Chapter Five

Damien Blackwood never looked twice. Until now. The conference room was already humming with tension when Damien entered. He didn’t need to look to know the lineup—department heads, senior comms staff, strategy leads. All waiting. All curated. All afraid to breathe too loud before he sat. He moved with deliberate precision. Black tailored suit. White shirt. No tie. Calculated. Everything he did—every cufflink, every silence, every damn step—was calculated. The pitch meeting wasn’t about the pitch. It was about control. About reminding them who was in charge. Who built this empire from the ground up. Who could tear it down if he wanted to. He passed the long glass table, eyes scanning without moving. Observing without appearing to. Calculating risk, performance, allegiance. Then—he saw her. Not directly. Just… enough. Maya Thompson. She sat near the end of the table, partially obscured by Trina’s shoulder. Her posture stiff, hands folded tightly over a leather-bound notebook. She wasn’t dressed differently from yesterday, not significantly—but here, in this room, with the sun streaming in behind her and the city sprawling like a battlefield below? She didn’t look like an intern. She looked like a variable. Damien took his seat at the head of the table. He didn’t speak. Not yet. Let the silence settle. Let them sweat. Trina cleared her throat first. “Today’s pitch focuses on our updated internal comms strategy for Q3, including revised language packages for the client-facing teams and streamlined messaging across global markets.” Her voice faded into the background. Not because she was unimportant—Trina was razor-sharp—but because Maya shifted. She was taking notes. Small, precise strokes of her pen. Quick glances between slides and speakers. Attention like a weapon. No fidgeting. No side glances. Just pure, controlled focus. Damien should’ve ignored it. Should’ve turned his attention to the deck or the projections or the strategy breakdowns. But his eyes kept drifting back. Not obviously. Not enough for anyone to notice. Except maybe her. Because she was trying too hard not to look at him. And that? That told him everything. She had noticed him. She knew he’d noticed her. He leaned back slightly, fingers steepled beneath his chin as the slides changed. No expression. No tells. But in his mind, the questions turned over like dark cards. What was she doing here? Why did she matter? Why hadn’t she broken yet? He’d seen the type before. Interns with grit. Desperation. Humble enough to work. Hard enough to last. But they always showed their hand eventually. Arrogance. Ambition. Entitlement. He didn’t see it in her. Not yet. Just this coiled quiet. This strange, burning awareness that made no sense—and refused to go away. “Mr. Blackwood?” Trina’s voice interrupted his thoughts. He blinked once, slow and deliberate, and lifted his gaze to hers. “Yes.” “Any notes on the phase-two messaging structure?” He didn’t look at the screen. “It’s bloated. Cut it by thirty percent. Push the emotional cues higher. Avoid passive constructions—reclaim narrative control.” Trina nodded quickly. “Understood.” He saw Maya’s pen pause, then scribble faster. Interesting. The rest of the meeting passed in fragments. Voices. Slides. Data. But Damien was elsewhere. Tracking her reactions. Her restraint. Watching the way she flinched slightly when Harper whispered something to her. Harper. Of course it would be Harper. She was the only one on this floor with a soul—and a tendency to adopt new strays. His jaw tensed the moment he saw Maya smile at her. It wasn’t irritation. Not exactly. But it was something close. Something dangerous. When the meeting adjourned, chairs scraped lightly across the floor as people stood and began filtering out in silence. Some nodded at him. Others didn’t dare. He didn’t move. He waited. Maya was nearly the last to stand. Her notebook clutched to her chest, her hair falling slightly loose from its bun. That same blouse. Those same damn shoes. Still not looking at him. But she felt him. He could tell. The air tightened between them when she passed. Not close enough to touch. Just close enough to sense. For the briefest moment, he allowed himself to turn his head. Their eyes met. Not long. Not bold. But long enough. She looked away first. Good. But not fast enough. Damien finally stood, smoothing a hand down the front of his jacket. His assistant—Ellie—appeared beside him like clockwork. “Afternoon meetings shifted to 2:30. Press draft on the merger is ready for review. HR flagged an ethics audit request from the Taiwan office. And Thompson was moved this morning. No complaints filed. She’s… adapting.” He didn’t respond. He didn’t have to. Ellie was smart enough not to fill silence that wasn’t hers. Damien moved toward his office, each step sharp, precise, final. Behind the frosted doors, the world waited. Markets. Wars. Acquisitions. But his mind drifted one last time. To the intern with nothing. To the girl with too much silence in her eyes. To the variable he hadn’t accounted for. He didn’t know what she was yet. A threat? A distraction? A test? But Damien Blackwood had built an empire by seeing beneath the surface—and he knew one thing for certain: Maya Thompson wasn’t like the others. And he didn’t believe in coincidence. Only intention. And whatever force had placed her in his path? It wasn’t finished yet. Not by a long shot