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chapter 33
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2026-01-06 11:01:42
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unmasked desire chapter 61
The night air is cool against Elias’s skin.He doesn’t remember deciding to leave the house only the suffocating pressure of walls, expectations, and words that couldn’t be taken back. He wanders the grounds of the mansion on instinct, drawn toward the far edge of the property where the lights thin and the stars reclaim the sky.Here, the world feels quieter. Less performative.Elias rests his hands on the iron railing overlooking the darkened gardens, breathing in slowly, trying to calm the residual tremor in his chest. Defending Alexander hadn’t been planned. It had risen out of him like a reflex raw, unfiltered.Terrifying.Footsteps approach behind him.He knows who it is before Alexander speaks.“You shouldn’t be out here alone,” Alexander says softly.Elias doesn’t turn. “I needed air.”A pause. Then Alexander moves to stand beside him, close enough that Elias can feel his presence without touching. The silence between them is different from before less brittle, more exposed.Th
unmasked desire chapter 60
Family dinners at the Vale house have always followed an unspoken script.Appear on time. Dress correctly. Speak when spoken to. Avoid anything real.Elias hasn’t sat at the long dining table in nearly a week, and stepping back into the room feels like walking into a play already in progress. The crystal glasses are perfectly aligned. The candles burn evenly. His mother sits at the head of the table, posture immaculate, while his father scans something on his tablet, jaw tight.Alexander arrives last.He looks composed in the way Elias has learned to recognize as deliberate suit impeccable, expression neutral, movements economical. He takes his seat across from Elias without meeting his eyes.The air is tense before anyone speaks.Dinner is served. Plates are filled. Small talk limps forward on obligation alone.Elias pokes at his food, appetite nonexistent. Across from him, Alexander eats mechanically, barely tasting anything. Their mother talks about an upcoming charity function, he
unmasked desire chapter 59
The storm doesn’t begin loudly.It starts with a notification.Elias is halfway through a cup of coffee in his temporary apartment when his phone vibrates against the table. He almost ignores it, his mornings have become a careful ritual of avoidance but Marcus is still asleep in the other room, and the silence presses too close. He glances down.A gossip blog.One he recognizes immediately.His stomach tightens before he even opens it.The headline is efficient in its cruelty.VALE HEIR SPOTTED AT EXCLUSIVE UNDERGROUND CLUB—WHAT IS ALEXANDER REALLY HIDING?Elias’s fingers go cold.He clicks.The photos load one by one.Alexander, captured mid-step at night, coat collar turned up, expression unreadable. Another angle: entering a discreet building with no signage. Another: leaving hours later, jaw tight, eyes shadowed, looking exactly like a man who hasn’t slept.The article is speculative rather than definitive, which somehow makes it worse.Anonymous sources. Suggestive language. Que
unmasked desire chapter 58
Elias waits until the apartment is silent before opening the envelope.Marcus is out giving him space without having to be asked. The temporary apartment smells faintly of coffee and laundry detergent, unfamiliar and impersonal, like a place meant for recovery rather than living. Elias sits on the edge of the couch, letter resting in his hands as if it might burn him.Alexander’s handwriting is unmistakable.Precise. Controlled. Even now.For a long moment, Elias doesn’t open it. His fingers curl around the paper, chest tight, heart thudding with the kind of fear that has nothing to do with danger and everything to do with truth.Then he exhales.And reads.At first, anger rises hot and immediate as his eyes move over the opening lines.You deserve the truth.The words almost make him scoff.Of course I do.He keeps reading anyway.As the letter unfolds, Elias feels something unexpected happen. The rage doesn’t disappearbbut it shifts. It loses its sharpness, blunting into something h
unmasked desire chapter 57
Alexander has written the letter five times already.Each version lies torn and crumpled in the wastebasket beside his desk, paper creased with violence he doesn’t allow himself anywhere else. The penthouse is quiet too quiet. No staff. No calls. No meetings. Just the hum of the city below and the steady, relentless ticking of the clock on the wall.Time, reminding him of what he’s already lost.He sits again, pen poised over fresh paper, hands finally steady not because he’s calm, but because there’s nothing left to protect. The lies are gone. The mask is gone. All that remains is the truth, stripped of performance.He doesn’t know if Elias will read this.He doesn’t know if he deserves to be heard.But silence would be another form of cowardice.So he writes.Elias,I don’t know if you’ll ever want to speak to me again, and I won’t pretend this letter earns me that right. I’m writing because you deserve the truth, the full truth without interruption, without persuasion, without my v
unmasked desire chapter 56
Marcus doesn’t push.That’s the first thing Elias notices.They’re sitting on opposite ends of the couch in Marcus’s apartment, late afternoon light slanting through half-drawn curtains. A pot of coffee sits untouched on the table between them, already gone lukewarm. Elias has been here for days now, drifting in and out of conversation, answering questions with shrugs or silence.Marcus lets the silence exist.He always has.Elias stares at the wall across from him, tracing the faint crack in the paint with his eyes. His body feels tired in a way sleep doesn’t fix. Processing has taken the edge off the pain, but it’s replaced it with something heavier weight instead of fire.Finally, Marcus speaks.“You don’t have to tell me everything,” he says carefully. “But you do have to tell me one thing.”Elias doesn’t look at him. “What.”“Are you angry because you were lied to,” Marcus says, “or because you cared?”The question lands softly and somehow hits harder than any accusation could ha
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