All Chapters of After Midnight With Him : Chapter 61 - Chapter 67

Damien’s POVThe boardroom doors closed with a heavy click at 9:00 a.m. sharp.Twelve faces sat around the long table. Laptops open. Folders aligned. Gerald Lang, the chair, did not waste time on greetings. He slid a single-page memo down the polished surface toward me.“Seventy-two hours,” he said. “That is the board’s decision.”I remained standing at the head of the table. “Clarify.”Gerald steepled his fingers. “Resolve the Voss engagement issue within seventy-two hours or the board will move to protect shareholder value. That includes exploring interim leadership and possible share dilution to cover the projected penalty exposure. We will not absorb a forty-percent hit because of personal reluctance.”A murmur of agreement moved around the table. One member tapped a pen against a legal pad. Another stared at the memo as if the numbers might change.I picked up the page. The language was clean and final. Deadline. Consequences. No room for further debate taking the agreement to co

Damien’s POVThe first alert hit my phone at 6:42 a.m.Society page. Bold headline.Blackwood-Voss Engagement Confirmed — Sources Close to the CoupleI sat up in bed, already scrolling. The article was short and venomous. Anonymous sources. A blurred photo from the gala where Isabella had forced the arm link. Claims of a private agreement, a wedding timeline, and “mutual excitement” about uniting two family empires. My name sat beside hers in every other sentence.By 7:15 the story had been picked up by three more outlets. By 8:00 my assistant was fielding calls and the board group chat had exploded.I dressed fast, skipped coffee, and drove straight to the office. Cameras were already outside the building. Two reporters shouted questions as I crossed the sidewalk. I kept walking.Inside, Marcus Hale waited in my office with a printed stack of the morning coverage.“She leaked it,” he said. “Or her people did. Timing is deliberate—right after we filed the challenge.”I dropped my keys

Sophia’s POVThe highway is unspooled in long gray ribbons. The rideshare driver’s playlist was soft and wordless, something with piano and distant strings that made the silence inside the car feel intentional rather than empty. I kept my hands folded in my lap the way I had when I first sat down, watching the city thin into industrial outskirts, then into stretches of scrub and billboards, then into open coast road. The suitcase sat in the trunk like a quiet accomplice. Inside it, beneath the gray sweater, the sealed hospital folder rested against the fabric, its presence a low, constant pressure I could feel even without touching it.I told myself the distance would help. Distance from the headlines that still crawled across every screen I refused to turn on. Distance from Damien’s careful denials and the way they never quite reached me. Distance from Ethan’s name resurfacing in the speculation like a ghost that refused to stay buried. Distance from Eleanor’s quiet glances across th