Secret Lover, Public Enemy

Three years ago, Kaiyan Thorne told me I was the worst mistake of his life.

Tonight, I found out he owned the building I was about to design.

...

"You're a Voss," he'd said that night. His voice had been flat, like he was reading a bill. "Did you really think I'd throw away everything for you?"

I was twenty-three. I had his ring hidden on a chain under my shirt.

"You said you loved me."

"I said a lot of things." He didn't even look up from his phone. "You were fun, Elowen. That's all."

I didn't know then that the Thorne elders had cornered him an hour earlier. They had given him two choices. Lose every share of his inheritance. Or watch them cut the funding for my father's heart treatment, money that came through a Thorne-backed foundation.

I only knew that the boy who used to sneak into my window at two in the morning was looking at me like I was dirt on his shoe.

I took the last train out of the city before sunrise.

...

Now I was twenty-six, an award-winning architect, and the woman whose design had made the shortlist for the city's new landmark tower.

"Smile, Ms. Voss," my assistant, Priya, whispered as we stepped into the ballroom. "Half the investors here want to meet you."

Crystal chandeliers threw light across every glass. Cameras flashed near the stage.

"Which half?" I asked.

"The rich half." She grinned, then glanced at her tablet and froze. "Oh. Oh no."

"What?"

"The lead investor finally confirmed." She turned the screen toward me. "It's Thorne Group."

The champagne in my hand went warm.

"That's not possible. The papers said Lumen Holdings."

"Lumen is a Thorne subsidiary. They just announced it." Priya swallowed. "Elowen, he's here."

I didn't have to ask who.

He stood near the stage in a black suit, taller than I remembered, his shoulders broader, his jaw harder. People circled him like he was the sun. Kaiyan Thorne, CEO at twenty-nine. The youngest head of the family in a century.

A woman in silver silk held his arm. Blond, polished, perfect.

"Seraphina Hale," Priya murmured. "His fiancée. The families announced it last spring."

Kaiyan's eyes swept the room and stopped on me.

For one second, something cracked across his face.

Then it was gone.

...

Seraphina reached me first. She smelled like gardenias and money.

"You must be Elowen Voss." She took my hand in both of hers, warm and soft. "I've heard so much about you."

"Have you?"

"Oh, everyone's heard." She laughed, light as bells. A reporter drifted closer. Then another. "It's so brave of you to come back. After everything your family lost."

My smile stayed in place. "My family is doing fine."

"Of course they are." She tilted her head. "I just think it's sweet. Some girls would be embarrassed to walk into a room full of people they used to call peers. But you? You walk right in. Right up to the richest table in the city." Her eyes slid to Kaiyan, then back. "Smart girl."

A few guests chuckled. A camera clicked.

"I'm here because my design won a spot in the bid," I said. "Not because of who's standing at the table."

"Mm. Of course." She patted my hand. "Kaiyan, darling, you two knew each other, didn't you? Back in college?"

Every head turned.

I stared at him. I hated myself for it, but I waited. Just one fair sentence. Just *she earned this.* That was all I needed.

Behind him, near the bar, an old man in a gray suit watched without blinking. Elder Corwin Thorne. The man who had signed my father's funding papers. The man who could tear them up.

Kaiyan's throat moved once.

"Ms. Voss and I have a strictly professional relationship," he said, his voice smooth and cold. "I'd ask everyone not to read into it."

Seraphina beamed.

Something old and scabbed over inside my chest split clean open.

And I laughed.

Soft, short, almost friendly. Kaiyan's eyes flicked to mine, startled.

"Mr. Thorne is right," I told the reporters. "We barely know each other."

I shook three more hands. I answered two questions about steel and sunlight. I said thank you twice.

Then I set down my glass and walked out.

...

The underground garage was cold and smelled like rubber and rain. My heels echoed off the concrete, too loud.

I had my keys out when headlights cut across my path. A black car swung in front of my bumper and stopped.

The door opened.

"Elowen."

I kept walking toward my driver's side. "Move your car, Mr. Thorne."

"Don't call me that."

"It's your name."

He caught up to me in four strides and planted himself between me and the door. Up close, the mask was gone. His eyes were red at the rims. His tie was crooked, like he'd yanked at it all the way down.

"I had to say it," he said, low and rough. "Corwin was watching. You saw him."

"I saw you."

"You don't understand what they—"

"Then explain it." My voice sharpened. "You've had three years."

He flinched. Actually flinched, like I'd slapped him.

"They were going to cut your dad off," he said. "The treatment. The surgeon. All of it. And they were going to strip me of everything, so I couldn't even help from the outside. I said those things so you'd leave. So you'd be safe."

The garage went very quiet.

My father's surgery. Three years of believing I'd been nothing to him.

"You let me believe I was a joke," I whispered.

"I know."

"I cried on a train for six hours."

"I know." His hand rose slowly, fingers reaching for my cheek. "I never stopped, Elowen. Not for one day. I still—" His voice broke. "We can go back. We'll be careful this time. Nobody has to know. Not Corwin, not Seraphina. Just us, the way it used to be."

His fingertips brushed my skin.

I knocked his hand away so hard it hit the car door.

"The way it used to be?" I stepped back. "Hiding in parking lots? Lying to my father? Watching you stand next to her at every party while I pretend I'm nobody?"

"It's not forever—"

"It was forever last time. Until it wasn't." I lifted my chin. "You don't get to keep me in the dark again, Kaiyan."

"Then what do you want from me?"

"The truth. In the light." My hands were shaking, so I shoved them into my coat. "Either you stand beside me where everyone can see. Or this is goodbye. For real this time. I will never be your secret again."

He opened his mouth.

Nothing came out.

That silence told me everything.

I slipped past him, got into my car, and hit the lock. The click sounded like a door closing on three years.

He didn't move as I backed out. He just stood there under the yellow lights, one hand still half-raised, getting smaller and smaller in my rearview mirror.

I made it to the exit ramp before my phone buzzed.

A text from an unknown number.

*Stay away from my fiancé, Ms. Voss. Or your father's medical records go to the press tomorrow morning.*