The Perfect Betrayal

Glancing at the neat envelope on her desk, Ava Sinclair sees her name crisply and coldly etched in silver on the front. Roman Devereux, the client she was supposed to meet, was profiled inside. A ricocheted bullet has been sending the name whizzing through Manhattan's elite circles. Some saw him as a scapegoat, while others saw him as a criminal genius accused of stealing secrets from companies. Both of those things were out of Ava's time.Pressing out a crease in her fitted blazer, she seemed to be trying to soothe the growing annoyance.“Ms. Sinclair?” her assistant, Clara, poked her head through the office door. “Mr. Devereux is here.”“Show him in.” Ava kept her head down as she wrote down every piece of evidence and flipped through the folder. She valued knowing more than her clients knew about their own cases. It made it easy to manage the narrative.The door clicked open, and Ava looked up to find Roman Devereux leaning casually against the frame. He wasn’t what she expected.

Ava kept her face deadpan as Roman leaned comfortably against the marble counter of his penthouse. His shirt sleeves were rolled up, his tie lost somewhere in the slick, modern space. She wasn’t sure if the relaxed look was intended or if it indicated he’d finally let his guard down. Either way, it irritated her.“Talk,” she said, crossing her arms. “I don’t have time for games.”“It's all business for you, isn't it?” Roman said, pouring a glass of whiskey. He didn’t offer her one, and she didn’t ask. “But I think we both know this isn’t just business anymore.”She didn’t flinch. “Don’t mistake my interest in your case for anything else.”Roman’s giving a gentle smile took a sip from his drink while watching her. “You’re good at keeping people at arm’s length. I bet it works most of the time. But not with me.”Ava took a step forward, her heels tapping sharply on the floor. “You don’t know me well enough to make assumptions, so I'd suggest you don't do that.”His eyes moved to hers, h

Ava felt her heart race as she held focus on Roman's phone screen. Her face was captured in the clearest photograph she has ever seen as she was seen leaving his penthouse. The article did not waste time to accuse her of having participated in her mother's alleged plots.Her grip on the phone betrayed her, but her voice remained strong. "Who could have leaked this?"Without flinching, Roman stared. "It has Malone's hand written all over it""This is deliberate. Their goal is to have me abandon you and the case." She said as she dropped the phone on the counter.“And will you?” Roman’s question wasn’t silly. There was something raw in his tone, something that unsettled her.“I don’t quit,” she said. “Not for Malone. Not for Evelyn. And most definitely not for you.”He leaned closer, his presence stabilising her even as her mind raced. “Then we need to hit back hard. But this time, Ava, it’s not just about winning. It’s about survival—for both of us.”They spent the remaining night work