Tessa's P.O.V.I could tell that something was really wrong with Aiden, and that feeling in the deep of my bones was very hard to conceal.Out of reach, canceling plans at the very last minute for days on one end, telling me how busy he had been. Seriously, not a single word of it did I buy.I frowned down at my cell phone, the weight of that last text he'd sent-a noose-surrounding my chest. ‘Don't know yet. Let's see how today goes.’I let out a deep sigh and flipped my phone onto the desk. If it's because of work, why did it feel like he pulled away from me so much? Immediately, in the heart of hearts while finding the reason: had I said something wrong, say anything which made him pull away?Longer I couldn't bear that silence; I needed to know what happened.It was my determination overpowering me as I smartly grasped my purse in my hands right across the floor into Aiden's office. The walk across the floor was eternity, and at every step my heels clicked onto the shiny floors, ma
Damien's POV"Well, here's to making Aiden squirm like the pathetic little coward he is," Chloe said, glass forward and leading with a smug smile.I chinked my glass against hers, savored that bitter taste of the whiskey as it slid down my throat. There was some murmuring around us in the dimly lit bar, though the low hum of conversations didn't even register in my head. The only thing that had filled my head was the thrill of victory-or at least satisfaction that this time finally the upper hand was mine.“I have to hand it to you, Chloe. That camera idea? Brilliant," I said, leaning back in my chair as a smirk pulled on my lips.Chloe smiled, looking pretty proud of herself. "Well, someone had to think ahead. You were too busy fuming over Aiden and Tessa to see the bigger picture.""Fuming?" I replied with a dark chuckle. "Maybe. But now? Now I'm in control.And God, was it good. Aiden had always been the golden boy, always so damn perfect in everybody's eyes. But now? Now he was no
Aiden's POVOutside, the night tore the chill asunder, and I sat inside my car-my hands circling the wheel of my steering a bit too firmly. In front of me, Damien's building loomed dark, silent-the perfect foil to the storm raging inside my head. I cast a glance down at the dashboard clock: 10.32 PM. He should be back any moment now.It wasn't me, here now, folding to the whims of that sick son-of-a-bitch.I let my eyes fall back in my head, my skull hit the seat with a soft thud. Still neon sign of a memory that was, Damien's text just kept blinding me: 48 hours to end things or the video goes viral.Stupid video God. If Tessa ever saw it, no, I couldn't let that happen. Whatever it would take, I had to protect her from this-from him.It wasn't supposed to go down like this. Not today. Not in a few minutes, when I was going to make one of the biggest decisions of my life.Lights flashing behind me in the rearview mirror pulled me from my reverie. I turned to watch as a sleek black ca
Tessa's POV"Aiden, can we talk?" I said, standing at his office door, trying to keep my voice even.Without so much as looking up from his computer, while his fingers did their thing-as if I was no more than a disturbance. "Not now, Tessa, I have lots of work to finish."I swallowed the lump in my throat and nodded, even though he couldn't see me. "Okay. I'll just leave the files here." I set the stack on the corner of his desk as tension hung between us heavier than an unbearable weight.He didn't even acknowledge me. Just kept typing.It had been this way all day, cold and distant as ice. He hadn't as much as glanced my way, let alone asked about my well-being. Just like every other day, he shut me out today again, building a wall higher than any I could climb.I hunched over, biting hard on my lip, and curbed the urge to turn and confront him right there and then in this sea of other people. Of course, I couldn't do that, not here in front of everyone. Whatever was going on betwee
Aiden's P.O.V.I couldn't see the road because it was misty outside just like always when I'm looking through my tears. My knuckles went white with hold onto the wheel, but that did nothing to dissipate what was in my chest. The pain of my heart shattering into a million pieces.How did this happen? How did I let Damien win?I didn't know or care much where I was going; all I knew was that I couldn't go home, couldn't face myself after what I'd just done to the woman I loved. Neon lights of a bar instinctively appeared in my peripheral vision off to the side of the road and I pulled into the lot, parking.The acrid sting of the liquor hit me in the face. Just what I needed. Something to deaden the ache, make me forget."Whiskey," I told him as I slid onto one of the stools against the bar.He said nothing, only poured one and set it before me. I swallowed one gulp of it, wincing; the liquid was burning down my throat. That wasn't enough."Another," I said, slamming the glass down.It'
Tessa's POV"Oh, I am so sorry, but I won't be able to make it in today. I'm not feeling all that great," I finally managed to get out to the phone to the company managing director, barely understandable anymore even to my ears.No sooner had I hung up than I fell back onto my bed, yanking the blanket over my head. My body went heavy, willing to sink into the mattress. A few-too-many blinks later, my eyes leaked. That ache in my chest wasn't one that dulled since last night. Never thought it possible to feel this broken because of some words.He really did.That was the painful twist that wrung my heart. It was that cold expression of his face then-the tone in his voice then that told me it was over-kept me back.I just lay there, staring dumb at the ceiling and trying to piece something out of it. I hadn't gotten out of bed. The covers acted as if they could keep me in one piece. The room was so dark because my feelings spilt over into surroundings.I knew Aiden was complicated, that
