All Chapters of Until The Truth Burns: Chapter 11 - Chapter 20

26 Chapters

CHAPTER ELEVEN – TANYA

The café was warm and noisy compared to LH.I tied my apron, took orders, smiled at customers, and let the rhythm of work pull me back into something normal. Milk steamed. Cups clinked. Nick argued with the espresso machine like it had personally offended him. Lila sang along to the playlist, confidently wrong.For a while, it worked.Then my phone buzzed.I didn’t check it right away.I finished handing over a drink, wiped the counter, took another order. The vibration came again—slow, deliberate. Like whoever was on the other end knew I’d feel it even if I didn’t look.When I finally checked, my chest tightened.You think she won’t come back to me.No greeting. No question mark.Just certainty.I locked the screen and slid the phone into my pocket.Not today.“Tanya?” Nick’s voice cut through my thoughts. “You okay?”“Yeah,” I said quickly. Too quickly. “Just hungry.”He gave me a look that said he didn’t buy it, but he didn’t push. “Take five when you can.”I nodded, grateful.The

CHAPTER TWELVE - DAMIEN

London had been useless.Not professionally but my mind kept drifting.That irritated me more than anything else. My phone lay untouched on the table behind me. No emergencies. Greyson handled things when I was gone. She always did.Which meant there was no reason—none—for Tanya Reed to still be on my mind.And yet.She was a mystery.That was the problem.Not her mouth. Not her attitude. Not even her insolence, which most people would have been fired for on the spot.It was the fact that she didn’t fit.Cleaners didn’t hold their ground in my office with bloodshot eyes and a spine made of steel. Cleaners didn’t have degrees they conveniently forgot to mention.And cleaners didn’t walk away from my desk without asking for something.Everyone wanted something.Except her.I exhaled slowly.Either she was exactly what she appeared to be—wasted potential scrubbing floors to survive—or she was hiding something.I disliked not knowing which.By the time my jet touched down, I had already

CHAPTER THIRTEEN – TANYA

I didn’t stop walking until the elevator doors slid shut behind me.Then I exhaled.Hard.My hands were shaking.Not fear—no, not that. It was something worse. Something sharper. Like my entire nervous system had just been rewired without my consent.Secretary.The word echoed in my head as the elevator descended.Damien Lockewood didn’t ask people questions he hadn’t already answered. He didn’t offer opportunities—he issued challenges and waited to see who broke under them.And somehow, impossibly, he’d decided I was worth testing.I stared at my reflection in the mirrored wall. Same pulled-back hair. Same tired eyes. Same woman who’d been scrubbing conference tables before sunrise.Nothing about me had changed.Everything else had.When the doors opened, I stepped out, scanned my badge, and walked straight back onto the street like I hadn’t just been invited into the mouth of the wolf.The café smelled like cinnamon and burnt espresso when I pushed back inside.Normal.Blessedly nor

CHAPTER FOURTEEN – DAMIEN

I don’t change my routines for people.That has always been the rule.So when Greyson informed me at 6:18 a.m. that the desk had been delivered and positioned exactly where I instructed—outside my office door, within direct sight through the glass—I told myself this wasn’t an exception.It was logistics.“She’ll need access to the inner calendar,” I said, fastening my cufflinks. “Not the executive files. Her desk stays external.”“Yes, sir,” Greyson replied smoothly.A pause followed. Calculated.“She starts today.”“Yes.”That was the end of it.By the time I reached the office, the building was still waking up. I preferred it that way. The executive floor was quiet and orderly. Just as it should be.I shrugged off my jacket, rolled my sleeves once, and sat behind my desk.The glass wall framed the space outside my office.The desk was there.A minimal dark wood that fit the space. Good.I opened my laptop and buried myself in numbers.At 7:02 a.m. exactly, the elevator chimed.I di

CHAPTER FIFTEEN – TANYA

By the time I stepped out of the LH building, my feet hurt in that dull, distant way that only came from wearing corporate heels. But it felt good to be doing something with my incredibly useful brain.I pulled my coat tighter around myself as the evening air hit my face, sharper than I expected. The city hummed like it always did—cars, voices, life moving forward without pausing to acknowledge that my entire orbit had just tilted slightly off its axis.I’d survived.That was the first thing I told myself.I’d made it through my first full day sitting outside Damien Lockewood’s office without combusting, embarrassing myself, or being escorted out by security for reasons unspecified.Low bar. But still. I exhaled slowly and headed for the subway.I hadn’t expected the job to feel… like that.Not overwhelming.Not terrifying.Precise.Everything around him was intentional. The pace, the silence, the way people approached the executive wing like they were stepping into a cathedral. Even

