All Chapters of Betrayed by design: Chapter 31 - Chapter 40

47 Chapters

The Accident

The highway was quiet for a Thursday morning; a few sedans, a delivery truck and a biker weaving too confidently between lanes. Sloane kept one hand on the wheel and the other resting near the gearshift with her window opened enough for cold air to slip inside the car.Her phone sat in the cupholder, Lila’s name still glowing from a text she hadn’t responded to. Call me. Please. Sloane had read it four times and put the phone face-down each time, she wasn’t ready for whatever Lila wanted to explain.The music was low, some soft acoustic playlist. Her meeting was in thirty minutes and she already knew how the morning would go with people glancing at her and lowering their voices when she walked by.She pressed the accelerator gently to merge into the left laneand then she pressed the brake but nothing happened.Sloane frowned and pressed again, harder this time, her foot going all the way to the floor but the car didn’t slow. If anything, the slight downward slope of the highway carrie

Safe House

It was past eleven when Damon's black car slid through the downtown streets where the city looked quieter at that hour, not the loud, restless downtown that buzzed with clubs and late-night restaurants. It was the older part of the city, where tall buildings stood like dark sentinels. Sloane sat in the passenger seat, staring out the window with her arms folded across her chest. Damon drove with his full attention and no wasted movement with one hand on the wheel. He was quiet because he chose what to say, and when. She stole a glance at him and he caught it. "We're almost there," he said, not looking away from the road. "You said that ten minutes ago." "And now we’re actually close." He smiled a bit which almost pulled a laugh out of her but she turned back to the window, she wasn't going to give him the satisfaction of laughing. Her mind kept replaying the feeling of the brake pedal dead beneath her foot.Her phone buzzed quietly in her pocket but she ignored, probably Lila ag

The Investigation

The call came in at seven forty-two in the morning. Sloane heard Damon’s voice from the room, she couldn't make out every word but she caught the tone. The She sat up slowly and for one half-awake moment she forgot where she was. Right, the safe house then the night came back in pieces. The failed brakes, the car ride, Damon beside on the highway.She got up, pulled a cardigan from her overnight bag over her sleep shirt, and opened the door. Damon was standing at the kitchen counter with his phone pressed to his ear and a cup of coffee going cold beside him. He was already dressed in dark trousers, a white shirt with the sleeves rolled to his arms.He glanced at her when she came in and held up one finger. She nodded and went to the coffee machine. "When did they release the report?" he said into the phone. A pause. "And that's the official ruling? All right. Send everything to me." He hung up and dropped the phone on the counter. Sloane poured her coffee and turned around. "What

Intimacy

The rain got heavier the third night and Sloane couldn’t sleep, her thought circled back to Damon every time she closed her eyes. She groaned softly and pushed back the blanket, pulled on her socks, opened her bedroom door and stepped into the dark hallway.The lamp in the living room was still on.Damon was sitting on the floor with his back against the couchand a half-empty glass of water beside him, staring at nothing in particular. He looked up with no surprise on his face when she appeared in the doorway.“Couldn’t sleep either?” she asked.“I don’t sleep well in places I don’t know.”Sloane walked over and sat down on the floor beside him, close enough that their shoulders were almost touching. She pulled her knees to her chest and looked at the same stretch of wall he’d been looking at.“Tell me something true,” she said.She felt him shift slightly beside her.“About what?”“Anything. Something you don’t usually say out loud.”He went quiet and rested his back against the couc

Marcus Intervenes

The morning came in quietly, no rush or urgent phone calls demanding attention. Just sunlight pressing through the curtains instrips and falling across the floor of the safe house bedroom.Sloane has been awake but stayed in bed, staring at the ceiling. Sleep hadn’t last long as too much had happened last night, she kept smiling as the memory surfaced.She could hear Damon opening the cabinet in the kitchen. She sat up, pushed her hair back and grabbed her sweater folded at the end of the bed. She sat up slowly, pushed her hair back, and reached for the sweater she’d left folded over the foot of the bed. Damon was standing at the kitchen counter when she stepped into the kitchen with a coffee mug in his hand, his hair looked messy and the sleeves of his shirt rolled up against his forearms. He turned when he heard her come in, their eyes met and he smiled.“Morning,” he said.“Morning.” She moved to the counter and poured herself a cup of coffee. Stood beside him, close enough that

