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All Chapters of Ruined By Mr. Cross: Chapter 51 - Chapter 60

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Chapter 51

Damien’s PovThe alarms cut through the room right after security burst in. I pulled Selene closer without thinking. “Stay behind me until we know what this is.”“I’m not hiding, Damien,” she said. “Whatever they want, we face it together. That hasn’t changed.”The doors opened and Adrian walked in first, the investigator trailing behind him, the chairman’s face already lit up on the wall screen. Adrian looked pleased with himself. “Good, you’re both here. Saves us time.”“Say what you came to say,” I told him.The chairman spoke before Adrian could. “Damien, Selene, the board needs an immediate response to the statement filed tonight. We can’t wait until morning.”“What statement?” Selene asked. “We already answered the recording an hour ago.”“A new one,” the investigator said. “Filed after the last call. It claims Damien ordered financial pressure on Lucas Hart weeks before his death.”Selene’s hand tightened around mine. “Is that true?”“No,” I said. “I want you to hear my answer,

Chapter 52

Selene’s PovI stared at the message until the words blurred. Damien took the phone from my hand gently. “Let me see that again.”“It’s gone,” I said. “Look, the number, it’s already been deactivated.”“That’s not possible unless someone wanted it untraceable,” Damien said. “Selene, I need you to tell me exactly what you’re thinking right now.”“I’m thinking someone doesn’t want me at that hearing,” I said. “Which makes me want to go more than ever.”“That’s reckless,” Damien said.“Maybe,” I said. “But if I back out now, it looks like I was warned off. It looks like we have something to hide. You said that yourself an hour ago.”Damien exhaled slowly. “I don’t like it.”“You don’t have to like it,” I said. “You just have to trust me on this one.”“I do trust you,” he said. “That’s not the problem. The problem is I can’t protect you inside that room if you’re ‘alone.’”“You’ll be five minutes away,” I reminded him. “That was the deal.”“Five minutes is a long time if something happens

Chapter 53

Damien’s PovEthan’s voice cut through the dark like a blade. I was moving before I even finished processing it. “Stay with Naomi,” I told Selene. “Don’t leave this room.”“Damien, wait—” Selene grabbed my arm. “I’m not staying behind while you walk into whatever that is.”“Selene, please,” I said. “Just this once.”“No,” she said, her voice firm even in the dark. “We agreed. Together. That hasn’t changed just because the lights went out.”I didn’t have time to argue. “Fine. Stay behind me.”We moved down the hallway toward Ethan’s flashlight beam, Naomi trailing close behind us, still clutching the scarf-wrapped bundle to her chest. Ethan stood near the end of the corridor, his light pointed at the wall.“What is it?” I asked.Ethan turned the flashlight toward the security panel mounted near the service stairs. The metal casing had been pried open, wires hanging loose, several of them cut clean through.“Someone disabled this manually,” Ethan said. “This isn’t a power outage, Damien

Chapter 54

Selene’s PovI stared at Gabriel’s name until the letters stopped making sense. “Damien, why would my father write about Gabriel? They shouldn’t have even known each other.”Damien took the journal carefully, his eyes scanning the page. His jaw tightened as he read. “Selene, this entry is dated eight years ago. Before Gabriel ever worked for me.”“Read it out loud,” I said. “Please. I need to hear it, not just watch your face while you read it.”Damien hesitated, then nodded. “‘G. Wolfe approached me today, claiming to represent an interested party in the Hart Group’s expansion. Something about him feels rehearsed. I don’t trust him, but Victor insists he’s harmless.’”The room went quiet except for the faint hum of the emergency generator finally kicking on somewhere below us. “Victor knew Gabriel eight years ago?” I asked. “Before any of this happened?”“Apparently,” Damien said, his voice tight. “I need to call him.”“Your phone still has no signal,” Ethan said, slipping back into

Chapter 55

Damien’s PovI kept my eyes on the stranger. “Before it’s too late for what, exactly?”“Before the hearing tomorrow,” the man said. His voice was calm, almost too calm for someone standing in a house with cut security wires an hour earlier. “Once Selene walks into that room, certain people won’t let her walk out with the truth intact.”Selene stepped forward slightly, and I moved instinctively closer to her side. “Who are you?” she asked.“My name is Marcus Voss,” he said. “I used to work security for Helena Moreau. Not anymore.”Gabriel cleared his throat. “Damien, I found him outside the gate twenty minutes ago. He said he’d been trying to reach the house for days but kept getting turned away by your security team.”“Convenient that he shows up the same night our cameras go dark,” I said, my eyes not leaving Marcus.“I didn’t cut your wires,” Marcus said. “But I know who did. Same people who wanted this delivered before tomorrow.” He reached slowly into his coat, and I stepped fully

