Chapter 5: Masks Fall

Amelia's POV

I didn't sleep that night.

Alexander's words circled my mind like vultures.

“If you plan to burn the world, tell me when to move.”

He knew something. Maybe not everything, but enough to be dangerous.

I sat by the window in my room, watching the city pulse with life below. Somewhere out there, Ethan and Vanessa were sleeping soundly, believing themselves untouchable. Somewhere out there, Adrian was probably planning our next move.

And here I was, caught between the life I was building and the marriage I was trapped in.

Morning came too quickly.

I dressed carefully, a navy dress that made me look professional but not threatening. I had a meeting with Adrian later to finalize the launch of our newest collection.

When I came downstairs, Alexander was already in the dining room. But this time, he wasn't reading his newspaper.

He was waiting.

"Sit," he said simply.

It wasn't a request.

I lowered myself into the chair across from him, my pulse quickening. The air between us felt different this morning, charged with unspoken questions.

"I've been thinking," he began, his gray eyes fixed on mine. "About what you said at the gala. About the people who ruined you."

I kept my expression neutral. "What about them?"

"Ethan Ward and Vanessa Hayes." He said their names like he was testing me. "You knew them well, didn't you?"

"Once."

"How well?"

I hesitated. The truth felt too raw, too humiliating to speak aloud. "Well enough to trust them. Badly enough to regret it."

Something flickered in his eyes. Understanding, maybe. Or recognition.

"Ethan Ward was your fiancé," he said quietly.

My breath caught. "How did you..."

"I make it my business to know things that matter." He leaned back slightly. "Especially about my wife."

Heat crept up my neck. "Then you know what he did."

"I know he stole your work. Destroyed your career. Married your rival." His voice was calm, clinical. "What I don't know is what you plan to do about it."

I met his gaze steadily. "I plan to take back what's mine."

"By becoming someone else?"

The question landed like a blade.

I froze, my mind racing. Did he know about Lia Hart? About Adrian?

"I don't know what you mean," I said carefully.

Alexander stood, moving around the table with slow, deliberate steps. He stopped beside my chair, close enough that I had to tilt my head back to look at him.

"You've been leaving the house three times a week," he said softly. "Always at odd hours. Always alone. Your credit card shows purchases for art supplies, design software, business consultations."

My heart hammered against my ribs.

"You're building something," he continued. "Something you don't want me to know about."

I forced myself to breathe evenly. "I thought you said I could do what I wanted."

"I did." His hand came to rest on the back of my chair. "But that was before I realized you were planning a war."

"And what if I am?" The words came out sharper than I intended. "What will you do? Stop me?"

He was quiet for a long moment. Then, to my surprise, he smiled. A real smile that transformed his entire face.

"No," he said. "I'm going to help you."

I stared at him, certain I'd misheard. "What?"

"I said I'm going to help you." He moved back to his seat. "On one condition."

Of course. There was always a condition with men like him.

"What condition?" I asked warily.

"You stop lying to me."

The words hung in the air between us.

"I want to know everything," he continued. "What you're building. Who you're working with. What you're planning."

"Why?" I demanded. "Why do you suddenly care?"

His jaw tightened. "Because Ethan Ward isn't just your enemy, Amelia. He's mine too."

The revelation hit me like cold water.

"What?"

He stood abruptly, walking to the window. For a long moment, he said nothing, his broad shoulders tense beneath his perfectly tailored suit.

When he finally spoke, his voice was different. Lower, almost vulnerable.

"Five years ago, I was engaged."

My breath stilled.

"Her name was Isabelle." He didn't turn around. "She was brilliant, ambitious, beautiful. Everyone said we were perfect together."

The photograph in the library flashed through my mind. The woman who looked like me.

"What happened?" I whispered.

"Ethan Ward happened." His voice turned bitter. "He was nobody then, just another ambitious executive trying to climb the corporate ladder. He worked on a merger between my company and Isabelle's family business."

I could feel where this was going. The familiar shape of betrayal.

"They had an affair," he continued flatly. "She left me two weeks before the wedding. Six months later, she married him."

The words settled over me like snow.

"But that's not where it ended," he added, his voice hardening. "Ethan used her. Took everything she knew about my business, all the confidential information I'd shared with her, and built his company on it. Then, once he'd squeezed every advantage from her, he divorced her and moved on to his next target."

"Vanessa," I whispered.

"Vanessa Hayes." He finally turned to face me. "The woman he's with now. The woman he chose over you. He has a pattern, Amelia. He finds talented, brilliant women, uses them for what they can give him, then discards them when someone more useful comes along."

