Chapter 45 Project Scarlett
Chapter 45 Project Scarlett
Scarlett’s POV
The message stared back at me, glowing against the dark screen. You shouldn’t have taken what isn’t yours.
The words pulsed in my mind like a steady heartbeat, taunting,and personal.
Rain hammered against the windshield, drowning the silence in chaos. I stared at the phone, waiting for another message, another threat, but nothing came. Just that single line. Just that warning.
I glanced at the USB still plugged into my laptop. My pulse was wild, erratic. I should’ve thrown it out, driven away, pretended I hadn’t seen any of it. But I couldn’t.
Not now. Not after seeing his name.
Damien.
The man I saved. The man I trusted. The man I was starting to fall for even when every instinct screamed I shouldn’t.
I forced myself to open the folder marked PROJECT SCARLETT.
Inside was a series of encrypted documents. Most were unreadable lines of code, scrambled letters. But one file wasn’t locked. I clicked it open.
It was a report. My name was on the first line.
Subject: Scarlett Vale. Classification: High-Value Asset.
The words blurred. I scrolled further, number Objective: Monitor, manipulate, and secure emotional compliance through targeted psychological conditioning. Phase I was successful. Phase II in progress. Handler assigned: D. Kade. Secondary Operator: D. Blackwell.
My stomach dropped.
D. Blackwell.
Damien.
I couldn’t breathe.
I reread it, over and over, each time hoping the letters would rearrange themselves into something else. Something less monstrous. But they didn’t.
Damien wasn’t just part of it.
He was assigned to me.
My vision swam as the room spun. My thoughts fractured memories flashing like lightning.
The night he saved me. The way he always seemed to know where I was. The questions he’d asked the ones that felt too pointed, too precise.
And the way he’d looked at me afterward. Not like a man falling for a woman but like a man studying her.
“No…” I whispered. “No, no, no…”
My hands were shaking so badly I could barely close the file. My reflection stared back at me in the laptop screen, pale, haunted, someone I barely recognized.
Has any of it been real?
The touches, the confessions, the heat between us was it all just part of their plan?
I snapped the USB drive out of the port and threw it onto the passenger seat, my heart pounding so loud I could hear it echo inside my skull.
My phone buzzed again.
Unknown Number:
You were never supposed to find that.
I looked around the empty street, the shadows. The rain made everything shimmer, distorted like the world itself was mocking me.
Another buzz.
Unknown Number:
He’s not who you think he is.
I didn’t respond. Couldn’t. My throat was raw, my mind spiraling. I started the car, gripping the wheel until my knuckles turned white.
There was only one person who could tell me the truth now.
Damien.
By the time I reached his estate, the rain had turned to mist. The air felt electric charged with something unspoken.
I didn’t knock. I stormed inside. The guards didn’t stop me; they knew better by now.
I found him in his office, standing by the window, his back to me. The glow of the city lights painted his silhouette tall, composed, untouchable.
“Scarlett?”
He turned, his voice sharp with surprise. “What are you—”
I held up the USB drive. “You want to explain this?”
His jaw tightened. “Where did you get that?”
“From my mother,” I hissed. “From the truth.”
He went silent. The kind of silence that confirms everything you don’t want to believe.
“You were assigned to me?” I demanded, my voice breaking. “All of this was just a job?”
“It’s not what you think.”
“Then tell me what it is!” I shouted, stepping closer. “Because right now it looks like you’ve been lying to me since the day we met!”
He didn’t move. Didn’t flinch. His eyes were burning, but not with guilt with restraint. “I can’t explain everything,” he said quietly. “Not yet.”
“Try,” I whispered. “Because if you don’t, I swear—”
“I was supposed to protect you,” he interrupted, his tone low and steady. “Kade wanted you controlled. I wanted you safe.”
“By pretending to fall in love with me?” My laugh was broken. “By making me trust you?”
He looked away. “You were never supposed to find that file.”
“That’s not an answer.”
He exhaled, running a hand through his hair, tension rippling through his body. “The project started before I met you. You were already marked, Scarlett. Your father’s work, your bloodline, it made you valuable. Kade wanted you contained. So he assigned me.”
My pulse thudded painfully. “And you agreed.”
“I didn’t know who you were,” he said. “Not then. But once I did—”
“Once you did what?” I cut in. “Used me anyway?”
His eyes flashed. “No. I broke every damn rule because of you.”
I shook my head, tears spilling down my cheeks. “Don’t you dare make this sound noble.”
“I saved your life,” he snapped, voice low but fierce. “More than once. If you think any of that was fake—”
“It doesn’t matter,” I said, stepping back. “Because the damage is done.”
He took a step forward. “Scarlett—”
“Don’t,” I warned. “Don’t touch me.”
He stopped. The distance between us felt like a chasm now.
I wiped my tears and turned toward the door. My hands were trembling, but my voice didn’t waver when I said, “Whatever we had whatever you pretended it was, it's over.”
Then I walked away.
The wind howled as I stepped outside. My breath came in shallow bursts. I didn’t make it far before the sound of an engine roared behind me.
A black car screeched to a halt at the edge of the driveway. The windows were tinted, the plates untraceable.
The door opened.
Kade stepped out, smiling like he’d been waiting for this moment.
“Leaving already?” he drawled, his voice calm, cruel. “You should’ve stayed inside, sweetheart. Things were just getting interesting.”
Behind him, two men in suits emerged, guns in hand.
And that’s when I realized the message was not from Damien.
It was from Kade.
And now he wanted his project back.