Chapter 30 The Isolated Lie
Damian’s POV
I like being busy. It gives my hands something to do so my head doesn't find more reasons to panic.
People began asking questions I didn’t want to answer, and then there was Aria, lurking behind shadows not knowing what she would do.
Victor had dropped the morning update and left the office. We’d traced the leak,Mandy Sanders,and now everything pointed to a receptionist at Vanessa Vintage Bridal Couture. The same place I and Aria had once be,I didn't expect it to echo trouble.
By noon, my focus was gone. I dismissed two meetings and left the firm. My head wasn’t in the numbers anymore, it was somewhere between what Aria said last and what she might be thinking now.
I pulled up to Beacon Bridge,the place wasn’t mine by choice, it was my father’s legacy. After his first wife, my mother died, he’d remarried, and the woman waiting in that house became the only version of family left to me.
She met me at the base of the stairs, elegant and unreadable. That's how she's always been.
“You shouldn’t have come here angry,” she said softly.
“Then maybe you shouldn’t have freed Aria,” I shot back. “You had no right.”
She folded her hands in front of her, calm as always. “She’s not your prisoner, Damian. I couldn’t stand by and watch her disappear in that house.
“You don’t know what that decision cost me.”
“I know exactly what it cost you,” she said. “And maybe it’s time you paid it.”
I stared at her for a long time. “You think this is about control?”
She looked at me, like she felt the truth. “It’s always about control with you. Your father was the same”.
I'm the second version of my father,so our case shouldn't be different. But look at me now ,all messed up entangled in webs I couldn't break free from.
I turned toward the door. “You shouldn’t have done it,” I said quietly. “You don’t know what you’ve started.”
“I know exactly what I did,” she answered. “And one day, you’ll thank me.”
I didn’t respond. I just walked out.
The drive was long, the night unending so did the drive.My phone vibrated against the seat, Viktor. I almost ignored it. Then I picked up.
“Sir,” his voice came trembling and very uneasy.“You need to hear this before it hits the court feed.”
“What happened?”
“It’s about the Caleb Reynolds case. The new witness statement was filed an hour ago.”
I felt my pulse slow. “Whose statement?”
There was a pause. “Aria’s, sir. She gave a statement under oath.”
I gripped the wheel tightly. “What did she say?”
Victor hesitated, his breathing heavy. “She... she linked you to Caleb’s disappearance. She said you had a motive, and that your men were seen at her house the night the incident occured”
For a second, I couldn’t breathe. “She what?”
“There’s more,” Victor continued, voice s shaking. “Her statement implies you knew what happened to Caleb before the body was found,enough to suggest your involvement. The case now requires court jurisdiction. You’ll be subpoenaed, Damian.”
I began battling with my thoughts,all I could see was flash of lights. Aria the woman I tried to protect against all odds had just named me as the man behind her brother's death.
I didn't realize I was still driving until I heard Viktor's voice again.
“Sir? Damian, are you there? Please..”
But I wasn’t hearing him anymore. My mind was a flashing storm,her face, her words, the courtroom, Caleb, everything folding into one unbearable truth.
The headlights ahead split like stars I couldn't recognize.The road curved but I didn’t.
The sound came like thunder.
My car screeched. Glass shattered.
The steering wheel slipped from my hands as the car spun once, twice , then silence.
Darkness swallowed everything.
One thing was left and it was…
Doom.
Vanessa's POV
It was so easy to manipulate them all, leaving them crawling under my feet just how I liked it.
People believed what they wanted to believe. All I had to do was to whisper the right truth at the right moment and let paranoia do the rest.
Damian thought he was the hunter, but really, he was the one being hunted. Aria was only the bait. Lila was the perfect blind fold,and I was the one who gave it shape.
I watched the headlines build around his name, watched reporters spin theories about Caleb Reynolds’ murder and Damian’s connection to it. The best part? I didn’t even have to lift a finger. Just one little video clip leaked to the right hand at the right time.
Mandy Sanders was smart enough to think she was doing the leaking for a cause, not realizing whose pocket she was in. A receptionist at my own Vanessa Vintage Bridal Couture, too naïve to know that she was part of something much bigger than pretty dresses and wedding smiles.
Everything was right on schedule.
I poured myself a glass of wine, leaning against the balcony.Below, I was rewriting the truth.
The news came in just as I expected. Aria had gone to the police. She’d given her statement under oath. The words I’d planted in her mind came out exactly as rehearsed. She was too shaken, too desperate to notice how easily her pain became my weapon. No one will be on her side.
“Poor Aria,” I murmured to myself, smiling into the rim of my glass. “You never stood a chance to be treated right."
Then my phone buzzed.
I checked,no message or call.
I didn't panic,it was suspicious though.
When the message finally came-Damian involved in a crash on Route 9, condition unknown,I only tilted my head. “Right on cue,” I whispered.
Damian’s accident wasn’t part of my plan, but it wasn’t entirely welcomed.Maybe it was fate, maybe it was karma, or maybe it was just
the universe finishing what I started.
Still, a small part of me wondered what Aria would do when she heard.