Chapter 4

Once a Fool, Now a Queen

Aurora Sinclair’s POV

⸻

I didn’t blink. Didn’t look away.

Killian Wolfe wasn’t a man who made casual offers.

If he was here, speaking to me like this, it meant he had already calculated his risks. He had already decided I was useful.

The question was—useful for what?

I set my empty glass down and met his gaze. “Who are you, Killian?”

He smirked, slow and deliberate, as if I had just asked a foolish question.

“You already know,” he said simply.

His confidence was maddening, but he wasn’t wrong.

Killian Wolfe was a name spoken in hushed tones in the corridors of power. An investor whose touch turned businesses into gold, whose partnerships were as rare as they were deadly.

And he was Damian’s rival.

Which made him dangerous to me.

I leaned back, folding my arms. “Why are you here?”

His fingers tapped lazily against his glass. “Because I see potential.”

“In what?”

“You.”

The word curled around me like smoke, thick with something I couldn’t name.

I scoffed, my stomach twisting. “I don’t need saving.”

Killian chuckled, a deep, knowing sound. “Good. Because I don’t save people.” He swirled his drink, watching me. “I make them powerful.”

My fingers clenched against the bar’s surface.

I should have walked away. I should have told him to go to hell.

But I didn’t.

Because deep down, under all the pain, there was something else burning inside me.

Hunger.

Not just for revenge—but for something more.

For the power Damian swore I never had.

Killian tilted his head. “You’re thinking about it.”

I exhaled sharply. “What exactly are you offering?”

His smirk widened. “A partnership. I help you rise, you follow my lead. Together, we dismantle Damian piece by piece.”

I narrowed my eyes. “And what do you get out of this?”

His expression didn’t change. But something flickered in his gaze—something sharp, something personal.

“That’s my business.”

A cold chill slithered down my spine.

Killian Wolfe was a man with secrets. But then again, so was I.

⸻

The silence between us stretched.

I wanted to say no. I wanted to tell him I didn’t need anyone’s help.

But the truth?

I had nothing left.

Killian leaned forward, his voice dropping to something almost intimate. “Let me tell you what’s going to happen, Aurora.”

I stiffened. “Enlighten me.”

“Damian isn’t done with you.” His tone was smooth, effortless, but the words felt like a blade against my skin. “He’s already destroyed your name. Soon, he’ll make sure you have nowhere to go, no way to rebuild.”

I swallowed hard. I knew he was right.

Damian had always been the kind of man who burned everything in his path to make sure no one could rise from the ashes.

Killian watched me carefully, his voice softening just slightly. “I don’t offer second chances. You have 24 hours to decide.”

“And if I say no?”

He tilted his head, considering me. “Then you can keep playing the victim.”

My nails dug into my palm.

I had never considered myself a victim before.

Not even when my husband shattered my life.

Not even when the world turned against me.

But now—sitting across from a man who saw me, who knew I was capable of more—I felt something shift.

Something dangerous.

Something alive.

Killian finished his drink and stood. “I’ll be waiting for your answer, Aurora.”

Then he was gone, leaving me in the dim glow of the bar, my mind racing, my pulse hammering.

I had 24 hours.

24 hours to decide if I wanted to remain the woman Damian had left behind.

Or if I was ready to become something else entirely.

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To be continued…

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