“Damian?” Daisy’s voice sliced through the silence, small but shattering. “What are you doing?”The world snapped back. My hand dropped. The gun hung heavy in my grip. I turned — her eyes widened when she saw it.For a heartbeat, I froze — between them. Then I turned back to Ference, flipped the weapon, and pressed the handle into his hand.I faced Daisy again, closing the distance between us. “Why didn’t you come to me?” I rasped. Heat stung my eyes. I forced it back. Me — Damian Miller — undone becauseI hadn’t been strong enough to protect her. She’d gone through hell because I wasn’t there. What kind of man lets that happen?She looked away. “How did you find out?”
“The hotel lobby cameras.”
She nodded. I stepped to her, cupping her face.
“Why, Daisy? Why didn’t you come to me? What did he threaten you with?”
“He would’ve ruined you. Destroyed your company. Burned the shop.”
“I wouldn’t have cared.”
“Oh really.” A bitter laugh. “As if I ever meant that much to you.”
She turned. My bodyguards slipped out. I followed, my gaze drilling into her back.
“You could have trusted me. I would’ve found a way.”
She spun, eyes blazing. “Trusted you? You never let me in. I was a means to an end. And now you say ‘trust’? I’ve never been anything to you. I never will be.”
“If that’s true, then why did you do it?” I seized her shoulders. “Why, Daisy? Why the fuck would you sacrifice yourself for me? I don’t deserve it.”
“Because I fucking love you!” she screamed — raw and broken, the last flare of something that couldn’t be saved. “Because I couldn’t watch him destroy you.”
“And you destroyed yourself instead?” I stepped so close she could feel the violence coiled in me. My hands dug into her arms. “That’s not proof of love. That’s madness. A sacrifice I’ll never accept.”
She shut her eyes. A single tear slid — quiet, final. I saw the cost. I hated it. Hated her for it. Hated myself more for driving her here.
I dropped my hands as if burned, dragged a palm over my face, and made my voice ice.
“Daisy… you can’t love me. I told you from the start I’d never give you a relationship.”
Her lips trembled. “So you’re sticking with that?” she whispered. “All you want is to possess me?”
I memorized her face — the break in it. Then I nodded. Slow. Hard. Something in her cracked. Something in me with it.
I should have held her. Told her she’d changed me. That for the first time in years I didn’t know who I was because she’d turned everything upside down. But if I said it, I would lose — myself, and then her.
So I chose the silence that would hurt her most—and keep us both alive.
Marble, glass, guards—none of it mattered. I was already past the point that keeps men out of prison.
“One moment, Mr. Miller, you can’t just go in,” a secretary called, uncertain.
“Mr. Mason is busy!” another snapped, stepping in my way. I brushed past. They didn’t follow.
I flung open the oak door and stormed into Mason’s office. The bastard looked up — surprise curdling into anger.
“What the hell is this, Damian?” he sneered.
I crossed the desk and dragged him to the floor. He roared, but rage gave me the strength of ten men. My fists hammered his face again and again.
“You filthy pig! How could you?!” I roared. “I’ll kill you, you fucking bastard!”
Security swarmed. I fought through them until they finally tore me off and pinned me.
“Call the police!” Mason wheezed, staggering up. He lurched and kicked me in the ribs. Air exploded from my lungs. The guards hauled me upright. Mason spat blood at my feet.
“It was a pleasure to fuck your little slut,” he hissed. “Now I know your weakness. She’ll pay, and you won’t stop me.”
