Chapter 30: The Woman Behind the Curtain

Chapter 30: The Woman Behind the Curtain


The sun was barely up, its pale glow spilling into Sienna’s penthouse as she sat in her bedroom with her laptop open, a hundred unread emails glowing back at her. Her head ached, and her body felt heavy from the weight of everything closing in. The upcoming board project, Daniel’s lies, Eve’s presence—it was all colliding in a storm that she wasn’t sure she could withstand.
Her phone buzzed sharply against the desk. Lucas.
She answered quickly, almost too eagerly, the sight of his name giving her a rush of comfort she didn’t know she needed until this moment. His face filled the screen, warm and familiar despite the miles between them.
“Morning, Sienna,” he said with a gentle smile, though his eyes narrowed almost immediately, studying her closely. “Why do you look like that? You’re usually… brighter. There’s a heaviness in your face.”
Sienna tried to fix her expression, tried to pull together the mask she wore so easily for the world. But Lucas wasn’t the world. He was someone who had known her since they were children, someone who could still read her silence.
“I’m fine,” she murmured, shaking her head, though the hollow sound of her voice betrayed her.
“No, you’re not.” His voice sharpened, worry edging through. “What happened? Talk to me, Sienna. You can’t just shut me out, not now.”
Her throat tightened. She blinked back the sting in her eyes. “It’s… complicated.”
“Then uncomplicate it. Tell me.”
And for the first time in weeks, she let the words spill. She told him about the last board meeting, about the whispered judgments, about Eve’s growing presence, about Daniel pressuring her to take on the multimillion-dollar project away from the city. “She’s everywhere, Lucas,” Sienna confessed, her voice trembling. “Eve is always there, watching me. She’s not just some assistant or a helpless girl anymore. She’s… planning something. I don’t know what, but I feel it.”
Lucas’s jaw tightened. He leaned closer to the camera, his tone low, protective. “Then why are you letting her stay close? You should’ve thrown her out the moment you doubted her.”
“You think I haven’t tried?” Sienna gave a broken laugh, shaking her head. “Daniel—” Her voice caught. “Daniel defends her. I can’t breathe in my own house anymore. And now, the board wants me gone, handling a project in another city. And she—she offered to take my place while I’m gone.”
Lucas closed his eyes, exhaling sharply. “This Eve… she’s not just ambitious. She’s dangerous. And I don’t like that she’s in your life, Sienna. I don’t like it one bit.”
Sienna rubbed her forehead, the tears finally slipping free. “What choice do I have? If I say no, they’ll strip me of everything anyway. At least this way, I can still… fight from a distance.”
Lucas was silent for a long moment, staring at her with an intensity that made her chest ache. Finally, he whispered, “I should be there.”
“You have work. You said you can’t come back yet,” she reminded him softly, trying to smile. “I’ll be okay. Don’t worry about me, Lucas. Just… focus on your side.”
He hesitated, his lips parting as if he wanted to say something more. Instead, he only nodded. “Promise me you’ll be careful.”
“I promise,” she whispered, though it felt like a lie even as it left her lips.
She ended the call before her emotions betrayed her any further.
On the other end of the screen, Lucas sat in silence, his phone trembling slightly in his grip. Slowly, he lowered it, his eyes falling to the crisp envelope resting on the table beside him.
Inside was a ticket. A one-way flight to the city.
His flight was scheduled for tomorrow. He had lied to her, saying he couldn’t come just yet. He wanted to surprise her, to walk into her office unannounced and remind her that she wasn’t alone. That she still had someone who believed in her.
But now, as her broken voice replayed in his mind, he clenched the ticket tightly in his fist, torn between keeping the surprise and running to her immediately. He had no idea how deep Eve’s claws were or how far Daniel had already fallen under her spell.
And that terrified him.
Meanwhile, at the penthouse, Eve leaned against the balcony railing, a cigarette perched between her slender fingers. The city stretched before her, glittering like a treasure chest she had finally pried open. She tilted her head back, blowing a thin stream of smoke into the twilight air.
Behind her, the faint echo of Daniel’s laughter still lingered, the sound of him moving about the penthouse like he owned it. Like she owned him. And in many ways, she did.
She had money now. Influence. A growing slice of the company. Board members whispered her name with cautious respect. And Daniel… Daniel was hers. At her feet, desperate for her touch, blind to the trap he had walked into.
She closed her eyes, savoring the moment.
Her mind wandered back—years earlier, to a different time.
The smell of blood still clung to her memories. Her father’s body slumped in that cramped, dimly lit room. The sound of the chair scraping as she had dropped to her knees, shaking his cold shoulders, begging him to wake up. And then—the stillness. The silence that swallowed her whole.
She remembered running outside, her knees scraped and raw, her hands trembling as she tried to dial for help. The way the neighbors had stared, pity in their eyes, whispers already forming about “the failure who lost everything.”
And then… the newspaper.
She had seen Sienna’s face plastered across the front page the very same day. Smiling, radiant, hailed as one of the youngest women to secure a landmark deal for her family’s company.
Eve had stood there on the sidewalk, her father’s death certificate still damp with ink, staring at that photo until her nails dug into her palms and blood stained the paper.
From that moment, she had made a vow.
Sienna Lockwood would pay.
The smoke curled around her face as she whispered into the night, her lips curling into a cruel smile.
“You destroyed my father. Now I’ll destroy everything you love.”
Behind her, Daniel called her name, his voice dripping with devotion. She turned, her smirk softening into the sweet smile he craved.
But out here, alone with the city watching, she was no sweet assistant.
She was the woman behind the curtain.
And the game was only beginning.
Eve lights another cigarette, watching the city burn in her imagination. “Phase Three,” she murmurs to herself, “will break her completely.”