MasukI went out to chase after Isabella I couldn’t let her tell anyone, everything will be ruined. I reached the hallway there she was staring blankly at people coming in, “Isabella,” i called out. She turned her eyes widened like she was still in shock. Isabella’s whispered “I… I didn’t see anything” barely reached me before she spun and fled again The frantic click of her heels echoed down the marble hallway like gunfire in an empty cathedral—sharp, panicked, getting smaller and smaller until the sound swallowed itself around the corner of the grand staircase. Then nothing. Just the low hum of the house at dusk and the thunder of my own heartbeat in my ears.I was shaking.Violently.My Hands were trembling so hard I had to press them against my thighs to stop the visible quiver. My lips still burned from Vane’s kiss. My trousers were still damp where he’d stroked me. Every inch of my skin felt branded, exposed, guilty.Vane had followed me out hoping to do something or offer an advic
His confession hung between us.“I’m jealous… Elias, I’m so goddamn jealous.”My heart slammed once, hard, then skipped.Disbelief crashed into joy so fast it hurt. This man—this iron-willed, untouchable titan who’d spent weeks carving distance between us with cold words and colder looks—was unraveling because of me. Because he’d seen me hold Isabella. Because he’d heard the word fiancée on my lips. The misery that had been eating me alive for days simply… dissolved. Melted into something hot and reckless and alive.I turned in his arms.No hesitation.No more playing the wounded, obedient son.I fisted his tie—silk the color of midnight—and yanked him down. Our mouths collided. No gentleness. Just teeth and hunger and the taste of everything we’d both been denying. To hell with morality. To hell with Cyrus’s threats. To hell with the engagement ring sitting in its velvet box on my dresser like a shackle.Vane didn’t let me second-guess.A low growl rumbled in his throat. His hand cup
I was surprised he came here but what was I expecting, he need to keep the family image intact, selfish and cunning.Vane didn’t shout. He didn’t need to.He just walked down those mossy steps like he owned every inch of ground they touched because he did. Hands still in his pockets, posture relaxed in that terrifying way only truly dangerous men can manage. His eyes never left Cyrus. Ice-gray, clearly unblinking, or have any idea to leave anytime soon. The kind of stare that makes grown men remember every sin they’ve ever committed.“Go back inside,” Vane said quietly. “All of you. Haven’t you embarrassed yourselves enough?”Cyrus’s jaw locked so hard I heard the grind of teeth.He shot me one last look pure murder, the kind that promises revenge later when no one’s watching. Then he turned, shoulders rigid, and stalked up the path without another word. The photographers pretended not to notice. Isabella’s hand trembled where it rested on my arm. I could feel her pulse racing against
I woke up that morning already exhausted.The kind of tired that lives in your bones, the kind no amount of concealer can hide. My reflection in the bathroom mirror looked like a stranger—pale, eyes hollow, mouth set in that careful, practiced half-smile I’d been perfecting for weeks. I looked expensive. Polished. Exactly what they wanted.Today was the first official meeting with Isabella.Not just a photograph op. The real thing. Lunch at the country club, followed by a “casual” stroll through the gardens so the society photographers could snap us looking smitten. My mother had laid out the outfit herself: cream linen trousers, pale blue shirt, sleeves rolled just so, loafers without socks because “that’s what the young people do these days.” She’d even chosen the watch—Vane’s old Patek Philippe, the one he gave me when I turned eighteen. A reminder, in case I forgot who owned me.I hated the weight of it on my wrist.The drive over was silent. Mother in the front with the driver, m
The study went dead quiet the second Elias walked out.That soft click of the door felt louder than any slam.I sat there staring at the empty space where he’d been leaning over the desk, palms flat, eyes red and furious and so fucking hurt. My chest felt tight, like someone had wrapped steel bands around my ribs and kept tightening. The cigar in the ashtray had gone cold again; I didn’t bother relighting it. What was the point?I sank back into the chair. Leather groaned under me. My suit jacket pulled across my shoulders—too tight, suddenly. Everything felt too tight. Breathing. Skin. The goddamn room.Cyrus’s voice kept playing on repeat in my head, low and mean, the way only your own kid can be when he wants to gut you:“He’s a creep who jerks off into your underwear.”I hated that I believed it.Not because it disgusted me.Because it made too much sense.I pressed the heels of my hands into my eye sockets until I saw sparks. Tried to push the image out. Didn’t work. Instead, my
Everyone was asleep when I slipped into the study.Midnight had come and gone; the grandfather clock in the foyer had tolled twelve with slow, mournful strokes that echoed through the empty corridors like a funeral bell. Every light was off except the single brass desk lamp in Vane’s sanctum, its amber pool barely reaching the edges of the Persian rug. The rest of the room drowned in shadow.He sat in the oversized leather chair that had always looked more like a throne than furniture—dark oxblood, cracked from years of use, the arms worn smooth where his hands rested night after night. Half his face was lost in darkness. The other half glowed faintly, carved from firelight and the cherry-red ember of the cigar between his fingers. Cedarwood and tobacco drifted toward me in lazy coils, thick and expensive and impossibly distant, the same scent that used to wrap around me when he hugged me goodnight as a child. Now it felt like a wall.I didn’t knock, I couldn’t.My knuckles were still







