Chapter Ten:

Damien's POV

"Show me your phone." The words leave my mouth before I can soften them.

Aurora looks at me. Not startled. Not guilty. Just still.

Around us, the dinner keeps moving. People talking. Glasses clinking. My father is laughing too loudly at something one of the investors says. But all I can see is the photo on my screen and the message under it. She's not yours anymore, Cross. And she never really was.

Aurora glances once at my phone, then back at my face. "That is not how you ask for things." My grip tightens around the device. Two weeks ago, that answer would never have come out of her mouth. Two weeks ago, she would have rushed to explain, rushed to smooth this over, and rushed to make sure I felt secure before she did.

Tonight, she sounds almost calm.

That bothers me more than the photo.

"I am not asking twice," I say quietly.

Her eyes hold mine. "Then I guess you'll be disappointed." Something hot moves through my chest, sharp and ugly. Not just anger. Something worse. The kind that comes when you feel the ground shift under you and realize you may not be the first person to notice it.

I force a smile before anyone looks too closely in our direction. "Walk with me."

"I'd rather not."

That lands hard, too.

I lean closer, keeping my face pleasant for anyone watching. "Do not make this harder than it needs to be." For one second, I think she will push again. Instead, she nods once and lets me lead her toward the side of the room, near the doors that open to the terrace. Not private. Just quieter. Public enough that I cannot grab her arm the way I want to. Public enough that she knows it too.

The second we stop, I hold my phone between us. "Who sent this?"

She studies the photo. She and I are frozen in a moment that already looks more intimate than it was. Sebastian Reed angled toward her. Her face tilted up to his. Too close. Too easy to misunderstand.

Or maybe not misunderstood at all.

"I don't know," she says.

"Did you get one too?"

A pause too small for anyone else to notice. Big enough for me. "Yes." The word drops between us, and my jaw tightens so hard it aches. "What did yours say?"

She looks away for the first time since this started, just briefly, and that brief break in eye contact does something ugly to me. Makes me feel like there is now a part of her life I cannot reach, and I do not know what to do with that except push harder.

"What did yours say?" she asks instead.

"Answer me first." "No."

That one word is quiet. Clean. And somehow more humiliating than if she had raised her voice. I laugh once, but there is no humor in it. "You think this is a game?" Her eyes come back to mine. "I think someone is playing one." That should calm me. It should make this feel external and manageable, something I can solve if I move fast enough, but it doesn't.

Because she is too steady. Because she does not look frightened enough. Because some part of me keeps circling the same ugly thought and refusing to let it go, what if she already knows more than I do?

Megan appears before I can ask anything else. "Everything okay?" she asks, and I almost admire how convincing she sounds. Soft voice. Mild concern. Perfect timing.

"Fine," I say.

Aurora says nothing.

Megan's eyes move between us. She misses very little when it comes to people she thinks belong inside her plans. "Your father is asking for both of you," she says to me. "The investors are ready."

Of course they are.

I slide my phone back into my pocket and look at Aurora. "We're not done."

Her expression does not change. "I know."

That answer follows me all the way back to the table.

The investors are already standing when we return. My father starts introductions with the smile he uses when money is close enough to smell. I step into my place beside him, with Aurora at my side, and try to settle myself back into the version of this evening I was supposed to be having; it does not settle.

One of the investors, Halston, looks directly at Aurora. "Miss Sinclair, I have heard a lot about your work." I smile before she can answer. "Aurora has a sharp eye. She's been very helpful to Cross Media's new direction." Helpful: A safe word. A careful word.

Aurora turns her head slowly and looks at me. Not enough to make a scene. Enough to make me feel it. Then she looks back at Halston. "I designed the first collection myself."

The silence after that is small, but I hear it.

My father hears it too.

Halston blinks. "I see."

I speak before anyone else can. " Cross Media has always believed in collaboration."

Aurora lifts her glass. "Only when the right names stay on the work." My smile stays in place. Barely. Across the table, my father is suddenly too still. Megan, standing a little behind him, looks like she wants to disappear and listen at the same time. Vincent Reed says nothing. Sebastian does not move either, but I can feel his attention like a hand at the back of my neck.

Halston clears his throat. "That is good to hear. Ownership matters."

"Very much," Aurora says.

I should shut this down. I know I should. But doing it here would look exactly like what it is: fear, and I will not give her that in front of investors. So I smile. "Aurora feels strongly about creative integrity." "I do," she says. Then Sebastian speaks. "I find that refreshing." Every eye at the table shifts.

He is looking at Aurora, not at me, and something inside my chest twists so suddenly I almost lose the thread of my own expression. It is not just that he spoke. It is that he chose this moment. This topic. This woman.

As if he has every right.

My father recovers first. "Sebastian, you have an interest in design now?"

Sebastian's gaze never leaves Aurora's face. "I have an interest in people who know what belongs to them." No one says anything.

For the first time all night, Aurora looks unsettled. Small thing. Quick thing. But it is there, and I see it. Her fingers tighten once around her glass. Then she stills again.

Sebastian finally turns to me. "Cross," he says mildly, "would you mind if I borrowed Miss Sinclair for five minutes?" The room goes dead quiet.

My father looks at me, and Megan looks at Aurora.

Vincent looks at Sebastian and Aurora.

Aurora looks at me like she is waiting to see whether I am about to realize this was never my room to control in the first place.

Sebastian Reed just asked for Aurora in front of everyone.

And for the first time all night, Damien Cross has no idea what saying no will cost him.