My hands clenched in my lap. "We were both his stepping stones."

"Yes." His gray eyes held mine. "And I've spent five years waiting for the right moment to destroy him. But he's careful. Protected. Until now."

"Until now?"

"Until you." He moved closer. "You have something I don't. You know his current weaknesses. You understand how he and Vanessa operate. And more importantly, you have the fire to take them down."

I studied his face, seeing him clearly for the first time. "You want to use me."

"I want to partner with you," he corrected. "There's a difference."

"Is there?"

"Yes." He leaned against the desk. "Using you would mean hiding my intentions. Partnering means we work together, equal stakes, equal risk. I help you reclaim what's yours, you help me destroy what's his."

Silence stretched between us.

"And what happens after?" I asked quietly. "After we've destroyed them both?"

Something flickered in his expression. Something almost like longing.

"That depends on you," he said.

Before I could respond, my phone buzzed. A text from Adrian.

Alexander's eyes flicked to it. "Blake?"

I nodded slowly.

"Then it's time I met your partner," he said. "Officially."

The next few hours passed in a blur.

Alexander led me to his private study. He poured two glasses of whiskey and handed me one.

"Tell me everything," he said.

So I did.

I told him about the Aurora Campaign, how I'd poured my soul into it only to watch Ethan steal it. I told him about the humiliation of being fired, blacklisted, erased from an industry I'd loved.

I told him about meeting Adrian Blake at the gala, about the deal we'd made, about becoming Lia Hart.

And as I spoke, Alexander listened. Really listened. Not with judgment or impatience, but with the intensity of someone who understood exactly what I'd lost.

"Lia Hart Designs," he murmured when I finished. "I've heard of it. Everyone has."

"That was the point," I said. "To build something so undeniable that they couldn't ignore it. To prove I never needed them."

"You've succeeded." He took a slow sip of whiskey. "Ward & Co.'s stock has dropped twelve percent in the last quarter. Vanessa's last campaign was a disaster."

Pride flickered through me. "I know."

"But you want more."

"I want them to lose everything," I said quietly. "The way I did. The way Isabelle did."

Alexander set down his glass, his gray eyes sharp. "Then we'll make it happen."

"Why?" I asked again. "Why help me? Really?"

He leaned forward, and for the first time since I'd known him, he looked almost human.

"Because watching Ethan Ward fall would be the second-best thing that's happened to me this year."

"What's the first?"

His lips curved slightly. "Realizing my substitute bride was never a substitute at all."

My heart stuttered.

Before I could respond, his phone buzzed. He glanced at it, his expression hardening.

"Adrian Blake just texted you," he said coolly, holding up my phone. "He wants to meet tonight."

Heat rushed to my face. "You went through my phone?"

"I'm protecting my investment." He handed it back. "Tell him you're bringing someone."

"Alexander..."

"If we're doing this," he interrupted, "we're doing it together. No more secrets. No more hiding."

I stared at him, torn between anger and something dangerously close to gratitude.

"Fine," I said finally. "But this doesn't change anything between us."

"Doesn't it?" He stood, buttoning his jacket. "You're not the woman I married, Amelia. And I'm not the man you thought I was."

He left before I could argue.

That night, I sat across from Adrian Blake at an upscale restaurant, Alexander beside me.

Adrian's expression when he saw us together was priceless. Surprise, calculation, and something that might have been concern.

"Mr. Sterling," Adrian said smoothly, extending his hand. "This is unexpected."

"I'm full of surprises," Alexander replied, his grip firm.

We sat, the tension thick enough to cut.

"So," Adrian said, turning to me. "You told him."

"He figured it out," I corrected.

"And now he wants in?"

"Now I want to make sure my wife doesn't get destroyed in the crossfire," Alexander said coldly. "Ethan Ward is dangerous. If you're planning to take him down, you'll need more than good designs and venture capital."

Adrian's eyes narrowed. "What are you offering?"

"Access." Alexander leaned back. "Ward & Co. is trying to secure a major contract with Sterling Group. They need it to survive. I can make sure they don't get it."

I watched them size each other up, two predators circling the same prey.

"And what do you want in return?" Adrian asked.

"To watch him burn," Alexander said simply. "Ethan Ward destroyed someone I cared about once. Then he did the same to my wife. That's two debts he owes."

Adrian glanced at me, a question in his eyes.

I nodded slowly. "He's in."

"Then we have a new partnership." Adrian raised his glass. "To revenge."

"To justice," I corrected.

Alexander's lips curved. "To both."

We clinked glasses, three damaged people united by a common enemy.

And somewhere across the city, Ethan Ward had no idea the storm that was coming.