I barely made it to the car before my hands started shaking. The message still burned on my screen. He knows.

No name. No sender. Just those two words. But they said everything.

I sat in the back seat of the town car, the city lights flickering past like ghosts. My driver didn’t say a word. They never did. Part of the arrangement. Liam had made sure I had everything I needed: security, freedom, silence. But I was beginning to understand that even the things he gave came with strings. Liam Ashford didn’t offer protection. He offered possession disguised as care. And I had crossed a line. I unlocked my burner phone, the one I kept in the false bottom of my handbag. One bar of service. Enough. I sent a quick message. I’m compromised. Pull the rest. Going dark. No reply.

I powered it off. Swallowed the lump rising in my throat. Told myself not to cry. You don’t get to fall apart. Not now.

Not when the only man I’d ever loved was the one who might end me.

The car stopped outside my apartment, and for a second I just sat there, watching the door like someone might be waiting inside. A shadow. A consequence.But the building was quiet.Too quiet.

I stepped out slowly, my heels clicking on the pavement like countdowns. Inside, the elevator creaked its way up to the twelfth floor. I should have taken the stairs. My body was screaming for instinct. When the doors opened, the hallway was dark. And then I saw it.The door to my apartment was cracked open.Not broken. Not kicked in.Just open, Waiting.

I reached into my clutch and closed my fingers around the small blade I kept inside. Liam always laughed when he found it during our first sleepover.

Paranoid much? You’d be surprised what a woman learns growing up in a world like mine. I nudged the door open with my foot.

Everything looked untouched. The couch. The table. The stack of magazines I never read. And then I saw the wine glass. Half full. On the counter. Still sweating.

Someone was here.Or still is. I turned

And he was there.Liam.

Leaning against the window like he belonged in the shadows. Jacket off. Shirt sleeves rolled to his elbows. Eyes unreadable. You’re late, he said.I didn’t speak.He stepped forward, slow and deliberate. Why’d you do it? My heart slammed against my ribs. Do what?Don’t insult me. His voice wasn’t raised. That made it worse. Liam's anger was easy to handle. But Liam is calm? That was dangerous.

You were the only one who had access to the logs. The only one who could’ve moved that data without tripping our alerts. Do you think I wouldn’t notice? He paused. Or were you just betting I’d be too blinded to care? I swallowed. My mouth tasted like iron.You’re wrong.He laughed, just once. It wasn’t kind.

Then tell me why your name’s on the terminal that breached my vault two nights ago.Vault. Not a server. Not drive. Vault.

The physical one. Where the real secrets lived.Shit, You’ve been watching me, I whispered. Of course I have. You don’t think I’d give you my heart without protecting it?That stopped me.

This wasn’t the man I’d known. Or maybe it was and I had just been too willing to see the version of him I wanted.

What happens now? I asked quietly.

He stared at me for a long moment. Then I walked to the counter and picked up the glass of wine.You tell me.

I should have lied. Should have begged. Should have pulled every thread of manipulation I’d ever learned.But I was tired. So damn tired of pretending.I did it for her, I said.His jaw tensed.Your sister.

She worked for you. She trusted your company. And she vanished without a word. You said you didn’t know anything, but I knew you were lying. I just didn’t know why.He said nothing.

You could’ve told me the truth. You could’ve helped me. Instead, I had to become something I never wanted to be.

He looked down at the wine, then poured it into the sink.The truth is never simple, Eva,Then try meHe walked toward me again, slower this time.

You think I didn’t love you? You think I didn’t see how broken you were and still wanted all of it? Then why the lies?

Because your sister didn’t vanish.He stopped inches from me.She ran.My heart stopped.What?

She was involved in something dangerous. Something even I couldn’t fix. And when it caught up to her, she made a choice. To disappear before it cost her more than it already had.

He reached into his pocket and pulled out a flash drive. This is everything. Her files. Her records. The truth.And what if I don’t believe you?

Then leave. Walk out that door and never come back.And if I stay?

Then we rebuild this with no lies between us. Not one.I looked down at the flash drive. The weight of it. The cost.I had betrayed him.But maybe he’d betrayed me too.And somehow, through all of it, there was still this thing between us.

Love. Or something that looked a lot like it.

I didn’t know what would happen next.But I knew one thing for sure: Nothing about us would ever be simple again.