LOGINDamian Pov I stood on the top floor with a glass of whiskey in one hand and the bottle hanging loose from the other, my back to the room. Far below, the cars crept through the streets in a slow, tangled line. From up here the whole city looked orderly. The one thing I needed to see clearly, I couldn't. I had questioned the Head of Procurement, pulled his records, and sent Ava through the department. I still had no name. My jaw tightened. Ariana had tried to tell me about the delay, and I had cut her off before she finished. If I had listened, I might have caught it before her presentation, and she wouldn't have carried so much of it alone. And she had still tried to help me. That sat in my chest, heavier than the whiskey. I set the glass on the desk harder than I meant to, and the amber shivered. A knock cut across the room. "Come in." Ava laid three folders on my desk and waited until I looked up. Her chin was level, her hands flat on the top folder. "The list, sir. The cal
Damian Pov I took a step after her before realizing I had moved. A piece of the broken mug crunched beneath my shoe, and I stopped. I watched her walk towards the house, her injured hand held close against her side. She didn't look back or slow down. I had seen the redness spreading across the back of her hand. She hadn't flinched when the hot milk splashed against her skin. She had stood right in front of me with her lips pressed together, refusing to show how much it hurt. That was what I couldn't get out of my head. You can keep your pain to yourself. I flexed my fingers at my side. It would have been easy to dismiss those words if they hadn't been so close to the truth. Warm drops of milk slid down the back of my hand. I had knocked the mug over without thinking, and by the time I realised what I had done, it had already hit the floor. It might help relieve your nightmares. My jaw tightened. Nightmares. That was all it had taken for me to lose my temper. I ha
Ariana Pov The morning slipped by as I moved from one Zoom meeting to another with my colleagues. By the time I finished my last meeting, the afternoon had already arrived. I leaned back in my chair and stretched, rolling my shoulders to ease the stiffness that had settled there. Then I reached for my phone and opened my messages, searching for the one I had sent Serena earlier. I had asked her for the recipe she used to make for me whenever I had nightmares. On those difficult nights, when sleep became a struggle and my thoughts refused to settle, she had always known how to comfort me. Now, I wanted to make that same drink for someone else. Serena had already sent the recipe. I read the instructions twice before locking my phone and setting it aside. I knew what it meant to lose a parent. I understood how deeply that kind of loss could cut, how memories could linger long after everyone else had gone to sleep, and how the quiet of the night could make everything feel he
Damian PovThe procurement records Ava had collected from the HR department lay spread across my desk.I flipped through the documents, scanning the delivery schedule, the approval form, and the correspondence attached to the file. My eyes moved across the page, but my thoughts kept drifting back to the previous night.I could still see Ariana standing beside my bed after I had woken up from that nightmare. I remembered calling out for my father, the word leaving my mouth before I knew I had spoken, and I remembered how my fingers had closed around her wrist before I even knew where I was."You're hurting me."Her voice came back to me, thin and startled. I saw the way her eyes had widened, the alarm and the pain in them as she tried to pull free.I flattened my palm against the file and held it there. I hadn't meant to hurt her. I hadn't been awake enough to mean anything. That changed nothing about the red marks I had seen on her skin this morning. The thought of her watching me com
Ariana Pov The next morning, I woke up with the previous night's events still fresh in my mind. No matter how hard I tried to push the memories away, I could still picture the look on Damian's face when he had woken up, the way his expression had changed at the mention of his father, and how quickly he had shut me out. I had promised myself I wouldn't interfere in his personal affairs again. After the way he had spoken to me, I had no intention of asking him anything. I pushed the blanket aside and got out of bed. My throat felt dry, so I decided to head downstairs for a glass of water. Victoria was standing beside the kitchen counter, her phone in her hand. When I entered, I greeted her. "Good morning, Victoria." She lifted her gaze from her phone and smiled. "Good morning, Ariana. How was your night?" "Fine, thank you. How about yours?" "Mine was good too." She glanced back at her phone briefly before looking at me again. I reached for a glass and filled it with water. As
Ariana Pov Exhaustion weighed on my shoulders as I made my way upstairs. I'd just finished dinner, and all I wanted was to wash up and get some much-needed sleep. Lately, Damian had barely been coming downstairs for dinner, and I couldn't help finding it strange. In the months I'd lived with him, I'd noticed that he was particular about his routine, especially his meals. He wasn't the sort of man who simply forgot to eat, so his sudden absence from the dinner table had caught my attention. I wondered what must have really As I approached the upper floor, I noticed light spilling from Vanessa's room. Damian stood beside her bed, arranging the blanket as she settled against her pillow. A small tray of fruits rested on the bedside table. "You should get some rest," he said softly. "You didn't come down for breakfast this morning, and you're still recovering from your injuries. You need to eat properly." He picked up the tray and placed it closer to her. "I brought you some







