LOGINLeon stood frozen in the doorway, watching Selene pace.
Back and forth across the pristine white marble. Her heels clicking rhythmically. Her phone still clutched in one trembling hand.The video had destroyed her.He could see it in the way her shoulders hunched slightly. The way her breathing came too fast. The way her eyes darted to her phone every few seconds like she expected it to explode.“Selene,” he said quietly.She stopped pacing.Rowan woke to the taste of chemicals in his mouth.Bitter. Metallic.His head pounded like someone had taken a hammer to his skull. His limbs felt heavy, disconnected, like they belonged to someone else.He blinked slowly, vision swimming.Where???The ceiling above him was unfamiliar. White. Smooth. A modern light fixture he didn't recognize.Not his penthouse.Not his office.Where the hell am I?He tried to sit up, and his body protested violently. Every muscle ached. His mouth was dry, tongue thick and clumsy.What happened??Fragments of memory flickered through his mind.The parking garage.Leon.The conversation."I'm sorry.""For what?"The cloth.The smell.The—Leon drugged me.Rowan's eyes snapped fully open, adrenaline cutting through the fog.He forced himself upright, ignoring the wave of nausea that followed.The room spun for a moment, then settled.A hotel room.Expensive. Clean. Impersonal.King-sized bed with white sheets. Dark wood furniture. Floor-to-ceiling windo
The guest bedroom was pristine.White sheets. Soft lighting. The faint smell of lavender from the diffuser on the nightstand.Peaceful.Almost serene.Except for the man lying unconscious in the center of the bed.Rowan Adair.Still as death. Chest rising and falling in slow, steady rhythm. His face slack, unguarded in a way Selene had never seen before.Vulnerable.Completely, utterly vulnerable.Selene closed the door behind her softly, the click of the lock echoing through the silent room.She stood there for a moment, back pressed against the wood, staring at him.Her phone buzzed in her pocket.Another notification.Another message about the video.Another person calling her a monster.She silenced it without looking.They already thought she was evil.They already wanted her destroyed.So what difference would one mor
Leon stood frozen in the doorway, watching Selene pace.Back and forth across the pristine white marble. Her heels clicking rhythmically. Her phone still clutched in one trembling hand.The video had destroyed her.He could see it in the way her shoulders hunched slightly. The way her breathing came too fast. The way her eyes darted to her phone every few seconds like she expected it to explode.“Selene,” he said quietly.She stopped pacing.Turned to look at him.Her eyes were glassy, tears threatening but not quite falling. Her makeup was smudged slightly at the corners. She looked vulnerable. Breakable.Beautiful.God, she was still so beautiful.Even now. Even after everything.“I can't do this,” she whispered.Leon's chest tightened. “Yes, you can.”“No.” She shook her head, voice cracking. “I can't. It's over, Leon. The video, everyone knows. They're going to ar
The real video dropped at 12:47 AM.The first one, was only video without any audio so it was dismissed. The public didn't feast on it because they couldn't hear what was being said.By 1:00 AM, it had been shared ten thousand times.By 1:15 AM, it was trending on every social media platform.By 1:30 AM, news outlets were scrambling to verify the footage, calling sources, drafting headlines, preparing to break the story at dawn.By 2:00 AM, the world knew.BREAKING NEWS: Socialite Selene Vale Allegedly Conspired to Poison Odette Industries HeirEXCLUSIVE: Video Evidence Shows Vale Meeting with Missing Maxwell GlutenSCANDAL: Audio Reveals Plot to Harm Marcelline OdetteThe footage was grainy but clear enough.A restaurant. Upscale but not extravagant. The kind of place where people went to have conversations they didn't want overheard.Two figures sat at a corner table, leaning close.Selene Vale, unmistakable even in the low lighting. Her hair, her posture, the way she gestured with
The parking garage was a relic from another era.Built in the seventies, when the city still believed in grandeur and excess, it had once been the crown jewel of a luxury hotel complex. Five stories of sweeping concrete ramps, art deco columns, and brass fixtures that gleamed under soft lighting.Now it was abandoned.The hotel had closed fifteen years ago, left to rot while developers argued over permits and zoning laws. The garage remained, hollow, elegant, haunting. Graffiti covered some walls, but much of it was still pristine. Untouched. Like a monument to something that used to matter.Rowan's footsteps echoed as he walked through the entrance on the third floor.The sound bounced off concrete and metal, amplified by the emptiness.He'd parked two blocks away, couldn't risk his car being traced, and walked the rest of the way.His hand hovered near his gun.The air smelled like dust and old oil, metallic and stale.A single overhead light flickered near the center of the floor,
Damian Holt had failed Rowan Adair once.He would not fail him again.He stood in the shadows outside Rowan's office now, perfectly still, perfectly silent. A ghost in expensive black clothing. His hands were loose at his sides, relaxed but ready. His breathing was controlled, measured, barely audible.Most people didn't even know he was there.That's how he preferred it.Damian didn't speak unless spoken to. Didn't move unless ordered. Didn't exist unless Rowan needed him to.He was the shadow. The executioner. The hand that did the work others couldn't stomach.And he was very, very good at his job.Except for that one time.That one time he'd let Leon slip through his fingers.He'd let Leon betray his boss by not being in there.In the penthouse.He didn't see it coming.No one did.But, he should have. The memory burned like acid in his chest.It was the only mistake he'd ever made in ten years of service to Rowan Adair.And it haunted him every single day.So when Rowan's phone







