Verona straightened instantly, shifting into something softer, almost careful. “Darius, she assaulted me without reason! I was just doing my job, trying to stop her from causing a scene in your building—”

“Shut your mouth,” he snapped without even glancing at her properly.

His eyes found me immediately, and the entire intensity of him changed in a way that was almost disorienting.

“Marianne,” he said, stepping closer, "Tell me what happened. Did she touch you, did she say anything to you, are you hurt anywhere at all?”

His hand lifted slightly like he wanted to check for injuries, but I didn’t move toward him. My eyes had already locked into the faint red mark on his neck.

His brow tightened when he noticed my stare. “What are you looking at like that? Talk to me, Marianne. Why do you look like I just became someone you don’t recognize?”

I almost laughed.

“I’m fine. You should go handle your meeting. Don’t worry about me, just do what you came here to do.”

For a moment, he looked caught off guard, like I had stepped out of a version of myself he had gotten used to controlling.

“Marianne,” he said again, softer now, “I have a partner meeting upstairs. Go ahead first, wait in my office like usual. I will join you after I’m done, alright?”

Wait again.

That word landed heavier than it should have.

How many times had I been told to wait, to understand, to stay patient while he disappeared into rooms I was never invited into?

I swallowed the bitterness rising in my throat and gave a small nod. “Alright. I’ll wait.”

Something in him relaxed immediately. He even gave me a faint smile before turning away.

“Good girl.”

The elevator doors closed between us, and the sound felt final in a way I wasn’t ready to name.

I stood there for a moment, then pressed the elevator button, realizing I didn’t even have access anymore. Of course I didn’t. I let out a slow breath and pulled out my phone to ask the secretary to escort me upstairs instead.

My hands didn’t shake.

That was the part that unsettled me most.

As I turned to leave, voices drifted from the emergency exit hallway. Darius’s voice first, low and irritated, followed by Verona’s softer tone, and almost amused.

“What were you thinking pulling something like that in front of her?” he said sharply. “I told you not to make things messy when she’s around. Lara just died because of our son, Carson. Stop messing around with her!”

“Relax,” Verona replied, her voice carrying a teasing edge. “She hit me first, so I just returned the favor in my own way. Besides, you’re not really going to act like this is a big deal, are you? So tell me, how exactly are you going to make it up to me?”

There was a pause before he answered, voice dropping into something looser, less controlled. “Make it up to you? Fine. I’ll give you what you want, my time, my attention, even my name if that’s what you’re after. Just stop making this more complicated than it needs to be.”

Verona gave a soft laugh. “That still doesn’t sound like enough.”

His voice turned rougher at the edges. “Damn fine! I’ll give you everything if that’s what it takes. My entire life if you really want it. We can even build whatever future you’re imagining, I don’t care anymore.”

A soft giggle followed, and I heard the faint shift of movement between them, too close, too familiar.

I stood frozen in the hallway shadow, unable to step forward or back, like my body had forgotten how to belong anywhere.

Because I had heard those words before.

I remembered him once kneeling in front of me, blood on his hands, his voice breaking as he held a ring.

“I don’t make promises I can’t keep,” he had said back then, staring at me like I was the only thing holding him together. “Marianne, I swear on everything I am, I will give you my whole life. Just stay with me, don’t walk away from me.”

I had believed him.

I had thought that kind of devotion only broke or built empires.

Now I wasn’t sure what I had actually married.

Because the same man who once spoke like I was his entire universe was now laughing softly in a stairwell, offering the same life to someone else like it had no weight at all.

I stepped back slowly, one step at a time, until the sound of them faded.

My chest felt tight, like something inside me had finally reached its limit but didn’t know how to collapse yet.

So this is what I am now?

A place he returns to when nothing else is interesting enough?

...

The secretary led me up without much conversation, like I was just another file being moved through his world. By the time I reached Darius’s office, my hands had gone cold and my chest felt strangely empty.

He looked up the second I entered.

His face softened instantly, that switch in him I used to mistake for tenderness.

“What’s that?” he asked, nodding toward the folder in my hands. He stepped closer, took it from me without waiting, already opening it.

“For whatever you need, just take it to my study, get it stamped,” he said, flipping the pages without real focus. “Don’t come to me for small things. You know I’ve got enough shit to deal with.”

My throat tightened, but I forced my voice out anyway. “It’s not something you can just stamp and forget.”

That made him pause for half a second. Before he could respond, the door behind him opened.