Damien's POV"You're such a heartbreaker, aren't you?" I leaned against the doorframe of Aiden's office, a smirk tugging my lips. "Poor Tessa must be crushed."Aiden didn't bat an eyelid. His eyes stayed cold, intent. He didn't rise to the bait and didn't even twitch. The restraint of it couldn't be avoided, a tiny shade of impressed, which made teasing him at all a little less fun. Still, I wasn't here just to mock him. We had business."What did you come here for?" Aiden asked, his voice sharp, flat. "To gloat?"Partly." I strode into his office, hands in my pockets, taking my time to look around the room. Aiden's office always seemed so sterile, so organized. Boring. Lifeless. Much like him when he wasn't pretending to care about something. "But I've also come to deliver on my end of the deal. You, my friend, held up your part, so it's only fair I do the same."Aiden's jaw clenched a fraction as he leaned forward, hands clasped together over the desk. "The video. Destroy it." "Imp
Aiden's P.O.V."Mr. Gray, here is that file you wanted me to work on."Tess's voice was low, professional as she set the document on my desk. I looked up, caught her gaze for that instant in time before she looked away, scrupulously neutral. She was pretending it was all right. And I wasn't buying that. Not after what I'd seen in her eyes, in the droop of her shoulders as she turned away, hied herself back to her desk.She'd been preoccupied but competent, just as she'd been all day. No word had been said between us that wasn't needed. My interactions with her had been business like and I hated it. I hated how things changed between us in such a very short amount of time because of one night, one decision.I ran a hand through my hair. My head seemed to go on spinning like my mind, and it was a great deal more difficult than I'd ever thought breaking it off with her would be. Standing here now, watching her go about the office as if all is right in her world, tore me up inside."Your
TESSA'S POVSunlight streamed through the huge window panes of our house onto the invitations laid across the dining table. I sat with a pen in hand, writing down final guest names, while Aiden leaned against the counter sipping his coffee."We could just elope, you know," he joked, the corner of one lip tugging upwards with a mischievous smirk.I turned a mock glare his way. "After all this planning? Not in your life, Aiden GRAY. We're doing this properly."He laughed, setting his mug down as he ambled over to me. "Properly, huh? That's why you've been vetoing half my suggestions?""You wanted a firework display during the vows!" I reminded him, laughing.“And what’s wrong with that? It would’ve been epic.” He leaned down, pressing a kiss to my temple. “But fine, no fireworks. As long as you’re there, it’ll be perfect.”It was what he said that always made my heart flutter, and the words this time were not an exception. It was one of those weddings that put me into anticipation and j
AIDEN'S POVMonths melted away.Weirdly, life went on since it all came crashing down. It had been months since Damien's death, Chloe leaving the city, Tessa and me over his grave saying our goodbyes. Time didn't heal everything; that it never could. But the space it gave. to breathe, rebuild, and put pieces of our lives back into place-was something all of us had desperately needed.That, with me and Tessa, gradually slipped into rhythm, and whatever in our daily life had disappeared with time turned into the time worth living. The daily morning coffee on the balcony, the late evening lying on the couch curled up, making small talks about the future-this had become a routine thing with us. Indeed, chaos seemed to bypass us somehow, yet the shadows took one corner of my mind with the coming night.But as I watched Tessa, humming to herself and arranging flowers in the sitting room, it suddenly hit me-the ton of bricks they say are always used in such situations. I loved her; I had alw
AIDEN'S POVI did not want to come here. I had told myself that I wouldn't-that some things quite simply were not worth a second chance. But here we were. Tessa stood beside me, her hand in mine, as we walked through the cemetery toward Damien's grave. The wind was cold, a bite into my skin, but nothing compared to the chill now setting into my chest.There it lay, the newly turned soil, the headstone, and the blunt inscription stating his name: "Damien Gray." Seemed so … normal. No great sentences of poetically flowing verbiages, no flowery platitudes of an exaggerated regard. A plain, uneventful name to denote an end of the life so full of promise to me and torn by just so many things… in particular by myself.I had stopped in front of the grave, said nothing. All these emotions warred in my brain, jumbling anger, guilt, sorrow. And it wasn't just because of what happened to him. It was for everything, things that could have gone differently, which I should have done."Do you think
