Chapter 6 - Damian Had One Night to Choose Between His Empire and Her Life
Damian released Evan.
For several seconds, nobody moved.
“My mother died when I was twelve.”
Evan shook his head.
“No.”
Damian stared.
“That’s impossible.”
“The woman buried as your mother was her sister.”
Damian looked at Adrian.
Adrian lowered his eyes.
That was confirmation.
Damian walked away.
Lily followed.
“Damian.”
“Don’t.”
His voice broke slightly.
It was the first time she had heard anything in him truly break.
Lily stopped.
She understood grief rearranging history.
She had just experienced it herself.
Evan alive.
Her mother’s final years.
Eleven years suddenly rewritten.
Damian was experiencing the same earthquake.
Eventually he looked at her.
“Everyone lies.”
“Sometimes.”
“You?”
“Yes.”
He almost smiled.
“At least you admit it.”
“I kept the photographs from you.”
“That was smart.”
“I also wanted to run from you.”
“Also smart.”
She laughed despite everything.
So did he.
For one absurd second, surrounded by danger and betrayal, they were simply two exhausted people.
Then Damian touched her face.
Very gently.
Lily didn’t move away.
“I expected you to be trouble,” he said.
“You thought I was a photographer who picked up the wrong card.”
“I was wrong.”
“About which part?”
“All of it.”
He kissed her.
It wasn’t dramatic.
It wasn’t desperate.
It was quiet.
Brief.
Almost careful.
Which somehow made it more powerful.
Then Damian’s phone rang.
Marcus.
A video appeared.
A woman sat in a chair.
Alive.
Older.
Damian whispered one word.
“Mother.”
She looked into the camera.
“Damian, don’t give him Lily.”
Marcus appeared behind her.
“Midnight. Room 1407.”
Then the screen went black.
Damian stared at it.
Lily understood immediately.
Marcus wanted him to choose.
His mother.
Or Lily.
“I’m going,” Lily said.
“No.”
“You don’t own this decision.”
“He’ll kill you.”
“Maybe.”
“No.”
She stepped closer.
“He wants the photograph. We give him one.”
Damian understood.
“A fake.”
“Better.”
Lily looked toward her camera.
“A photograph that tells him exactly what we want him to believe.”
For the first time that night, Damian smiled.
Not because anything was funny.
Because Marcus had made a mistake.
May you like
He believed Lily was merely the woman holding the camera.
He had forgotten that photographers controlled what everyone else saw.