A secretary stepped in, “Mr. Davenport, the rooftop setup is ready. Verona said everything’s prepared. We can go up now.”

Darius didn’t even turn fully.

“Yeah,” he muttered, already distracted by the papers. “Give me a minute.”

He signed the last page without reading it properly, a quick scratch of ink that meant nothing to him in that moment.

My words got stuck in my throat again.

I tried anyway. “Darius, this is a di—”

“Later,” he cut in, already putting the folder down. “Whatever it is, just leave it. I’ll handle it after this.”

After.

Always after.

I stopped fighting for the sentence and just held the folder tighter. “Go ahead,” I said quietly. “I’m leaving too.”

I turned toward the door but his hand caught my wrist.

“Don’t go yet,” he said, pulling me slightly back. “Come upstairs with me. Just for a bit.”

There was no room in his tone for refusal, only expectation.

And I followed because that was what I always did.

The rooftop was already waiting when we arrived.

The cold wind hit first, sharp enough to burn my lungs. Below, the city stretched out in dull lights and distance, but above us, something new had been set up.

Drones.

Dozens of them hovering in formation against the night sky, blinking red and white in perfect lines, waiting for a signal.

Darius stood behind me, his arm resting around my shoulders.

“Verona organized this. Some bullshit apology thing. She called in favors, and used company resources. I can’t just fire her for that.” Then he added, softer. “She knows she crossed a line earlier. This is her way of fixing it.”

My stomach twisted.

Fixing it.

“You said once you wanted something different,” he said. “Something you could remember. I remember shit like that, Marianne.”

Then the drones above us shifted slightly, lights flickering out of sync for a heartbeat.

Verona’s voice came from the control station nearby. “Mr. Davenport, I’m starting the sequence now.”

Darius nodded. “Do it.”

The sky lit up.

At first it was controlled, precise patterns forming shapes above the city. Letters, hearts, shifting designs that were meant to look beautiful.

Then one of the drones sparked. A sharp crack cut through the air.

Another followed and within seconds, the formation broke.

Lights scattered out of rhythm, drones losing control, dipping too low, veering sideways. Metal started falling from the sky in sudden violent drops.

Something brushed past my arm.

Hot.

Too hot!

I flinched back instinctively.

“Fuck,” Darius muttered, stepping forward. “What the hell is happening?”

Another drone slammed into the rooftop structure, exploding in a burst of heat and light. The shockwave threw me off balance.

I hit the ground hard.

Pain shot through my arm immediately, sharp enough to steal my breath. I tried to move, but something else burned past my shoulder, tearing heat across my skin. Not a small burn but a real fire contact!

My clothes caught for a second before I managed to roll, smothering it with my hands, my skin screaming under the pressure.

“Darius!” I shouted, voice breaking. “I'm burning! Help me!"

Smoke filled the air now, thick and suffocating.

Footsteps came closer.

I thought he was coming for me. I reached out blindly, fingers shaking, grabbing the only thing I could feel.

“Is that you?” I whispered, clinging to it. “Darius, please… I can’t move. Don’t leave me here.”

For a second, he stopped, then he pulled his leg free.

“Marianne, Verona got hit. She’s down,” he said. “I’m taking her out first. Find your way down. I’ll come back for you, okay? Crawl if you have to.”

“No! Darius, I can’t fully see anything. I’m burned, I don’t know where to go…”

But he was already moving away.

The heat around me grew stronger.

Fire somewhere nearby had spread across part of the rooftop structure, crawling closer in waves of orange and white. My skin felt like it was being pulled apart by the air itself.

I forced myself to move anyway, dragging my body toward what I thought was the exit. One step then another. My foot slipped on debris I couldn’t see and the world tilted without warning.

I fell.

…

The first thing I felt when I opened my eyes was pain.

A deep, relentless burn stretched from my shoulder down my arm and across the side of my neck. Even breathing tugged at damaged skin. The faint smell of scorched hair lingered around me, and every small movement dragged me back to that rooftop.

A thick bandage covered part of my shoulder and collarbone.

Instinctively, I raised a hand toward it.

Someone caught my wrist before I could touch it.

"Marianne, you're awake. How are you feeling? Does it still hurt?" Darius immediately leaned forward. "Do you need me to call the doctor? Your fever was high all night and you wouldn't wake up. You scared the hell out of me."

The concern in his voice came too quickly.

A few weeks ago, hearing him sound like that might have broken me. Now? It only exhausted me.