Damon’s Full Confession

Sloane had read the message again, her hand was still loosely in Damon’s.Twenty-four hours to choose between giving Marcus what he wants, or watching him go after Cara’s funding.“What aren’t you telling me?” she said.He didn’t answer right away. That pause was to long to tell her everything and nothing at the same time.“Damon.” Her voice came out quieter than she intended. “What aren’t you telling me?” He set the phone face-down on the counter and turned to face her fully with the look of a man who had been carrying something for a long time and had just decided he was done carrying it alone.“Sit down,” he said quietly.Sloane didn’t sit down. “Just tell me.” He told her.He started at the beginning. He stood with his back against the kitchen counter with his arms at his sides and told how Marcus Hale had approached him with a proposition eight months ago, framing it as due diligence and protection of interest.Marcus wanted someone inside Sloane’s world, someone who could move

Sloane Alone

Sloane took a car service back to the city, sat in the back seat with her bag on her lap and her eyes on the window the entire ride, watching the city come back into view.When the car pulled into the underground parking garage of her building, she sat there in the car for several hours after the driver had announced they had arrived.“Ma’am?”She blinked. “Sorry.”She grabbed her bag and got out.Sloane set her bag down just inside the penthouse and stood there for a moment. The housekeeper had kept it spotless in her absence, fresh flowers on the entry table. She was used to this apartment because she’d chosen every piece of furniture in it, approved every finish, designed the layout to feel open and uncluttered and it had never felt this empty before.She shut the door behind her and went to make coffee.The new security team arrived the next morning, three people. All vetted through channels she’d checked herself using references she’d followed up on personally.The team lead was

Damon’s Redemption Plan

The hotel room was functional and nothing else. One window, one desk, a chair that was slightly too upright to be comfortable and a bed he’d slept in for three nights without sleeping particularly well. Damon had stayed in rooms like this before,rooms that were chosen because they were useful and forgettable.He sat at the desk with his laptop open with his phone face-up beside it and a cold cup coffee, still untouched. He’d been sitting here for two hours, staring at a plan he had already drawn out but hesitated.He picked up the phone and called Marcus Hale. Marcus’s voice came through smoothly after the fourth ring.“Cross,” Marcus said. “You’re calling early.”“I’ve been thinking,” Damon said. “You’re right, the position I’m in doesn’t leave me a lot of options.”“Go on,” Marcus said. “I’ll give you what you want.” Damon kept his voice flat. “The location details, what I know about the merger terms and where Sloane’s case currently stands.”The silence on Marcus exhaled slowly, h

The Anonymous Friend Revealed (Part 1)

An envelope arrived on a Tuesday. Not digitally, not through any of the secure channels Sloane had spent the last two weeks or through email. An actual envelope, cream-colored and unmarked except for her name written across the front.Petra brought it to her personally, she walked directly into Sloane’s office and placed it on the desk then stepped back.“It was left at the front desk downstairs,” Petra said. “No courier or camera footage of who dropped it, whoever it was knew exactly where the blind spots were.”Sloane looked at the envelope.“That’s not a coincidence,” she said.“No,” Petra agreed. Could be someone who knew the building, do you want me to open it first?”“No,” Sloane picked it up. “I’ll let you know what’s in it.”Petra nodded, headed for the door and left, pulling the door closed behind her with a quietly.Sloane turned the envelope over, nothing on the back and the seal had been properly sealed. She opened it and inside was a thick stack of documents. She removed

Victoria Sterling

Sloane had chosen a café where nobody paid attention, not the expensive kind of place where executives held meetings. No private rooms or valet parking outside, just chipped tables, handwritten menu boards and a barista who looked too bored to care who walked through the door.She arrived eight minutes early and the waitress showed her to a table near the back, away from the windows but she sat facing the entrance with her hands folded on the table and ordered tea while waiting.The woman walked in at exactly the agreed time and Sloane recognized him immediately because she stared at her photograph all night.Elena Voss who had taken back her family name after the divorce, according to the dossier was that woman though she looked different in person. She was taller than expected, with confidence posture that suggested a disciplined upbringing. She wore a dark buttoned coat and moved through the café without drawing attention.She found Sloane’s table then walked over without hesitatio

1 2 3 4 5

SCAN CODE TO READ ON APP