Chapter 4: Whispers In The Dark

Oren Gallamor didn’t speak to James for two full days.

She stayed locked in the east wing, refusing meals, refusing conversation, refusing to even look at him when he came to the door. Every time she closed her eyes, she saw her mother’s face. Every time she breathed, she remembered James’s confession.

He had ordered the hit.

The man who claimed her so obsessively was the same man who had ended her mother’s life.

On the third night, James stopped knocking politely.

He unlocked the door and stepped inside without permission, carrying a tray of food and a bottle of wine. His eyes were tired, shadowed, but the obsession still burned bright.

“You can’t avoid me forever,” he said quietly.

Oren stood by the window, arms wrapped around herself. “Watch me.”

James set the tray down and approached slowly, like she was a wounded animal. “I know what I did. I know there’s no excuse. But Harry Vida played us both. He fed me lies about your mother being a threat. I believed him because I was protecting my empire. I was wrong.”

Oren spun around, eyes blazing. “Wrong? You killed her! You took away the only person who ever loved me, and now you want me to stand beside you like none of it happened?”

James stopped a few feet away. For the first time, he looked truly exhausted. “I can’t bring her back. But I can give you the power to destroy the man who manipulated me into doing it. I can give you the power to destroy me. Harry Vida wants you, Oren. Not just to hurt me. He wants whatever your mother left behind.”

Oren’s heart hammered. The missing microSD card. The evidence that could link everything together.

She didn’t tell him she already knew the card was gone.

Instead, she stepped closer, voice low and venomous. “If you really want me to trust you, then prove it. No more games. No more half-truths. Help me get to Harry Vida before he uses that card to destroy us both.”

James studied her for a long moment, then nodded.

“Tomorrow night. There’s a private auction at the harbor. Vida will be there. We go together. As husband and wife.”

Oren’s stomach twisted. “We’re not married yet.”

“We will be in three days,” James said, voice dark with promise. “Whether you hate me or not.”

The air between them crackled. James moved closer, backing her against the window. His hand came up to cup her jaw, thumb brushing her lower lip.

“I know you hate me right now,” he murmured. “But I also know you feel this.” He leaned in, lips hovering just above hers. “The same fire I feel when I look at you.”

Oren didn’t pull away. She grabbed his shirt and yanked him down into a brutal kiss, angry, desperate, full of hate and need. James groaned into her mouth, hands sliding down her body, gripping her hips hard as he pressed her against the glass.

For a few heated seconds, it was pure war, teeth, tongues, raw dominance. Then James pulled back just enough to rest his forehead against hers, breathing ragged.

“Tell me you’ll marry me,” he whispered.

Oren smiled coldly against his lips.

“I’ll marry you,” she said. “But only so I can watch you burn when the truth finally comes out.”

James’s eyes darkened with both desire and warning.

Before he could respond, his phone rang.

He answered, and his expression changed instantly.

“Harry Vida just sent a message,” he said, voice low. “He knows you have the locket. And he says if you don’t bring him what your mother hid inside it by midnight tomorrow… he’ll release everything. Including proof that I killed her.”

Oren’s blood ran cold. The game had just changed.

Harry Vida wasn’t just coming for revenge. He was coming to own them both.