All Chapters of HIS SECRET ADDICTION: Chapter 71 - Chapter 80

Damien's POVThe flight home left on time.Alex fell asleep forty minutes in, which didn't surprise me. He'd been running on canal air and good coffee since eight in the morning and the adrenaline of the Rossi deal had taken more out of him than he'd admitted.He slept differently than most people. Still. Like he'd made a decision about it.I worked for two hours and then stopped because the work wasn't urgent and the alternative was watching the dark outside the window and thinking about the last forty-eight hours, which I found I didn't mind doing.It was his first time in Milan. I'd known that going in and had wanted, without making it a production, for it to be good. The square. The bookshop. Carla Rossi called him smart and fed him pasta and hugged him longer at the door.It had been better than good.The thing I kept returning to was the canal. Him saying *like yourself, the version without the building.* Not as a compliment. Just as an observation, the way he said most true thi

Damien's POVThursday evening Alex showed up at my apartment with groceries.Not announced. He texted from the lobby: “I'm teaching myself to cook something. You're the test subject. Buzz me up.”I buzzed him up.He arrived with two bags and the focused expression of someone who had a plan they were moderately confident in."What are you making," I said."Pasta. Carla's advice. Better ingredients first.""You bought ingredients based on advice from a woman you met for one dinner.""I bought ingredients based on advice from a woman who made the best pasta I've ever eaten." He set the bags on the counter and started unpacking. "There's a difference."I leaned against the counter and watched him organize things with the particular methodology he brought to tasks he was learning. Everything laid out before anything started. Sequence established first."You don't need to watch," he said."I'm not watching. I'm standing in my kitchen.""You're watching with your arms crossed."I uncrossed m

Damien's POVMarcus called Sunday morning while I was making coffee.Not eggs. Coffee. I'd learned from Thursday that attempting both simultaneously was overcommitting."Trevor moved," he said.I set down the mug. "When.""Friday evening. I just got confirmation this morning." He paused. "He met with a journalist. Diane Farrow. She covers corporate culture for the Tribune. Long-form. The kind of piece that takes three months to write and lands on a Monday so it has all week to breathe.""How do you know it was Farrow.""Because Trevor was seen entering her building and I had someone ask around." A pause. "She's been researching Cross Industries for six weeks. The meeting Friday wasn't the first contact."I stood at the kitchen counter and ran through it. Six weeks. Before Milan. Before Jordan's complaint was filed. Trevor had been building this longer than any of us had tracked."Does he have anything concrete," I said."He has three years of personal knowledge about you. That's enoug

Damien's POVAlex came up at eleven-fifteen.I knew from the way he opened the door that the call had gone better than he'd prepared for. There was something settled in him that hadn't been there this morning, the particular quality of someone who'd been carrying a weight and had just found out it was lighter than they thought."How is she," I said."Remarkable." He sat down across from my desk. "She already knew about Farrow. She'd Googled her after I called over the weekend.""Your mother Googled the journalist.""She spent twenty years as an ESL teacher. She knows how to research." He looked at his hands. "She said if Farrow calls her she'll talk. On the record. Her terms."I looked at him. "That's significant.""She said she's been quiet long enough." He paused. "She also said that if Richard Sterling gets named in print she won't lose a single night of sleep over it.""Neither will I."He met my eyes. Something moved through his expression. The particular look he got when I said

Damien's POVI read the screenshot over his shoulder.The headline was a working draft, incomplete, the kind of thing that lived in a shared document because someone forgot to restrict access or didn't think it mattered yet. Farrow had been careful everywhere else. One open document was all Sophie needed.“CROSS INDUSTRIES: THE COST OF SILENCE — How a 30-year board member's misconduct shaped a company's culture, and the employee who uncovered it.”Below it, in the notes field.*Key sources: Carter, A. (employee, direct knowledge). Sterling, R. (subject). Cross, D. (CEO, aware?)*Alex stared at his phone.I looked at his name on that screen and felt something very specific move through me that I didn't have immediate language for. Not fear. Something adjacent to it but with edges."Call Sophie," I said.He was already dialing.She picked up immediately. "You've both seen it.""Yes," Alex said. "How did you get access to a Tribune internal document.""I didn't. Farrow emailed our commun