Zara woke up before the sun.
Damian's arm was draped over her waist, his breath steady against the back of her neck, his body warm and grounding.
It would've been easy to pretend this was normal. That she belonged here. That none of it, the threats, the headlines, the blood, that it wasn't real.
But it was.
And every second she spent here, she sank deeper into the one thing she swore she'd never risk again:
Trust.
The fact he's not even ready to come clean was what she hated most.
---
By the time Damian stirred, Zara was already dressed, sipping black coffee on the balcony, her eyes scanning the city like it might reveal a way out of the mess.
He joined her, shirtless and barefoot, looking far too human for a man who scared boardrooms into silence.
"You're up early," he said.
"I never really slept."
He studied her. "I'm sorry about last night".
"Not sure that's what I want to hear".
"What's on your mind?"
She turned to face him. "Everything."
Damian moved closer, hands slipping into the pockets of his gray slacks. "You can ask me anything, Zara. Even now."
"I'm not sure that's true anymore."
His jaw tensed, he said nothing just nodded once and walked away, leaving her alone with her thoughts.
---
Wolfe Tower
An envelope was waiting for her when she arrived.
No return address.
Her name typed on a white label in sharp black font.
Inside: one USB drive.
She stared at it for a long time before sliding it into her laptop and opening the single folder inside.
~LANCASTER—FALL FILES
Her blood ran cold.
There were five documents.
• Confidential deposition transcript, dated five years ago. Her father's final board meeting at Lancaster Global.
• Financial audit, showing a $7.4M asset sweep the day before his arrest.
• Unsigned contract, transferring Lancaster IP to Wolfe International.
• Internal Wolfe email, timestamped one day before the transfer between Damian Wolfe and a man named Harrison Vance.
• A surveillance, Damian shaking hands with federal agents the week her father was to be taken into custody.
Zara's breath caught. No. No, no, no... She clicked another file
~"Move forward. Lancaster's fall creates our opening. The IP must be secured before the Feds seize it.
–DW"
Her vision blurred.
Damian didn't just know what happened to her father.
He might have helped orchestrate it. was that the reason he refuses to give me an answer?..
---
Damian's Office
She stormed through the doors without knocking.
He looked up, sensing the storm before she even spoke.
"You were involved in my father's takedown," she said, throwing the printed file onto his desk. "You planned it."
Damian stood slowly, eyes flicking over the page. His silence hit harder than a confession.
"You used me," Zara said, voice cracking. This whole "thing" was just another way to bury what you did." she let out a humorless laugh. "No wonder you've been avoiding the questions all this while"
"No," he said finally. "You don't understand what happened."
"Then explain it. exploded.. Because right now, I'm one step away from destroying everything we built."
He circled the desk, but she stepped back.
"Your father was about to lose everything," he said. "He was reckless, desperate, he made deals with men far worse than me."
"So you stole from him."
"I salvaged what I could," Damian said. "I took the IP before the government froze the accounts. I protected your legacy, Zara. Your name. The company you rebuilt? You built it on what I saved."
Tears pricked her eyes. "You don't get to rewrite that." she said taking another step back.
Damian's voice dropped. "I didn't betray you. I protected you."
"You don't get to decide that either." with that she left the building.
---
Zara's Apartment, That Night.
She didn't go back to the penthouse.
Instead, she sat on the floor of her own apartment, wine in hand, trying to make sense of the broken puzzle she'd just uncovered.
She should hate him. She wanted to.
But underneath the rage was something worse "hurt".
Damian knew how deeply she'd been wounded by her father's scandal. And still, he'd kept his role in it hidden. Until it exploded in her face. Nothing broke more than discovering it from someone else.
Her phone buzzed.
UNKNOWN NUMBER.
~Ready to walk away yet?
Because next time… I bury you too.
Zara stared at the screen, ice crawling down her spine.
This wasn't about love or lies anymore. This goes way deeper.
---
12:22 A.M. Damian's Penthouse.
She showed up in the middle of the night.
This time not because she needed him, but because she needed answers.
Damian opened the door like he'd been waiting for her.
Zara stepped inside, dropped the USB on the coffee table.
"Tell me the rest."
Damian's eyes flicked to the drive. "You saw the files."
"I saw your name on it"
"I didn't take your father down, Zara. I kept his enemies from gutting him completely. But I wasn't entirely innocent. I chose my gain over his loyalty."
"And over me."
"No," he said, walking toward her. "Never over you."
She didn't stop him when he reached her.
But she didn't fall into him either.
"What are we even doing?" she whispered.
Damian's voice broke. "Falling."
Then he kissed her, not like a lover or a player, but like a man asking for forgiveness with his mouth, his hands, his body.
She gave in because she wanted to believe.
Because for one night, she wanted to forget that everything between them was built on a fault line.
They burned,again, in silence.
But the truth stayed between them, glowing like embers, waiting to reignite.