I pulled my hand from his grasp.

"GET OUT."

He exhaled slowly and rubbed his jaw.

"You're angry because I didn't save you first, aren't you?" His voice lowered as he watched me carefully. "That's what this is about, right?"

I stared at the white hospital ceiling. I didn't answer.

"Marianne, listen to me." He leaned forward again, urgency creeping into his voice. "Verona had already passed out. The drones were falling everywhere and pieces of them were crashing down around us. She wasn't moving, and if I left her there, she could've died."

His fingers tightened around the edge of the bed.

"I got her downstairs and handed her over to the emergency team. After that I came back immediately." He paused, and for the first time his voice cracked. "But when I found you... fuck, Marianne. You were already unconscious."

I closed my eyes.

Such a perfect explanation.

The only problem was that I knew it wasn't true.

He hadn't come back.

Not when I begged him, not when I couldn't move, not when my skin was burning and I thought I was going to die.

I swallowed the bitterness rising in my throat and nodded once.

"Okay. I understand."

For some reason, that seemed to bother him more than any argument ever could.

His hand closed around mine again. "Marianne." His voice dropped lower. "Don't do this. Don't sit there acting like everything's fine when it obviously isn't."

I almost laughed. Do what? Believe my own eyes?

"Don't be angry, baby." He squeezed my fingers harder. "I already handled the people responsible for what happened. The idiots who supplied those drones are finished. They'll never work in this city again, and I made sure of it personally."

Of course he did. A man like Darius Davenport could ruin lives with a single phone call. Yet somehow Verona always remained untouched.

"I swear nobody's ever going to hurt you again," he continued quietly. "Not them. Not anyone. I'll make sure of that."

A bitter smile touched my lips. What a ridiculous promise.

Slowly, I pulled my hand away.

"Darius, I'm tired."

His expression darkened immediately.

I had rejected him again and Darius Davenport was not a man accustomed to rejection.

"For fuck's sake, Marianne!" Impatience slipped into his voice as he stood. "I already explained everything. What else do you want me to say?! Fuck, fucking fuck! I dealt with the people responsible. I fixed the problem. If you're still unhappy, then tell the fuck exactly what you want from me."

Something inside me finally snapped.

Ignoring the pain tearing through my shoulder, I forced myself upright.

"Darius." My voice trembled, not from fear but from rage. "You really want to know what I want?"

The room became completely still.

I looked directly at him.

"Verona caused it! She's the reason all of this happened." My chest rose and fell heavily. "So send her to prison too. Destroy her life the same way you destroy everyone else's whenever they cross you."

A bitter laugh escaped me.

"Can you do that? Can you punish her the way you'd punish anyone else?"

Darius rubbed the back of his neck, genuine confusion written across his face.

"So that's what this is about?" His brows drew together. "Marianne, as far as I know, anyone could've gotten hurt in that situation. It was an accident. What exactly does that have to do with Verona?"

I stared at him.

And suddenly, I felt tired beyond words.

How could I explain something to someone who didn't want to understand? How could I compete with a woman he kept choosing over and over again?

I didn't have the strength anymore.

"You're right." I nodded slowly. "I was being petty. That's obviously the problem here." The words tasted like poison. "Happy now?"

Darius opened his mouth but nothing came out.

For the first time since I'd known him, he looked completely lost.

He kept staring at me as though something important was slipping through his fingers, something he couldn't identify no matter how hard he tried.

But he was too late. I pulled the blanket higher and turned onto my side. The movement pulled painfully at the burns beneath the bandages, but I barely reacted.

Behind me, Darius remained standing there for a long time.

Finally, he spoke.

"Marianne, that's not what I meant. You know that's not what I meant."

I didn't answer.

A moment later, he stepped closer and adjusted the blanket where it had slipped from my shoulder. Once, that small gesture would've meant everything to me. Now it felt hollow.

"Get some rest." His voice softened again. "I've got work to deal with, but I'll come back as soon as I'm done. We'll talk when you're feeling better." Then he left, and almost immediately, my phone began to ring.

"The arrangements are set for next week."

Mrs. Davenport's cold voice came through the phone.

"When the time comes, leave immediately. Don't play games with me, Marianne. If I find out you're trying anything clever, I won't be as patient as I was two years ago."

A quiet laugh escaped me.

"You don't have to worry. I'll leave exactly as promised.”

"Good."

"Frankly, this is the smartest decision you've made in years."

My grip tightened around the phone.

