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CHAPTER 10 — FIRST PUBLIC APPEARANCE

Author: Debbie
last update Last Updated: 2025-11-29 19:53:24
Arielle had never seen this many diamonds in one room.

The gala shimmered like a kingdom built from glass, crystal chandeliers dripping light, champagne towers catching reflections, violins humming somewhere in the distance. Luxury pressed in from every angle, and she felt like an intruder wrapped in borrowed silk.

Damian walked beside her like sin in a tuxedo.

Cold. Controlled. Beautiful in the most terrifying way.

His hand rested lightly at her lower back, not affectionate, just positioning her like a business asset. And yet her skin reacted as if he were touching her with fire.

Arielle’s heels clicked against marble as cameras burst into flashes the second they entered.

“There they are!”

“Blackwood’s wife, finally!”

“She’s… ordinary, isn’t she?”

A whisper sliced through the air, loud enough for her to hear. Arielle stiffened, but Damian didn’t even turn his head. His expression stayed carved from stone.

“You’re doing fine,” he murmured, voice quiet enough that on
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  • RUTHLESS HEARTS COLLIDE    CHAPTER 47 — The Rupture

    The silence that followed Arielle’s question was not empty.it was crowded, suffocating, a living thing that pressed in from all sides, thick with things Damian did not say, with years he had sealed away behind discipline and success and precision, locked behind iron gates of control. It vibrated with the weight of unspoken words, with shadows he had banished to the corners of his mind, with the ghosts of vulnerabilities he refused to acknowledge. He stood across from her in the low-lit living room, the city glowing faintly through the glass walls behind him, a distant hum of neon and steel, his face carefully neutral in a way she was beginning to recognize too well, a mask he donned like a second skin. This was the face he wore in boardrooms, the one that brokered deals and crushed opposition and kept the wolves at bay. This was the face he wore when emotions weren't his favorite forth, when feelings were inconvenient, when the only currency that mattered was power. “The Locke de

  • RUTHLESS HEARTS COLLIDE    CHAPTER 46 — The Investigation & The Locke Merger

    Arielle waited three days before she started looking. Not because she forgot Valerie’s words, those had lodged themselves too deeply for that, but because she needed to be certain she wasn’t acting on fear alone. Fear had already cost her enough in her life, She refused to let it turn her into someone who distrusted shadows instead of truth. But doubt, once planted, always demands air. It was late when she finally opened her laptop, the penthouse quiet in a way that felt intentional. Emma was asleep down the hall, Damian still occupied with back-to-back calls in his private study, his voice occasionally carrying through the walls in measured, controlled tones. The world felt contained, orderly, and safe. That, somehow, made her chest ache. Arielle sat curled on the sofa, legs tucked beneath her, the soft glow of the screen illuminating her face. She typed slowly at first, as though moving too quickly might make the thing she was searching for more real. Blackwood Holdings Locke

  • RUTHLESS HEARTS COLLIDE    CHAPTER 45 — Arielle Doubts Everything

    Doubt did not arrive loudly. It slipped in quietly, like a draft through a window she hadn’t realized was open. Arielle stood in front of the bathroom mirror long after the water in the sink had gone cold, staring at her own reflection without really seeing it. Valerie’s voice echoed in her head with infuriating clarity, every word polished and precise, designed to lodge itself where reassurance could not easily reach. You were a broken thing on the worst day of your life. Arielle pressed her palms against the marble counter, grounding herself. She had survived worse than cruel words wrapped in silk. She had rebuilt herself before Damian ever entered her life. She knew that. And yet. She replayed moments now with a new lens, Damian stepping in at exactly the right time, resources appearing before she ever had to ask, her life stabilizing almost too quickly. Safety layered upon safety until she barely remembered what it felt like to breathe without it. Had she mistaken protectio

  • RUTHLESS HEARTS COLLIDE    CHAPTER 44 — The Ex-Girlfriend Returns

    A week changed the temperature of everything. The city had moved on, as it always did, new scandals replacing old ones, outrage reshaped into something fresher, louder. Liam was recovering under protection, Emma had returned to laughing more easily, and Arielle had begun to sleep again without jolting awake at every imagined sound. On the surface, life had smoothed itself out. Underneath, tension still lived in her bones._______ A charity gala was held at a restored historical estate on the edge of the city, all marble floors and high arched windows, warm light spilling into manicured gardens. Damian had funded most of the evening anonymously, medical outreach, housing initiatives, education grants, but his presence was impossible to miss. Arielle walked beside him in a deep emerald gown, her hand resting naturally in the crook of his arm. She had learned the rhythm of these events now: the smiles, the pauses, the polite inquiries that were never quite innocent. She felt stead

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  • RUTHLESS HEARTS COLLIDE    CHAPTER 42 — Liam Got a Threatening Message

    The message came in at 2:14 a.m. Damian was awake. Sleep had become a fractured thing these days, light and restless, more habit than rest. He lay on his back in the dark, one arm curved around Arielle’s waist, feeling the steady rise and fall of her breathing against his side. She slept deeply, exhaustion finally claiming her after the gala, after the whispers, after the unspoken weight of being seen too much. His phone vibrated once on the nightstand. indicating there's a message for him. Damian reached for it instantly, senses sharpening. No one messaged him at that hour unless something was wrong. Unknown number. A single image loaded first. Blood on concrete. Then text. "Your wife should learn when to walk away" Damian was out of bed before the second image finished rendering. The third image showed Liam. Not unconscious and broken, but clearly hurt. A split lip, Blood streaked along his temple. One eye already swelling. He was being half-supported by someone just

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