Things We Burn

I stood in the elevator of Daniel’s penthouse tower, the flash drive still warm in my pocket like a gun that has been loaded. The numbers above the door ticked higher: forty-one, forty-two, forty-three. Every second pulled me deeper into a war I didn’t start… but I would be damned if I didn’t end it. My reflection in the elevator mirror looked too calm, too elegant in my silk blouse and leather coat. A woman shaped by Manhattan and masked by control.

But underneath, I was shaking, not with fear but fury. I had watched the footage a dozen times last night. Daniel’s voice, calm and deliberate, plotting my collapse like it was just another legal case. Vanessa, sipping wine like she already tasted my ruin.

They thought I wouldn’t find out, and that I would stay loyal to a lie, but I was done being the polite wife in a luxury cage. Tonight, I was the storm they never saw coming. Ding. The elevator doors opened. His private hallway glowed with soft lights and silence, the silence you buy when you’re rich enough to drown out consequences. I didn’t knock. I used my key. 

*******

He was in the living room, half-dressed in gray white shirt, sleeves rolled up like he had been working. A glass of whiskey sat on the table. Music played low from the surrounding system, romantic and slow.

Daniel turned as I entered, eyes narrowing like he sensed something was off.

“Ari?” he said smoothly. “I didn’t know you were coming by.”

I tossed the flash drive onto the coffee table. “Then we’re both full of surprises.”

He frowned, picked it up slowly. “What’s this?”

“Evidence,” I said, walking past him to pour my own glass. “The kind that could ruin your empire if I were feeling vengeful.”

His lips twitched at the word. “You always did have a flair for drama. I just got out of the hospital and I am not ready for any.” 

“Is it still drama if it’s real?” I asked, staring into my drink. “If the betrayal is signed, sealed, and timestamped?”

He didn’t flinch, didn’t deny, he just sighed and dropped the drive back onto the table.

“You weren’t supposed to find that.”

I turned to him. “That’s all you have to say?”

“No,” he said, slowly stepping toward me. “I could say a thousand things. But I know you won’t believe any of them.” He was close now. Too close. His voice lowered. “I did it to protect us.”

I laughed. One sharp, bitter sound. “You conspired with your mistress to ruin me.”

“She’s not my mistress,” he said, jaw clenching. “It’s not what you think.”

“Then tell me what it is.” I said, lacking patience. 

He hesitated, and that was all the answer I needed, he moved to pour himself another drink, but I grabbed the drive and slammed it back on the table.

“Why, Daniel?”

He stared at me, then sank into the couch with the exhaustion of a man who no longer wanted to lie.

“You were slipping,” he said finally. “The Ari I married… she was calm, composed, easy to manage. But after the miscarriage, and after Luca…” He trailed off. “You changed.”

I felt something in my chest crack. “You wanted me manageable.”

“I wanted you stable,” he corrected. “But you started taking risks, pulling files, asking questions about things you had no reason to dig into.”

“Because I knew something was off!” I snapped. “And I was right. All this time, I was trying to fix us, and you were busy planning my exit.”

He stood, voice rising. “I was protecting everything we built!”

“We didn’t build anything!” I screamed. “You handed me a blueprint and told me to smile.”

Silence. The kind of silence that makes your throat hurt. He looked at me like he almost pitied me. “You’re not strong enough for the truth, Ariana. You never were.”

And that… that broke me.

I walked to the fireplace and grabbed the folder of documents Nathan had given me — copies, just enough to light a match under his lies. Daniel’s face paled. “What are you doing?”

“I’m giving you one chance,” I said. “Tell me everything. Or I send this to every reporter in the city by morning.”

He stared at the folder like it was toxic.

“You’re bluffing.”

I dropped the file into the flames, the paper curled, blackened all turned to ash.

“Try me.”

*******

Later that night, I sat on the floor of my old apartment, knees close to my chest, and hands still shaking. He didn’t follow me and he didn’t call. I guess maybe he was still watching those files burn or maybe he was already planning his next lie. All I knew was this:

Daniel wasn’t the man I thought I married, he was the storm I invited into my life and now I was drowning in consequences. My phone buzzed again. Luca.

// “You’re still in New York.”

I stared at the screen, hesitating, then typed:

“Not for long.”

// “Where are you staying?”

“My old place. 22nd and Lincoln.”

A long pause. Then:

// “I’m outside.”

I ran to the window and there he was, parked at the curb in that same beat-up black motorcycle, helmet under one arm, his jaw tight in the dim streetlight. He looked like everything I’d ever wanted but never dare to need. I rushed down immediately. 

When I reached him, he didn’t speak. He just pulled me in. His mouth crushed mine, wild and possessive. There was no asking, no waiting, just lips and tongue and a heat rising between us. And God, I needed that, I so needed him.

We stumbled up the stairs, hands everywhere, pulling, gripping, and shedding layers like we were starved. My shirt hit the hallway. His jacket landed on the kitchen counter. He kissed me like he wanted to erase the lies with his mouth. Like he had been waiting years for this. And I allow him. I let myself want him back. We didn’t make it to the bedroom, we barely made it past the wall.

His hand slid under my thigh, lifting me, pressing me against the door as he kissed my neck. My fingers tangled in his hair, anchoring myself to something real for the first time in what felt like years. And in that moment, there was no Daniel, no threats, no fear, only Luca, this and the fire.

Afterward, I lay on the floor with his arms wrapped around me and my heartbeat still wild in my chest, we didn’t talk, we just breathed. Eventually, he murmured, “You burned it?”

I nodded. “Not everything. Just enough to scare him.”

He touched my cheek, gentle now. “You’re playing with fire.”

“I am the fire,” I whispered.

He smiled, but it didn’t reach his eyes. “There’s something I didn’t tell you.”

I sat up. “What?”

His voice dropped. “Daniel isn’t just laundering money. He’s working with someone else, someone bigger and dangerous.”

My blood ran cold. “Who?”

Luca looked out the window, like saying the name out loud might summon the devil himself, and then he said it. Just one word. A name I thought I’d buried.

“Nathan.”