Chapter 56

Selene’s PovAdrian’s smile made my skin crawl. “What terms?” I asked before Damien could speak.“The board met an hour ago,” Adrian said, stepping further into the hall like he owned it. “Emergency session. Given tonight’s security breach, they’ve decided the hearing moves up. Six a.m. Not nine.”“That’s not your call to make,” Damien said.“It’s not mine,” Adrian agreed. “It’s the chairman’s. I’m just the messenger.” His eyes flicked to Marcus. “Though I am curious why Helena’s former security chief is standing in your foyer at midnight.”Marcus didn’t flinch. “Just delivering something Selene needed to see.”“Is that so,” Adrian said slowly, his gaze shifting to me. “And what exactly did he deliver, Selene?”“Nothing that concerns you,” I said.“Everything concerns me,” Adrian said. “I have a company to protect.”“You have a company you want to steal,” Damien said. “Let’s not pretend otherwise in front of everyone.”Adrian’s smile didn’t waver, but something colder passed behind hi

Chapter 57

Damien’s PovEthan’s voice tore through the house like a gunshot, and every second before I moved felt like it lasted an hour.“Naomi’s room,” I said, already running. “Now.”Selene was faster than me. She hit the staircase two steps at a time, heels abandoned somewhere in the hallway, and I had never loved her more than in that instant, terrified and refusing to let fear slow her down. I caught up to her at the landing and grabbed her arm, not to stop her, just to keep her from getting there alone.“Stay behind me,” I said.“No.”“Selene—”“She’s my mother, Damien.” Her eyes met mine for half a second, and everything in them, the fear, the fury, the years of losing people she loved, hit me at once. “I’m not staying behind anyone.”There wasn’t time to argue. I let go of her arm and ran beside her instead.The door to Naomi’s room was open, spilling broken light into the hallway. Glass littered the floor, catching what little illumination came from the shattered window, and for one ho

Chapter 58

Selene’s PovThe security room smelled like dust and old electronics, six screens glowing along one wall showing empty hallways, empty grounds, a house pretending nothing had happened an hour ago. My mother was asleep on the cot in the corner, finally, exhaustion winning out over fear. Gabriel and Marcus had gone to sweep the east wing again. For the first time since the glass shattered upstairs, it was just Damien and me.He stood by the monitors, arms crossed, watching the feeds like he could will Helena’s man to reappear on one of them. I watched him instead. The cut on his palm had stopped bleeding, but he hadn’t bandaged it, and something about that small stubbornness undid me more than anything that had happened tonight.“Sit down,” I said. “You’ve been standing for an hour.”“I’m fine.”“You keep saying that like it makes it true.” I nodded at the chair across from the monitors, the only real seat in the room besides the bench where my mother slept. “I mean it, Damien. You’ve

Chapter 59

Damien’s PovThe hearing room filled slowly, board members finding their seats with the particular quiet of people who already knew something was about to go wrong. I stood near the back with Selene beside me, her hand brushing mine every so often, not quite holding it, both of us aware of how many eyes would read too much into anything more obvious than that.“You look like you’re about to walk into a war,” she said under her breath.“I am.”“Then walk in like you’ve already won it.”I glanced at her, and for a moment the noise of the room fell away, the way it always did when she looked at me like that, steady and certain even with everything stacked against us. Six hours ago she’d been kneeling in broken glass beside her mother, shaking almost as badly as Naomi had been.Now she stood in a dark blue dress with her chin lifted, betraying nothing, not the exhaustion, not the fear, not the raw edge of last night still humming somewhere beneath her skin, and I understood in that instan

Chapter 60

Selene’s PovChairman Whitfield’s gavel hadn’t even finished its second knock before Adrian was on his feet, papers in hand, that same practiced smile fixed in place like it had been surgically attached.“Before we begin,” he said, “I’d like to raise a procedural concern. Given last night’s security breach at the Cross estate, I think it’s fair to ask whether Ms. Hart is in any state to participate in a hearing this significant.”“I’m fine, Adrian,” I said, before Damien could answer for me. “Thank you for your concern.”“Are you?” Adrian tilted his head. “Because from what I understand, someone broke into your mother’s room. That doesn’t sound like a night that leaves anyone fine.”I felt Damien shift beside me, the tension coiling through him even as his face stayed perfectly still, every instinct in him clearly screaming to step between me and Adrian’s veiled threats. I understood exactly what it cost him to let me answer this one myself instead of stepping in front of it, and I lo

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