Chapter 46 - The Hidden Drive
Serena’s hand burned around the flash drive as if it were alive, pulsing with every beat of her frantic heart. She kept it hidden in her fist, her arm tucked against her coat, as Damian’s footsteps crunched softly across the rooftop.
His eyes never left her face. “Why are you out here? Alone. At midnight.”
The lie hovered on her lips, thin and brittle. “I just… needed air.”
Damian’s jaw flexed. “On the rooftop of the Halcyon?”
Her chest tightened. He was too perceptive—too practiced at reading people, at stripping away masks. She forced a shaky smile. “It’s quiet here. No cameras. No reporters.”
His gaze flicked to her clenched hand, then back to her eyes. He stepped closer, his presence filling the space between them. “Serena, if you’re hiding something from me—”
“I’m not,” she cut in quickly, her voice sharper than she intended.
The words rang false, and they both knew it.
Damian’s eyes darkened, his body rigid with the tension of a man balancing between love and suspicion. He reached up, brushing a strand of hair from her cheek, his touch gentle even as his voice carried steel. “Don’t let Crane pull you into his games. He’ll use you to get to me. That’s all this is for him. Power.”
Serena swallowed hard. “And what about you? Haven’t you used me for the same thing?”
The question landed like a blade. Damian’s hand stilled, his chest rising sharply. For a moment, his armor cracked, and she saw the truth in his silence—the guilt, the regret, the love buried beneath it all.
But she couldn’t let herself soften. Not with the weight of the flash drive in her palm.
“I need to go,” she whispered, pulling back.
He didn’t stop her this time. He only watched, his expression unreadable, as she slipped past him and disappeared into the stairwell.
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Back at the penthouse, Serena locked herself in the guest room, her hands trembling as she set the flash drive on the desk. The small piece of metal looked harmless, but she knew it held the power to unravel everything.
Her laptop waited, screen dark, cursor blinking like a heartbeat when she powered it on.
Do I really want to know?
Her fingers hovered over the USB port. If the messenger was telling the truth, what she saw could end Damian. Could end them. But if she ignored it… was she any better than Damian, living in silence and half-truths?
The thought made her stomach twist.
She slid the drive into the port. The screen flickered, files loading: contracts, internal memos, reports. The first document opened automatically.
Her eyes scanned the words—corporate buyouts, shell companies, settlements. At first, it was dry, legal, detached. But then the details sharpened.
A company forced into bankruptcy after Damian’s team bought out their debts. Hundreds laid off. A rival silenced through a private settlement. And then—one report that made her blood run cold.
“Wolfe Enterprises acquisition of Moreau Holdings: leverage through leaked scandal. Personal ruin of CEO accepted as collateral.”
Isla.
Serena’s breath hitched. Damian hadn’t just walked away from his ex-fiancée—he had destroyed her family’s company, leaving Isla with nothing but her name and her fury.
The room spun.
A knock rattled the door.
“Serena.” Damian’s voice, low, controlled, but tinged with concern. “Open the door.”
She scrambled, pulling the drive from the laptop, shoving it into her pocket. Her pulse thundered as she slammed the laptop shut just as the knob turned.
The door cracked open. Damian stepped in, his eyes scanning her face, the desk, the closed laptop.
“What are you doing in here?” he asked softly.
Her throat closed. “Nothing. Just… thinking.”
He stepped closer, his gaze sharp, searching. “You’ve been different since tonight. Distracted. Distant. Tell me what’s going on, Serena. Don’t shut me out.”
Her fingers curled tight around the flash drive hidden in her pocket, her body tense with the weight of the secret.
“I just need space,” she said, her voice trembling but firm. “Please.”
Damian studied her, his jaw tightening, but after a long, suffocating silence, he nodded once. “Fine. But whatever it is, don’t let it come between us.”
He left, the door clicking shut behind him.
Serena’s legs gave out, and she sank into the chair, gasping for breath. Her heart pounded as the truth echoed in her head.
Damian had destroyed Isla’s family.
And now she was holding the proof.
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