Chapter 2
992words
But the real fireworks didn't start until the following morning.
Damian showed up at Elisa's office building looking like he'd been through hell—hair wild, shirt wrinkled beyond salvation. He tried barging into the lobby only to be blocked by two mountain-sized security guards.
"Elisa! Come out and face me! ELISA!" he screamed himself hoarse outside the glass doors, drawing a crowd of gawking onlookers.
From Elisa's office window, I peered through the blinds at the spectacle below. "Has he lost his mind?" I sneered. "Hasn't he embarrassed himself enough already?"
Elisa said nothing, sitting stone-faced behind her desk, watching the split-screen monitor where one feed showed the real-time drama unfolding below.
On screen, Damian's struggles grew increasingly desperate until finally, in full public view, his knees buckled and he collapsed, sobbing pathetically at the entrance.
Cell phones immediately surrounded him, a firing squad of flashing cameras.
"Serves him right," I said, taking a sip of coffee with grim satisfaction. "Bastards like him deserve to be crucified in public."
Elisa finally looked away from the monitor, picked up her coffee, and took a measured sip.
"Let's go."
That evening, I went with Elisa back to her apartment. She'd hired professional cleaners who had sanitized every inch of the place.
The air smelled of disinfectant and essential oils. Elisa had just slipped into her house shoes when she suddenly froze mid-step.
A familiar silhouette sat on her living room sofa in the darkness.
My heart jumped as I instinctively moved to shield her, but Elisa remained eerily calm. Without turning on the lights, she gripped her phone in her pocket, its glow illuminating her watchful face.
The figure shifted, rising slowly. A hoarse voice broke the silence.
"Elisa, we need to talk."
It was Damian. The bastard had used his spare key to get in.
Elisa said nothing, just fixed him with an icy stare.
In the moonlight streaming through the window, Damian caught Elisa's emotionless gaze. Something in him broke—he dropped to his knees with a thud and began sobbing uncontrollably.
"Elisa, I was wrong, I was so damn wrong," he wailed. "It was all Kate's fault—she seduced me! I just... I just slipped up... In my heart, it's always been you, only you!"
As he spoke, he crawled toward her, reaching for her ankle—a pathetic mirror of his performance downstairs earlier.
"Just forgive me and I'll do anything—anything you want," he blubbered, snot and tears streaming down his face. "Can't we start over? I swear I'll never hurt you again..."
His performance was Oscar-worthy. Three weeks ago, it might have actually worked on her.
But now, Elisa's eyes held nothing but pure, undiluted disgust and contempt.
"Get out," she finally said, her voice arctic and commanding. "Get out of my house right now before I call the police."
Damian's sobbing cut off like someone had flipped a switch.
He looked up, and the pleading expression on his tear-stained face froze, then twisted into something monstrous.
He rose slowly, facial muscles twitching with rage, all traces of submission gone from his eyes—replaced by the desperate fury of a cornered animal.
"You think you've won?" he hissed through clenched teeth, pulling out his phone. The screen illuminated his twisted features. "Elisa, you naive little bitch."
He opened a video and thrust it in Elisa's face—just a brief glimpse, but enough to make her pupils contract in shock.
"I've got videos of you—not just us together," he smiled viciously. "Private ones. Solo performances... What happens when your board members see their high-and-mighty CEO getting herself off?"
My blood ran cold. I couldn't believe what I was hearing.
All color drained from Elisa's face, but she stood her ground.
Seeing she wasn't breaking, Damian's smile grew more sadistic as he advanced, backing her against the wall and dropping his voice to a menacing whisper.
"And what about that darling brother of yours? The one who nearly killed a classmate three years ago and almost went to prison?" Each word was a poisoned dart aimed at her heart. "How much did daddy pay to make that go away? Funny thing—the guy who handled those 'records' is my cousin. And I've got copies of every transaction, every original file."
Elisa's body began to tremble uncontrollably.
Damian watched with satisfaction as her composure finally cracked. He leaned in close to her ear, his voice dripping with triumph: "So here's the deal: drop everything against Kate and me, pay me enough to live comfortably for life, or we all go down together. Your choice, sweetheart."
The room fell deathly silent except for Elisa's increasingly rapid breathing.
She fought through the crushing fear, clinging to her last shred of dignity, though her voice still trembled slightly.
"How much time do I have to decide?"
Damian straightened up with a smug smile, adjusting his rumpled collar.
"Three days. Either I see the money in my account, or the whole city gets quite a show."
He turned toward the door, then paused with his hand on the knob and looked back with a vicious smile.
"Oh, and don't get any ideas about cops or hitmen," he waved his phone. "Everything's on a dead man's switch. If anything happens to me, or if I don't cancel it in three days, it all goes public automatically."
The door clicked shut behind him.
All strength seemed to leave Elisa's body at once. She slid down the wall to the cold floor, her face showing—for the first time—the raw panic of cornered prey.
Her hands—the same hands that had confidently run boardrooms and closed million-dollar deals—now trembled so violently she could barely hold her phone.
When the call connected, her voice broke through her tears.
"April... I need help..." Her voice cracked with desperation. "He threatened me... he actually... threatened me."
