Chapter 8: The Secret Apartment

Tayla POV

I shouldn’t have gone.

I knew that.

Even now, standing in front of the building, I knew I should turn around and leave.

But doubt is a dangerous thing.

Once it enters your mind, it demands answers.

And Luca had planted enough questions to keep me awake for two nights straight.

The apartment.

The mysterious apartment Damian had supposedly hidden from me.

At first, I told myself it meant nothing.

A business property.

An investment.

An office.

Anything except what my imagination kept suggesting.

But the longer I thought about it, the worse the possibilities became.

And now…

Here I was.

Standing across the street from a luxury building in downtown Manhattan.

My hands trembled.

My heart pounded.

And for the first time in seven years of marriage…

I was investigating my husband.

The realization made me sick.

Because trust should never feel like this.

Yet trust was becoming harder to hold onto.

I crossed the street.

The doorman glanced at me politely.

“Can I help you, ma’am?”

I swallowed.

“Apartment 18B.”

The man’s expression shifted slightly.

Recognition.

My stomach tightened.

“You know it?”

“Of course.”

His answer came immediately.

A horrible feeling settled inside me.

Because if this apartment truly belonged to Damian…

Then why had I never heard about it?

The doorman smiled politely.

“Mr. Russo visits occasionally.”

My breath caught.

Visits.

Not owns.

Visits.

The difference mattered.

Yet somehow it hurt even more.

“Is someone there now?”

The man shook his head.

“No, ma’am.”

Relief flooded me.

Followed immediately by guilt.

What was I doing?

What kind of wife sneaks around like this?

Damian was sitting in prison.

And I was here questioning his loyalty.

A sharp pain stabbed my chest.

Maybe Luca was wrong.

Maybe all of this was a misunderstanding.

Maybe—

“Tayla?”

The voice froze me instantly.

I turned.

Luca stood several feet away.

For a second neither of us moved.

Neither of us spoke.

Then he sighed.

A slow, disappointed sigh.

As if he’d expected this.

As if he’d known I would come.

“How long have you been here?” I asked quietly.

His expression softened.

“Long enough.”

Embarrassment burned through me.

“You followed me?”

“No.”

His answer came too quickly.

“I was nearby.”

A lie.

Or maybe the truth.

I wasn’t sure anymore.

Nothing felt certain these days.

Luca approached slowly.

His gaze shifted toward the building.

Then back to me.

“I was hoping you wouldn’t come.”

I laughed bitterly.

“Really?”

Something flickered across his face.

Regret.

Or the appearance of regret.

“It’s better not knowing sometimes.”

The words only made my anxiety worse.

“What is this place?”

Silence.

Then another sigh.

“It’s complicated.”

My patience snapped.

“Stop saying that.”

People were always saying things were complicated.

Nobody ever explained.

Nobody ever told the truth.

“I deserve answers.”

Luca stared at me.

For a long moment he simply stared.

Then finally—

“Come with me.”

Twenty minutes later we sat inside a quiet coffee shop.

Rain tapped softly against the windows.

The city outside looked gray.

Cold.

Distant.

Just like my life.

Luca sat across from me.

His coffee untouched.

Mine completely forgotten.

I couldn’t stop thinking about the apartment.

“Tell me.”

His jaw tightened.

“You won’t like it.”

“Tell me anyway.”

He looked down briefly.

Then back at me.

And suddenly his expression seemed genuinely conflicted.

“I think Damian was protecting someone.”

My stomach dropped.

“What?”

“I don’t know who.”

The words landed like a punch.

A woman.

The possibility screamed inside my head.

A woman.

Another life.

Another relationship.

Another family.

Every insecurity I’d spent years ignoring suddenly surfaced.

Every late-night call.

Every canceled dinner.

Every unexplained trip.

Everything.

“No.”

The word escaped automatically.

“He loves me.”

Luca’s eyes softened.

“I know.”

The kindness almost broke me.

Because unlike everyone else…

Luca never dismissed my feelings.

Never called me irrational.

Never told me I was overreacting.

He simply listened.

And somehow that made him more dangerous than anyone else.

“What if I don’t know him anymore?”

The question slipped out before I could stop it.

Luca stared at me.

The silence stretched.

Then quietly—

“Maybe that’s exactly what he wanted.”

My heart cracked a little more.

That evening, Elena sat beside Noah’s bed while he slept.

The apartment felt enormous.

Empty.

Lonely.

She watched her son’s peaceful face.

The only certainty left in her life.

Everything else felt unstable.

Broken.

Fragile.

Her marriage.

Her trust.

Her future.

And worst of all…

Her memories.

Because even the happy ones now carried questions.

How much of it was real?

How much had Damian hidden?

A text message suddenly appeared on her phone.

Unknown Number.

Her pulse quickened.

Slowly, she opened it.

The message contained only one photograph.

Nothing else.

No explanation.

No words.

Just a photograph.

Tayla’s blood turned to ice.

Because the picture showed Damian.

And a woman.

Standing together.

Outside the very apartment she had visited today.

The phone nearly slipped from her hand.

“No…”

The whisper barely escaped her lips.

Her heart raced violently.

Her breathing became uneven.

The image blurred through sudden tears.

The woman was beautiful.

Young.

Elegant.

Standing close to Damian.

Too close.

Much too close.

The timestamp on the photograph made everything worse.

Three months ago.

Three months.

When he had still been sharing her bed.

Kissing her.

Telling her he loved her.

A sob escaped her throat.

Because she didn’t know the truth.

Didn’t know who sent the image.

Didn’t know the context.

But heartbreak doesn’t wait for facts.

Heartbreak creates its own story.

And right now…

The story looked devastating.

Miles away inside his prison cell, Damian stared at the ceiling.

Restless.

Uneasy.

Something felt wrong.

Terribly wrong.

As if a disaster had already begun.

As if someone was destroying his life piece by piece while he sat helpless behind bars.

And for the first time since his arrest…

Fear gripped him harder than prison ever had.

Because he knew exactly who was capable of doing it.

Luca.

And Damian was running out of time.