TESSA'S POVChloe sat up against the mountain of pillows that propped her back. Her skin was a dull white; those alert features dulled by exhaustion and pain. When her gaze locked with mine, something flickered over her face-shame, perhaps? Regret?"Tessa," she husked out, her voice husky, yet steady. "I didn't expect you to be here.”"I did," I said, stepping inside. The door clicked shut behind me, and the soft hum of machinery in the room served to fill the brief moment of silence.A minute swept by with neither of us speaking. I had absolutely no idea where to begin, while Chloe seemed to fish for the right words. Then she spoke.“I'm so sorry," Chloe said, her voice breaking. She looked down at her hands, which were twisting the hospital blanket over and over in a nervous fashion. "For everything. For what I did to you. For what I let Damien do.”Her words were like a wave, and all the anger and hurt I'd been trying to bury surfaced. I crossed my arms, my voice sharper than I mea
AIDEN'S POVIt all boiled down to me standing against cold brick outside of a hospital. The sharp night air almost nipped my skin but couldn't take away what had been brewing inside of me since the night Damien was finally gone.Dead.The word reverberated in my mind, hollow yet heavy. He had not reached the hospital. Just a few minutes later, when the ambulance had speedily gone away from the warehouse, the police confirmed that my brother was no longer alive. In the pit of my chest, a tussle between relief and guilt twisted itself into this sensation, which has made me so ill.I stared upwards, trying to make sense of the darkened sky. It was a path he'd chosen, wasn't it? He'd refused every olive branch, clung to his rage, and let it consume him. Still, a part of me couldn't help but ask: What if?The sound of footsteps pulled me from my reverie. Tessa came forward, her face ashen, eyes red-rimmed from crying. She wrapped her arms around her middle, as if holding herself to protect
AIDEN'S POVThe ropes chafing my wrists were heaved into the painfully darkened room by two of Damien's men. My rib cage was racing, pounding within me like a war drum, as my eyes coursed over every inch, scanning the space for her. The echoes of my footsteps rattled through this large, high-ceilinged area, joined by the smothering tension in the air.Then I see her.“Tessa!” screams my hoarse voice in desperation while seeing her tied around the chair, white faced, and tear streaks covering it, her arms bound behind her back, a gag over her mouth, muffling her cries while her big terrified eyes remained fixed on mine, imploring for help.It came finally with the breaking of the silence from Damien's cruel laughter. "Well, well, your Prince Charming is finally here.""Let her go, Damien," I said, shaking all over with anger mixed with fear.Damienne cocked his head to one side, his face a mockery. "And miss this little family reunion? I don't think so.”Damien started to circle me wit
TESSA'S POVThe stench of that dark room shredded through my senses. My wrists throbbed, sore where the coarse ropes had lacerated into the skin, and with each weak inhalation, it was like the final one that could break this tenuous will hanging by a thread.I was not going to back away from him, not from Damien after what he pulled on Aiden, on me, and our lives.Standing in the doorway was a mountain of a man, with a great scar running down his cheek, scraping his boots on the floor and yawning and weighing his weight on one side. He had been left to watch me; now or never was the time to try anything that came into my head.I pulled carefully, testing the looseness of the rope binding my hands, my heart racing in my chest. Hours of subtly working at this knot had finally paid off; it gave way just enough for me to slide my wrists free.I glanced over to the guard, who now had his head leaned back against the wall, his eyes shutting.Go, Tessa. Now.Summoning every last shred of cou
AIDEN'S POVThe house was creepily silent when I went in-the kind of silence that twisted my gut. Something was off because it was too still, too empty."Tessa?" I called out, dropping keys on the counter. Nobody answered.My eyes scanned around the living room, the kitchen-nothing. My chest had already tightened as I tried again, louder this time. "Tessa? Marcus? Garret?"No response.And then I saw it-her phone. It lay on the counter, cracked at the screen, looking like she had dropped it there in haste. Tessa would never leave her phone lying anywhere.Now dread set in as my heart began racing, strode toward the security room for some answers, though my gut already told me otherwise.I burst through the door into the room to find Marcus and two other guards huddled around the monitors."Where the hell is Tessa?" I growled low, an edge to my voice that could cut through glass.Marcus slowly turned to me, white as marble, and seemed to fish for his answer. "Sir… we were reviewing the
TESSA'S POVIt wasn't until we stopped before Aiden's building that the car came to rest; it was my safe refuge now turned into a sanctuary in which the fears inside my head seemed to nestle. Those were instances from two weeks ago, haunting in my mind like some unsavable storm-accusations which memory just didn't seem willing or able to rid itself of."You're home," Aiden whispered, and immediately his voice was an anchor of solace amidst my rioting thoughts.Turning back to him, I pushed a small smile. "Home," I echoed, though the word felt wrong. Was I ever again safe?Aiden climbed out first, coming around and pulling my door open. His firm hand reached inside toward me, steady and reassuringly strong. "Come on; got you.I hesitated, staring at his hand. For a moment, the hospital was safer. Out here, the world was too big, too dangerous. But I chased the fear away, telling myself Aiden would never let anything happen to me.I took his hand and he led me out of the car."Take it e