"I was never really afraid of dying. When my cousin was forced to give up his shares, he lost it and stabbed me. It should have hurt, but I didn’t feel a thing.
"At that moment, all I could think about… was you."
…

The parking garage was silent.
Under the dim glow of the headlights, Liam shrugged off his suit jacket and slowly unbuttoned his dress shirt.
One button at a time until the scar over his chest, dangerously close to his heart, was fully visible.
"The Hughes family is a mess. It was never going to be easy to take control. But after tonight, Linda and the last of the people who backed her will fall.
"And the entire Hughes family, including me, can be yours."
He leaned in, closer and closer, his gaze locked onto mine.

For years, his eyes had been clouded, unfocused.
Now, they burned, sharp and piercing, filled with the kind of brilliance that seemed to hold the entire universe.
I swallowed hard, my voice barely above a whisper.
"But you and Linda—"

"I never kissed her. Not once."
His tone was firmer this time, as if carving the words into stone.
"I am clean, Chloe. You can check for yourself."
With just that single sentence, something in me snapped.
Whatever logic and restraint I once had were completely gone.
I lunged forward, yanking open his collar, hands trembling as years of buried emotions surged back all at once.
His lowest point had been the most uncertain, chaotic years of my life too.
All that reckless, uncontained emotion that had nowhere to go got released.
In the end, it all melted into the inevitable pull between us.
On the reclined car seat, I tightened my grip on Liam’s tie, wrapped around his bare neck—just like I had so many times before, after every fight, every heated clash that always ended the same way, tangled together and breathless.
I tugged, just enough to tighten it.
It was a faint, intoxicating pressure.
Liam narrowed his eyes, a low, satisfied sigh slipping past his lips.
"I missed you."
Holding me close, he buried his face against the curve of my neck, his palm searing hot as it traced along my waist.
"They were fools. Did they really think a tame, obedient trophy could ever be you? No one could ever play your role."
His voice, usually cold and sharp, was now thick with something else entirely.
By the time the storm had passed, it was the dead of night.
Liam drove in silence, pulling up in front of a villa.
His tie, still slightly askew, hung loosely around his neck, faint red marks peeking from beneath the fabric.
I pulled out my phone, the glow of the screen cutting through the dim interior of the car.
A breaking news alert popped up at the top of the trending feed, stamped with a bold red "Breaking News" banner.
#Linda Dawson Taken in for Investigation
"Last month, my half-brother contacted Linda. He threatened her, claiming to know her secrets, and forced her to steal the bid proposal and other confidential documents from me."
I was silent for a moment before replying softly, "I know."
"You… know?"
Liam turned sharply toward me. "Did you plan this, Chloe?"
I nodded, digging my nails into my palm to steady myself, forcing myself to meet his gaze.
"I came back to destroy the Dawsons. To ruin Linda. To overturn the case they fabricated against my mother twenty years ago. For that outcome, I’m willing to pay any price."
This had always been the driving force behind my career in media.
Twenty years ago, because my father had caught her eye, the Dawson family heiress, Rachel Dawson, orchestrated a setup, accusing my mother of being a prostitute.
And Linda, just a child at the time, helped them.
All to secure her life as the pampered princess of the Dawson family, she betrayed her own mother, pushing her straight into the abyss.
My mother was detained for fifteen days and lost her job.
When she returned home, the neighbors whispered behind her back, pointing fingers, taking my father’s side.
After the divorce, she had no choice but to leave the city in disgrace, taking me with her back to the countryside.
Shattered and broke, she lived out the rest of her days in quiet misery.
She didn’t even make it past fifty.
And the day she died, the hospital TV was playing the evening news.
The Dawsons were making headlines again.