Chapter 84 Chapter Eighty-three
ARA
The silence that followed was louder than the gunshot. Thayne didn’t move toward me. That alone felt like a blow to the chest.
His eyes stayed on my face, but the warmth I’d grown used to, the quiet certainty, the unspoken ‘I’ve got you’, was gone. What remained was something sharp and wounded, something trying very hard not to bleed.
“Hear that?” the restrained man taunted, still grinning through his blood and spit. “She’s been playing you this whole time.”
“Shut him up,” Thayne barked in a fiery voice.
A guard slammed the man’s head back against the wall, forcing him silent, but the damage was already done.
His words hung in the air, poisonous and impossible to ignore.
Thayne finally looked away from me. That hurt more than if he’d shouted.
“You had contact with him,” he said quietly. Not accusing, at least not yet. I'd lost his trust by making one stupid mistake?
“Your father.”
My throat closed. “I—” My voice cracked, and I hated myself for it. I swallowed hard and tried again. “I didn’t know what it meant at first. It was just a note.”
He turned back to me then. “Hello, dear daughter,” he said flatly.
I flinched. “Yes,” I whispered. “I suspected it was him—”
“You didn’t tell me,” he cut in. The words were soft and controlled.
But his eyes, God, his eyes looked wrecked.
“I was trying to protect you,” I said desperately. “I didn’t know how deep it went. I didn’t know if your security had been compromised or if—”
“So you decided to handle it alone?” His jaw tightened. “You decided for me.”
“That’s not fair,” I said, shaking my head. “I was scared. I didn’t want to cause panic. I didn’t want him to win by getting inside your head.”
A bitter smile ghosted across his lips. “He’s already there.”
The words landed like a verdict. Around us, security moved efficiently. The fake guard was hauled away, still laughing under his breath like this was all entertainment to him.
Thayne didn’t look at any of it. His attention stayed on me, but it felt distant now. Like he was looking at a version of me he didn’t recognize anymore.
“You should have trusted me,” he said.
“I do trust you,” I insisted, stepping toward him.
He took a step back. That broke something in me.
“I swear to you,” I said, my hands curling into fists at my sides, “I was going to tell you tonight. I just needed time to understand what he wanted.”
“And what does he want?” Thayne asked.
The answer burned my tongue.
“Me,” I said quietly. “He wants me. He wants control. And he wants to hurt you.”
His nostrils flared.
“Congratulations,” he said coldly. “He’s doing a fantastic job.”
Pain stabbed through my chest. “I almost died,” I said, before I could stop myself. “I was just held at gunpoint because of him. Because of me.”
That got through to him. His expression shifted, just slightly. His gaze dropped, scanning me like he was checking for injuries he’d missed. His hands twitched at his sides, instinct fighting restraint.
But he didn’t touch me. “And you still didn’t tell me,” he said, more quietly now. Hurt seeping through the anger. “Do you know what that tells me, Ara?”
I shook my head, tears blurring my vision.
“That when things get ugly,” he continued, “you don’t see me as your partner. You see me as a liability.”
“That’s not true,” I whispered. “I just didn’t want him using you against me.”
“And now he is,” Thayne said. “Because you let him.”
The words weren’t cruel. They were disappointed.
I felt myself unravel.
“I didn’t plan this,” I said, my voice breaking completely now. “I didn’t orchestrate anything. I didn’t want Sasha taken. I didn’t want this war. I just wanted—” My voice failed.
Thayne watched me struggle to breathe, to stay standing, and for a moment I thought he might reach for me.
He didn’t. Instead, he turned slightly, addressing Munroe without looking away from me. “Double the perimeter and lock down all exits. I want eyes on every inch of this building.”
“On it.” Munroe replied, already moving.
Thayne looked back at me one last time.
“From now on,” he said, his voice ironed flat, “you don’t make a move without telling me. Your father might be trying to use you against me for all I know.”
I shook my head. “You know I'll never let him. I lo—”
I nearly said I loved him. What if I'd said it? Would he say it back?
He studied my face, searching for something. Whatever he was looking for, he didn’t find it.
“We’ll talk later,” he said.
Later..The word felt like exile.
He turned away then, barking orders, slipping seamlessly back into the role of commander, a man in control. The distance between us wasn’t physical anymore.
It was something colder. Something new. I stood there, shaking, watching the man I loved put walls back up one brick at a time.
And the worst part was that I didn’t know how to tear them down again.
I watched him walk away, and something inside me caved in. Not loudly or dramatically, just a quiet collapse, like a building finally giving up after a fire.
When it became too much to bear, I turned and headed for the bedroom, my steps unsteady, my chest aching like I’d been hollowed out.
I loved him. The realization hit me fully then, raw and undeniable. I loved him, and I wanted to say it, to stop him, to grab his face and make him listen.
I wanted to show him how deep it went, how it wasn’t fear or secrecy that guided me, but desperation to keep him safe.
But what if I said it and he didn’t feel the same?
What if this, whatever we were, was exactly what he’d warned me it was from the start?
An arrangement. The thought made my throat tighten painfully.
I didn’t go far. Somehow, my feet carried me back to the room where everything had gone wrong.
The room where the gun had been pointed at my head, where my sense of safety had shattered.
The phone lay on the floor, the screen was cracked but it was still glowing faintly.
I bent down and picked it up. There was a message floating on the screen, unread.
A cold dread slid down my spine. Slowly, I turned my head, scanning the room, the corners, the ceiling, the shadows, half-expecting eyes to be staring back at me.
There was nothing. My fingers trembled as I looked back at the screen.
‘Well done, daughter. You behaved exactly as I predicted.’
My breath hitched. The text was meant for me.
‘Now Thayne is walking straight into my trap. Bosco was only a distraction. We’ve already breached the fortress.’
Oh God, no. No, no, no. My heart slammed violently against my ribs.
Bosco was the fake guard.
‘And as for you… The injection Bosco gave you will take effect exactly one minute after you put the phone down.’
“No, please, no…” I whispered.
My pulse roared in my ears as realization crashed over me.
He’d injected me. I squeezed my arm instinctively, my skin crawling as memory rewound: Bosco shoving me hard against the wall, my vision flashing white, my body going momentarily numb.
That was when. How had I not felt it?
My father had been watching. Planning. Anticipating every move like a chess game I hadn’t known I was playing.
I opened my mouth to scream, to call Munroe, to call anyone….. But my tongue felt thick and heavy.
My limbs betrayed me, strength draining out of them like water through open fingers. The phone slipped from my grasp and hit the floor with a dull clatter.
My knees buckled, and the last thing I saw before the darkness swallowed me whole was the doorway, empty, silent, and the terrifying certainty that Thayne was already too far away to hear me fall.