"You should do it," I say. "Design whatever you want. I'll handle the business side. You just create."
She reaches across the table and takes my hand. "You really mean that, don't you? You want me to be happy."
"More than anything," I say, and it's the truest thing I've said all night. "Your happiness is everything to me, Eve."
Because it is. Even if that happiness is built on lies.
***
The drive home is quiet. Eve rests her head on my shoulder, her hand in mine, and I feel the weight of her trust like a physical thing.
The city slides past the tinted windows, and I think about how far we've come. From that first night at the club to this moment. From her fear and resistance to this peaceful contentment.
I've won. Completely. Absolutely.
She's mine by choice now, not just by circumstance. She's chosen this life. Chosen me.
But as I look down at her peaceful face, guilt coils cold in my gut.
Because her choice isn't really a choice, is it? Not when it's based on carefully constructed lies. Not when she doesn't know the full truth of what I've done.
She doesn't know that I'm the reason Alex died. That my recklessness sixteen years ago is what set all of this in motion.
She thinks I'm her protector. Her obsessed lover. The man who destroyed her life to remake it in his image.
She doesn't know I'm the monster who destroyed her life the first time. The night I got behind the wheel drunk and killed her brother.
Everything I've done—the stalking, the manipulation, the obsessive protection—it's all been an attempt to atone for that original sin. To keep the promise I made at Alex's grave.
But atonement built on lies isn't really atonement at all.
"Nathan?" Eve murmurs, stirring against my shoulder. "Are you okay? You're tense."
"Fine," I say, stroking her hair. "Just thinking."
"About what?"
About how I'm going to keep you safe from the truth. About how I'll protect this beautiful lie we're living for as long as I can.
"About how perfect tonight was," I say instead. "About how beautiful you are."
She smiles and settles back against me, trusting. Content.
And I hold her tighter, this woman I've claimed through deception and obsession, and pray she never finds out what really set this all in motion.
Because if she does, I'll lose her.
And losing her would destroy me more completely than any business failure, any enemy, any threat.
She is my world now. My everything.
And I will do whatever it takes to keep her exactly where she is—safe, protected, and blissfully unaware of the blood on my hands.
Even if that makes me the worst kind of monster.
Chapter 23 - Eve
The car glides through the city streets, carrying us back to the penthouse in silence. I stare out the window at the blur of lights, my mind still spinning from our evening together.
