Perfect Ruin Novels & Stories

There was no saving him now. I sighed. "I warned you before. If you had listened and taken him to the hospital for early intervention, the risk could have been greatly reduced. Or I could have operated to remove the damaged nerves." I glanced at my scarred hands and shook my head. "But now, it's too late." My hands were destroyed, and I could no longer perform such delicate surgeries. Celine swayed and fainted. Jenny clutched me tightly. She shook her head and screamed, "Impossible! You're lying! You're still holding a grudge over his infidelity, right? You can save him. You're a top specialist from abroad! How could you fail?"

The purge was aborted. Julian pulled himself over the lip of the catwalk just in time to see the manifold spark and die. He froze, the realization dawning on him that his perfect, sterile execution had been reduced to a chaotic, messy failure. He looked from the ruined console to Elara, and then down to Dante, who was pulling himself up by the railings, his pulse rifle aimed squarely at Julian's chest.

We flinched together. “Sentiment is a critical vulnerability,” Prime stated, her tone flat, analytical. “It clouds logic. It leads to catastrophic failure. As evidenced by the current situation.” Jeff let out a short, harsh laugh. “You think this is failure?” He slowly, carefully, got to his feet, pulling me up with him. He kept his body positioned between Prime and me. “This is the only thing that’s ever been a success.” He turned his head, his eyes finding mine in the shadows. The billionaire facade was gone. All that was left was a man, standing in the ruins of his world, staring at the ghost of a love he’d lost and found again.

People like me learn the complicated arithmetic of ruin: what to keep, what to destroy, how to make pain pay back pain. This plan came with a price. I had to walk away from my life: the house, what remained of the company, the name that used to open doors. There’s no compromise with people who want your destruction, only an exchange. I knew full well there would be no turning back the day I chose to go forward. But what was left to lose? Better to take what remains and wield it like a weapon than to watch the life I had curated evaporate while Lauren went on living a fairy tale.

ZAYN “Yo man! Shit was dope out there. Dude was real fucking pissed. See his face? Bet he'd need stitches for that split,” Rowan came into the dressing room after me, laughing as he patted my shoulder. I flexed my neck, feeling a slight crack. I grabbed a bottle of water from the table, gulping its contents in a go. “Heard he wants to double up for a rematch. Five thousand bucks on the line man. That's crazy,” he said, amused at the fact that I just won the match and that made him twenty-five hundred dollars richer.

"This thing between us isn't going away. I've tried ignoring it. You've tried ignoring it. It doesn't work." He turned back to face me, his eyes burning. "So here's what's going to happen." He held up one finger. "Rule one. No panties in the house. Ever. If I reach under your skirt or your shorts and feel fabric, there will be consequences." My mouth went dry. "What kind of consequences?" "You'll find out if you break the rule." He held up a second finger. "Rule two. When I call you, you come. Immediately. No hesitation. No excuses."

I leaned against my car, unbothered “what does that have to do with me, I don’t work for you remember?.” “This isn’t the time for games Clarissa.” I laughed softly. “ you think i have time to play games with you, I’m too busy for that Blake, please don’t call me again” i said and ended the call. A few seconds later, the phone rang again, I picked. But this time his voice was lower, almost like he was pleading. “Please this is important Clarissa, the company is on the verge of bankruptcy, I’m loosing everything Clarissa, everything we built, I’m sorry I kicked you out, but I really need your help right now.”

"Maya’s automated scripts cleared out your private routing numbers while you were busy complaining about the soil quality, old man. Your luxury accounts aren't just frozen; they've been distributed as regional credit vouchers to the local fishing fleets in Taranto. You're completely broke." The words seemed to physically age Lucian’s father. His shoulders slumped and his fingers also slipped from the shaft of his spade as it fell face-down into the gray ooze. The absolute certainty of their ruin was undeniable now. They were trapped at the very bottom of the world they had tried to exploit and stripped of every artificial shield their money had ever bought them.

Slowly he reached across and took my hand, refusing to let go even when I tried to pull back. "I was blind," he rasped. "So consumed by losing the company, so terrified of ending up weak like my father, that I let Callan hand me the blindfold myself. I'll spend the rest of my life paying for that storm. But nobody puts you out again. Not Callan. Not the board. Not anyone." Part of me the foolish part that had once loved him with everything I had wanted to believe in him. But trust isn't a switch. It's a ruin you rebuild one brick at a time.

"I am struggling, Veronica. I will not lie to you." He suddenly reached across the small table and grabbed my hand, squeezing my fingers tightly. "I have less than thirty minutes left, or everything I built is completely ruined." I pulled my hand back slightly, pretending to be utterly confused. "What are you talking about, Julian? Thirty minutes for what?" "I am about to go bankrupt publicly," Julian said, his voice cracking with desperation. "The news is going to break at midnight. My shares will crash to zero by morning." I scoffed, tossing my head back and curling my lip into a dismissive frown. "Well, that is disappointing. I have no business dealing with a man who cannot even maintain