"You couldn't even save your own child. Lara died right under your nose, and there was nothing you could do about it. Do you know how pathetic that is?"

The words hit like a knife driven straight into an old wound.

I closed my eyes.

Even now, hearing Lara's name felt like having my heart torn open all over again.

"Mrs. Davenport—"

"No. Listen to me." Her voice hardened further. "You and Darius should've divorced a long time ago. Faking your death and disappearing is the right thing to do. At least this way, my son can finally move on and marry the woman he actually belongs with. I like Verona far more than I ever liked you."

"Then congratulations, Mrs. Davenport." My voice came out surprisingly calm. "You'll finally get the daughter-in-law you've always wanted."

She fell silent.

“Once I'm gone, neither you nor Darius will ever see me again.

And before she could respond, I ended the call.

"What do you mean nobody's ever going to see you again?"

The voice behind me made my heart nearly stop.

I looked up and found Darius standing in the doorway. His dark eyes were fixed on me, and from the expression on his face, it was obvious he had heard enough. I immediately ended the call, but the damage was already done.

"It's nothing," I said. "Just a friend."

Darius stepped into the room and closed the door behind him. "A friend? That's a pretty strange conversation to have with a friend. Usually when people start talking about never seeing each other again, something a lot bigger is going on."

"They were ending the friendship. Apparently we had a disagreement and now we're supposed to pretend the other person doesn't exist anymore. It was dramatic, but that's all it was."

He stared at me for several long seconds, clearly unconvinced. For a moment, I thought he would keep questioning me, but instead he shook his head and dropped the subject.

"Whatever. Just stay away from people who make you upset. You already have enough to deal with right now."

He tossed his phone onto the bedside table and sat beside me. His hand brushed against mine naturally, almost absentmindedly, but I quietly moved my fingers away before he could hold on.

The movement was small, yet I still saw the change in his expression. Something dark flashed through his eyes before disappearing so quickly that someone else might have missed it.

...

The next five days felt suffocating.

Darius barely left the hospital room. He handled company meetings through video calls, barked orders at executives, threatened people from La Serpienten over the phone, and somehow still found time to keep track of every medication the nurses gave me. Sometimes I would wake up during the night and find him sitting beside the bed, watching me with an intensity that made my chest feel heavy.

Five years ago, I would have mistaken that look for devotion.

Now I wasn't sure what it meant anymore.

Every conversation between us ended in silence. Every touch felt forced. The colder I became, the more restless Darius seemed. I noticed it in the way he paced around the room, the way his eyes kept drifting toward me, and the way his patience grew thinner every day. Something was bothering him, but he couldn't seem to figure out what it was.

The day I was discharged, he never showed up.

There were no calls, no messages, and no explanation.

I wasn't surprised.

After completing the paperwork myself, I left the hospital and went straight to my lawyer's office. There, I handed over the divorce agreement and signed the authorization documents that would allow him to proceed even if I wasn't present. Once that was finished, I returned to the villa and began packing.

There wasn't much I wanted to take with me. Most of what filled the villa belonged to a life I no longer wanted. In the end, I packed only a few clothes, my parents' belongings, several albums of Lara, and her precious urn.

The villa felt strangely empty as I moved from room to room.

Maybe because I already knew I was never coming back.

I had just finished sealing the final box when the bedroom door slammed open hard enough to crash against the wall.

I turned sharply.

Darius stormed into the room.

His face was terrifying. Without saying a word, he crossed the room and grabbed my wrist.

"What the fuck is wrong with you? Have you completely lost your mind?"

I stared at him in confusion. "What are you talking about? What happened?"

His grip tightened. "You're still pretending you don't know? Even now you're going to stand there and act innocent?"

Before I could react, he threw a stack of photographs against my chest. They scattered across the floor between us.

"Tell me something, Marianne. When exactly did you become this fucking vicious?"

I looked down and immediately understood.

The photographs were all of Verona.

Some showed her being dragged into a vehicle. Others appeared to have been taken during the week she spent in captivity. The later photographs were worse. Bruises covered her skin, a brand had been burned into her shoulder, and the fear in her eyes was impossible to miss. The entire story was laid out in front of me without anyone needing to explain it.

A cold feeling settled inside my chest.

Not because of what had happened to Verona.

Because I already knew where this conversation was heading.

"Darius... Are you accusing me?"

His jaw tightened immediately. "Who else would I accuse? Give me one reason to suspect somebody else."