Damian Wolfe
Some women walk into your life like a spark.
Aria Vale was a wildfire.
I watched the door close behind her, the click echoing louder than it should have. She came in with fire in her eyes and left with it flickering behind her gaze. She was starting to break. And that was the problem.
Because I hadn't planned on wanting her to.
This wasn't supposed to be personal. She was a pawn in a game I'd mastered years ago—another face in the crowd of sharks who thought they could bite me. But Aria wasn't just another player. She was the storm I didn't see coming.
And I liked the damage she could do.
I turned back to the window, the city gleaming like a lie beneath me. I built my kingdom with blood and glass—every inch of it designed to cut. But she wasn't bleeding yet. Not enough.
The phone buzzed.
Unknown Number: She's digging. Found the financials on your father's offshore shell. Thought you'd want to know.
Of course she was digging. That was what Aria did—she didn't just scratch the surface, she buried her hands in the rot and made sure it spread.
I clenched the phone in my hand and leaned back, letting the edges of my mind blur.
She wanted the truth?
Fine. I'd give it to her.
But she wouldn't survive it untouched.
---
Aria Vale
I shouldn't have gone to him.
I shouldn't have let him get that close.
But here I was—sitting in the back of a black car, city lights flashing like war signals on the windshield, replaying every breath, every word, every goddamn heartbeat that passed between us.
"You're already mine."
Those words echoed in my chest like a curse.
I hated him for it.
I hated myself more for how much I wanted it to be true.
Kira was waiting when I got home, perched on the kitchen counter like the judgment I didn't ask for. She had two glasses of whiskey poured, and the look in her eyes said she already knew I wasn't ready for the questions.
"You're unraveling," she said, blunt as always.
"Nice to see you too," I muttered, tossing my coat aside and pouring the drink down in one sharp movement. The burn helped. For a second.
"I saw your face when you left his office. You looked like you'd just gotten struck by lightning and couldn't decide if you wanted more."
I leaned against the counter, eyes closed, letting the silence build between us. "He's getting inside my head."
"No," she said carefully. "He's getting inside your heart. And that's a much bigger problem."
I scoffed. "I don't have a heart. I traded it for a plan a long time ago."
"You sure?" she asked, tilting her head. "Because the girl I knew before would've had him on his knees by now. Instead, you're flinching every time he speaks your name."
I stared at her, glass clenched tightly in my hand. "This is still a game, Kira. And I'm still playing to win."
"Just make sure," she said softly, "you remember what winning looks like."
---
~Later that night~
I sat alone in the dark, files spread out across the floor like bones waiting to be examined. The numbers didn't lie—Damian Wolfe's empire wasn't as clean as it pretended to be. Offshore accounts, old debts, hidden bloodlines.
And one name that shouldn't have been there:
Alexander Vale—my father.
I stared at it until the letters blurred. I had built my war on the assumption that Damian's family destroyed mine. But what if it wasn't that simple?
What if I'd spent years chasing a lie?
My stomach twisted.
I picked up the burner phone and dialed Jasper.
"Find me everything," I said before he could speak. "About my father. Wolfe's father. All of it. The real story."
There was a pause on the line. "You sure you want that truth?"
I didn't answer.
Because I wasn't sure of anything anymore.
---
Damian Wolfe
The file landed on my desk at 3:00 a.m.
Photos. Bank records. A grainy image of Aria at the courthouse a decade ago, holding her mother's hand while her father's name was dragged through the dirt.
The sins of my father were finally catching up to me.
And she was the bullet.
I closed the file and looked out at the city again.
I had two choices: bury her. Or let her in.
God help me… I didn't know which one would destroy me faster.
---
Aria Vale
The whispers had always been there—faint, buried beneath boardroom lies and public records doctored to perfection. But now, the pieces were surfacing, and they didn't fit the narrative I'd grown up believing.
The Vale name wasn't just collateral damage in the Wolfe legacy.
It was entangled in it.
I flipped through the files Jasper had sent over. They were encrypted, off-grid. Photos. Wire transfers. Confidential correspondences between Damian's father and mine—back when they were partners.
Partners.
That word made my skin crawl.
My father hadn't been a victim.
He was in the business with Wolfe Senior until he wasn't.
A letter, dated nearly two decades ago, caught my attention.
The handwriting was jagged, furious.
Alexander,
You made your choice. Don't pretend this was about loyalty. You got greedy, and greed always comes with a price. You dragged your daughter into this world—don't be surprised when it swallows her whole. —J.W.
J.W.
Jonathan Wolfe.
Damian's father.
My fingers trembled. Everything I had believed—the vengeance, the plan, the endless nights preparing to take the Wolfe empire down—it was built on a half-
truth.
My father wasn't innocent.
And Damian might not be the monster I'd made him out to be.
But that didn't make him safe.