CHAPTER SIXTEEN – DAMIEN

I knew the exact moment she arrived.Not because she knocked, or because she spoke.Because the air tightened.There was a rhythm to the building. A controlled pulse. People moved carefully on that level, like the air itself reported to me. Shoes softened. Voices lowered. Even breathing felt negotiated.But when Tanya stepped off the elevator, the air shifted.It didn’t quiet.It focused.I didn’t look at the door. I didn’t need to. I heard the faint scrape of her chair. The soft exhale she thought no one noticed. The way she settled like someone bracing for impact rather than beginning a workday.Second morning.She hadn’t run.That already made her different.Greyson stepped in at 7:02 a.m.“She was early again,” she said, setting a folder on my desk.“I noticed.”“She asked for full access to the operational dashboard.”I kept signing. “And?”“I gave it.”Good.Greyson studied me for a moment longer than necessary. She’d known me long enough to recognize patterns. Deviations.“You

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN – TANYA

By midmorning, I had caught Damien looking in my direction three times.Not staring. Not openly. Just brief glances, quick enough that I could’ve imagined them if I wanted to. I didn’t.It made me self-aware in a way I didn’t enjoy, even if he was probably just second-guessing his decision to throw me into the deep end.Every movement felt magnified up here. The slide of my chair. The tap of my pen. Even the quiet rhythm of typing sounded intrusive against glass, marble, and the kind of silence that felt intentional.I kept my focus on the screen.I wasn’t a tech person. Numbers, yes. Systems, only as far as they delivered the figures I needed. But the computer on my desk had been efficient since day one. Fast. Responsive. No drama.Until now.The operational dashboard loaded slower than it had yesterday. Slower than it had earlier that same morning. Not frozen. Not broken.Just… resistant.I frowned and refreshed.Half the data populated. The rest lagged behind, greyed out, like it w

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN – DAMIEN

The floor returned to its usual order quickly.Whatever resistance had rippled through the systems earlier was gone by the time Tanya sat back down. I felt it settle the way I always did. The prompt on my computer finally went away.She simply resumed working, pen moving across paper, eyes scanning numbers like they were an extension of her body.Efficient and Quiet. Also unimpressed by her own competence.I should have gone back to my screen. Instead, I watched her for a moment longer than necessary.She adjusted in her chair, crossing one leg over the other. The movement was absent-minded. Not deliberate. The fabric of her skirt pulled slightly across her thighs before settling again.I looked away.Work. Focus.The numbers I was looking at were clean now. They had been even before the system lagged. Greyson wouldn’t allow unresolved inconsistencies to linger, not when they brushed this close to my floor. Still, my attention kept slipping.To the way Tanya’s brow furrowed faintly wh

CHAPTER NINETEEN – TANYA

By the time I left the building, my shoulders hurt.Not from work. Not really. From holding myself the way the corporate world demanded. Upright and precise- aware of every inch of space I occupied.I didn’t realize how tight I was until the elevator doors closed and the pressure eased, just a fraction. I rolled my shoulders once, subtly, like I could shake it off. Didn’t work.Outside, the city felt louder, messier and more human. I welcomed it.Morning & Co. still smelled the same.Burnt espresso. Cinnamon. Something sweet I couldn’t name but always noticed the moment I stepped inside.Lila looked up from the counter and froze.“Tanya Reed,” she announced dramatically. “Corporate royalty returns to the common folk.”“I didn’t abandon anyone,” I said, smiling despite myself. “I just moved from frying pan to fire.”She snorted. “You left me with Nick.”“That was personal growth for both of you.”She leaned over the counter, eyes sweeping me from head to toe. “You look… expensive.”“I

CHAPTER TWENTY – DAMIEN

Greyson’s absence was noticeable.Not in a very obvious way. The systems still ran, the schedule held and the silence remained intact but, you could tell that she was missing in action.I noticed it when I stepped out of my office again and Tanya was already at Greyson’s desk, jacket draped over the back of the chair, sleeves pushed up, attention locked on a set of notes Greyson usually kept close to her chest.She hadn’t asked permission, and she also hadn’t hesitated. That was the first thing that caught.The second was how naturally she fit there.Not mimicking Greyson. Not stiff with borrowed authority. Just… occupying the space. Like she understood that competence didn’t need an audience.I should have kept walking.Instead, I paused.She sensed it immediately.Not in a startled way. Not the way people usually did when I entered a room. She simply lifted her head, eyes finding mine with the same steady awareness she’d been carrying for days now.“Good morning,” she said.It wasn’

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