up, running a hand through her hair. The air in the room felt different now - charged with the weight of something that had changed everything and yet changed nothing.Her reflection in the mirror looked the same, but she didn’t feel it. Something inside her was raw, unsettled.She got dressed slowly, choosing the first thing her hands touched. When she stepped into the hall, the scent of coffee grew stronger. Damian was in the kitchen, already dressed, sleeves rolled, tie absen
IN THE SHADOW OF DESIRE CHAPTER SIXTEEN - THE VILLA
The road twisted into wilderness, swallowing the last traces of the city behind them. For hours, neither of them spoke. The world beyond the car blurred into mountains and mist, the silence between them louder than any conversation could have been.Amara stared out the window, her reflection fractured by streaks of rain. Damian’s profile remained fixed and unreadable, eyes on the road, jaw set in stone.“Where are we?” she asked finally, her voice rough from disuse.“Half an hour out,” he said.“Out of what?”He hesitated. “Everything.”The rain thickened. Wind tugged at the trees. Amara folded her arms, watching his knuckles tighten on the steering wheel. He drove like someone running from something - or toward it.“Do you always do this?” she murmured. “Disappear when things get hard?”His gaze flicked to her, sharp, then away again. “I don’t run.”“Looks like it to me.”He didn’t answer. The silence returned, stretching until it hurt.When they finally turned onto a narrow road lin
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