The rest of the gala slipped by in a blur. Faces blurred into one another, voices buzzed like white noise, and the distant clinking of glasses no longer held any charm.
Erin stayed by Xander's side, her mind still reeling from the earlier declaration his mother had made. She didn't speak. Neither did he. It was as though both were holding their breath, trying not to stir the quiet tension between them.
Eventually, the night came to an end. Guests began trickling out into the cool evening air. The valet brought their car around, sleek and black under the streetlights. Xander walked with her in silence.
Just as he opened the door for her, his phone rang. He glanced at the screen and cursed under his breath. "Wait in the car," he said quietly. She hesitated, but he didn't wait for a response. He stepped aside and answered the call.
"Cassian?"
"I know who she is."
Cassian's voice was sharp, on edge. "Erin Lane is a fake identity. Her real name is Celeste. She's the daughter of the empire your parents brought down years ago."Xander didn't move. His eyes narrowed slightly, but his voice was steady.
"Go on."
"I think she's trying to bring the Volkov family down. Think about it—she suddenly appears, gets hired without a second glance, and ends up in your inner circle. And then those documents go missing. It's too much of a coincidence, Xander."
There was a pause. A car passed behind him, headlights washing over his back. Then, Xander said simply, "I figured."Cassian went quiet. "You… figured?""I don't think she's here solely for revenge."
Xander's voice remained calm. "The embezzlement trail we've been following—every time it leads back to my parents, it's registered in other families' names. Families that were later blamed and collapsed. Families that had no idea. The Volkov empire wasn't just built through strategy, Cassian. It was built on planted evidence, forged records, and broken alliances. My parents shifted the blame, used innocent families as scapegoats, then came out clean."
"And her family?" Cassian asked slowly."Might've been one of them. Maybe she's here not to destroy us, but to clear her family's name."Xander's expression darkened.
"Find out more. Everything."
He ended the call and slipped the phone into his pocket. He walked back to the car, his expression unreadable. When he opened the door and got in, Erin was seated on the opposite end, her face turned toward the window. She didn't speak.
But she glanced at him briefly, a flicker of confusion in her eyes. Before he could second-guess it, Xander reached over and gently pulled her toward him. She didn't resist. Her body relaxed into his, fitting perfectly in the crook of his arm. He didn't say anything at first. Just held her.
Then, quietly, almost too softly to hear over the hum of the engine, he asked, "You know you can trust me, right?"
Erin didn't respond. Her silence wasn't cold—it was hesitant. Cautious. And he didn't push it. Instead, he leaned down and placed a kiss on her forehead. She closed her eyes.
"How was your night?" Xander asked as the car began to move, his voice quiet and casual.
Erin glanced out the window. "Great," she replied flatly.
"Still not allowed to lie," he reminded her, his tone just the tiniest bit amused.
She let out a sigh, then turned to him. "Fine. It was confusing, stressful, and I'm pretty sure that green hors d'oeuvre was just a compressed lump of seaweed and glue."
Xander chuckled. "So you did try it."
"Unfortunately," she muttered. "It tasted like betrayal."
He laughed quietly. "They called it 'herbal mousse'. I think they just blended a garden and hoped for the best."
"I've had potion ingredients that were less disgusting," she said, then caught herself. "I mean, smoothies."
He raised an eyebrow but let it go.
"I don't think I've ever been to anything weirder," she added, half-laughing now.
"Oh? I can beat that," he said, leaning back. "I once had a meeting with a guy who brought a live iguana to the table. Said it could sense dishonest deals."
"You're lying."
"I wish I was. He sat it on the table, called it Rocco, and asked it for approval every time I spoke. It even blinked at me once. Very judgmentally."
Erin burst into laughter. "Did the iguana like you?"
"No. It tried to bite me. He said that meant my aura was suspicious."
She pressed a hand to her mouth to stop herself from laughing too loudly. "That's actually amazing. You met a human lie detector in lizard form."
"I still closed the deal," Xander said with mock pride.
She shook her head, still smiling. "Okay, I take it back. Your night was weirder."
He glanced at her, then said softly, "You were actually great tonight."
Her smile faded into something smaller, more uncertain. "Even when I stood there like a mannequin while your parents talked about… marrying me off?"
"You didn't stand like a mannequin," he said. "You looked like someone trying really hard not to run for the exit."
She gave a dry laugh. "That's fair."
There was a short silence before he tilted his head toward her with a grin. "Alright, your turn. If someone asked who I was tonight, what fake backstory would you give them?"
Erin grinned. "Easy. You're an ex-hitman turned children's book author. Your latest work is The Assassin's Guide to Friendship."
Xander smirked. "You'd be a Russian ballet dancer with an underground side hustle in diamond smuggling."
She gasped. "Why Russian?"
"Because you make death glares look elegant."
She shoved his shoulder lightly, laughing again. "Fine, then you also moonlight as a vacuum cleaner salesman who keeps forgetting what vacuums do."
"And you teach goats yoga in the countryside on weekends."
"Okay, I want to be that version of me," she said, still laughing. "She seems so much more relaxed."
He was smiling now too. A quiet, genuine kind of smile. "You're not so bad the way you are."
They were still smiling when the laughter faded into a comfortable silence. The city lights passed by in a blur outside the window, casting soft reflections on the glass.
After a while, Xander spoke again, his voice low. "You're different when you're like this."
"Like what?" she asked, not looking at him.
"Relaxed. Real. Like you're not trying so hard to be someone else." He paused. "If that version of you feels better, why don't you just… be her?"
Erin hesitated. Then, with a sigh that sounded heavier than it should have, she said honestly, "Because I'm stuck with responsibilities. A lot of them. Most of which I didn't ask for."
He was quiet for a beat. "I get that."
Her eyes flicked up to him, just for a moment.
"You don't have to pretend when you're with me," Xander said quietly. "You can be that version of yourself. With me."
She didn't respond.
Instead, she closed her eyes—and without a word, leaned deeper into his embrace.
And the rest of the ride passed in silence.