CHAPTER TWENTY THREE:LIAN'S POV
CHAPTER TWENTY THREE:LIAN'S POV
Anthony’s voice came through the line, muffled with static and taut with frustration.
“Liam, I’m telling you, I’m trying. I’ve been on it since the message came through, but this isn’t some amateur prank call. The number’s encrypted. Every time I try to trace it, it bounces off a different server, masks itself with another location. It’s like chasing smoke.”
I stood by the window, staring out at the city that never slept. My jaw was tight. My eyes locked onto the neon skyline like I could squeeze answers out of the night. “You expect me to believe you can’t trace one number? We’ve cracked harder systems in less time. Stop stalling.”
“I’m not stalling,” Anthony snapped. “This isn’t your usual encryption, man. It’s layered military-grade masking protocols, private rerouting, ghost servers. Whoever sent that message doesn’t want to be found, and they’ve got serious tech.
But I’m reaching out to our secondary channels. I already pinged one of our ex-agents who specializes in black market encryption. If anyone can uncover this, he can.”
I let out a breath, hard and slow. My fingers drummed a frustrated rhythm on the glass. “You’ve got twenty-four hours. That’s it. Our assistants are the best. I refuse to believe we can’t outmatch some coward hiding behind a signal mask.”
“I hear you,” Anthony said quickly. “I’ll update you the moment I get a lead. You have my word.”
I ended the call without another word.
Silence settled around me, cold and heavy.
My thumb hovered over Ethan’s contact.
Should I warn him? Should I tell him about the message? About the threat?
But no. Ethan would spiral. He was already on edge, emotionally brittle. If this was some bluff meant to rattle us, we’d be doing exactly what they wanted, panicking.
I pocketed my phone.
I’d handle it. Quietly. Alone.
Let Ethan keep living in the illusion a little longer. Let him breathe, his wedding was coming soon.
Turning from the window, I headed toward my study. I needed the distraction. I needed something I could control.
The study greeted me with dim lamplight and rows of confidential files. I powered up my laptop, scrolling through layers of internal security logs. My mind split itself half searching for holes in our firewall, half rehearsing every worst-case scenario.
I hated not knowing. I hated feeling one step behind.
And most of all, I hated that Ethan was in the middle of this and didn’t even know it.
DIANA'S POV
I lay on my side, eyes fixed on the pillow beside me, still faintly indented from where he’d rested his head.
The space still smelled like him, his cologne, his shampoo, the hint of something warm and masculine but it didn’t feel like him.
My fingers tightened around the edge of the sheet, twisting it into knots. My body still hummed with the aftershocks of what happened between us, a tangled mess of pleasure and pain, but my mind... my mind was boiling.
He’d been cold. Detached. Like I was a stranger in his bed.
No, worse. Like I was a burden.
And just when I thought I could thaw the distance between us, he whispered it.
Liam.
His name, soft, like a confession.
But loud enough to shatter me.
Liam.
It wasn’t just a name. It was a ghost in the room. A truth he hadn’t meant to give away.
I sat up, my breath catching in my throat, the sheets falling from my chest.
Of all the things Ethan could’ve said… of all the people he could’ve thought about… it was him.
I threw the sheets off and stood, pacing the room. My robe slipped from my shoulders but I didn’t care. My skin felt like it was burning from the inside out. Embarrassment, rage, betrayal, all tangled into one wildfire that crackled beneath my ribs.
How dare he?
Was I not enough? Was I not woman enough?
I had given him everything. My time, my body, my loyalty. I had played the perfect fiancée, smiled through the endless preparations, made him feel like a king.
And for what?
So he could lie beneath me and think of someone else?
No.
Hell no.
I grabbed my robe, cinched it tight around my waist, and marched to the mirror.
I looked at myself, eyes wild, hair tousled, skin still marked with his touch.
But I didn’t see a woman scorned.
I saw a storm. A force. A fire waiting to consume.
“I’ll ruin him,” I whispered.
Let him love Liam. Let him daydream about stolen moments and whispered memories. But that was all it would ever be, a fantasy. A flicker of something forbidden, forever out of reach.
Because I was here. I was real. And I wasn’t going anywhere.
I would haunt every breath he took, lace every second with reminders that I was the one who stood beside him, the one who knew his weaknesses, his secrets. He could run to Liam in his mind but in reality, Ethan was mine.
And I never lose.
“He still has eyes for Liam,” I said louder, spitting the words like poison. “But I’ll blind him to everything else.”
I’d make sure every attempt they made to reconnect was intercepted, frustrated, shut down. I would infiltrate every space between them, choke every breath they tried to share. I’d be the silence in their calls, the glitch in their texts, the weight that made Liam hesitate. I wouldn’t just stand in the way, I’d become the wall.
If Liam dared to come close, I’d remove him.
Cleanly. Efficiently.
Like a shadow vanishing before sunrise.
And Ethan…? He would learn. Slowly. Painfully. He’d learn what it meant to belong to me, to wake every day in a love forged by control, not choice.
No more distant stares. No more ghosting through our moments. I’d chain him with guilt, with obligation, with the weight of a wedding gown he never asked for. He’d forget what freedom felt like.
And he’d smile for the cameras.
He’d kiss me at the altar.
And Liam would fade, just like every other thing Ethan once cared about. Reduced to ash in the fire I built.
I pressed my palms against the mirror, leaning in so close our breaths could’ve fogged it up. My reflection stared back wide eyes, parted lips, pulse raging like a storm under my skin.
“They think this is a game,” I whispered, voice low and steady. “But I’ve already rewritten the rules.”
And in my version, there’s only one winner.
Me.