Chapter 1

Four years ago, he saved my life twice, making me believe I had met the love of my life.

For him, I kept everything from Julian and lived as Damon's dirty little secret for four whole years.

It wasn't until three days before my birthday gala that I found out his tenderness was nothing but a calculated trap.

He only got close to me so he could ruin my family in front of the entire New York high society.

I finally decided to walk away.

Yet when his fiancée beat me bloody, the very man who swore to destroy everything I loved pulled me into his arms with bloodshot eyes.

Damon, what kind of sick game are you playing now?

Chloe's POV

Three days before my birthday, I went to the hotel ballroom to do a final check on the decorations.

The moment I pushed open the double doors, the massive LED screen in the center of the hall suddenly lit up.

A sharp screech of static ripped through the speakers.

Then, two unedited raw video clips flashed across the screen.

The first was dashcam footage from four years ago, recorded in a dark alleyway behind a New York film studio.

On screen, Damon had just pulled a trembling me into his car.

Moments later, his personal assistant walked up to the thugs, tossing a thick envelope of cash at their leader.

The audio picked up the assistant's voice with terrifying clarity:

"Mr. Sterling said you put on a great show. Here's your final payout. Get the hell out of New York before dawn."

The screen jumped straight to the second video.

It was a montage of intimate clips—me, pinned beneath Damon in hotel suites over the last four years.

Right above the video was a scheduled media broadcast time.

It was set for three days from now, at my twenty-fourth birthday party.

The press headline screamed in bold:

[Vance Group CEO's Little Sister: The Four-Year Secret Romance with Their Arch-Rival]

From the sound booth, a walkie-talkie crackled to life with the director's voice:

"Is the feed ready? Mr. Sterling made it clear—the file stays only on his personal phone. Nothing gets saved on the ballroom computers."

"The second Julian Vance sits down, Mr. Sterling will cast his screen. The hall and the press get the footage simultaneously."

"Relax, there's no backup in the system. Everything triggers on Mr. Sterling's signal."

"Once he hits send, every elite in New York will see who little Miss Vance really is."

I stood in the center of the empty ballroom. The harsh fluorescent lights beamed down on me.

My ears buzzed violently.

Every drop of blood felt like it had been sucked dry from my veins.

I couldn't believe what my eyes and ears were telling me.

Yet the raw proof was screaming right in front of my face.

My mind raced back.

Four years ago, against Julian's furious objections, I packed my bags and flew to New York alone to study makeup and styling.

Julian warned me that the business world was cutthroat, and that the Sterling family practically owned New York.

Our families had been locked in a bitter blood feud for a decade. He begged me not to go.

But I was stubborn. I refused to live under the Vance family's protection forever.

I grit my teeth, survived on cheap bagels in a moldy basement, and started from the very bottom as an unpaid apprentice.

And right when I was at my lowest, Damon appeared.

Two ambushes. Two heroic rescues.

The first was in that pitch-black alleyway. He pulled me out of harm's way, brushing my hair back, telling me softly that it wasn't safe for a girl to walk alone at night.

The second was on the freeway. A semi-truck nearly ran me off the road, and Damon swerved his own car like a madman to slam the truck away.

He pulled me into his passenger seat, his hands shaking, his eyes wild with terror for my life.

I thought I had found my forever.

For Damon, I hid everything from Julian. I stayed his submissive, secret lover in the shadows for four years.

I even daydreamed that if we got married, it might finally end the decade-long corporate war between our families.

It was all an act.

From the very first second we met, every step was planned.

Every tender touch, every whisper in bed.

It was all a bullet meant for Julian.

I stood there for a long time until the trembling stopped.

I didn't storm off to confront Damon.

I just stood in the middle of the empty hall, digging my nails into my palms until the skin broke and blood dripped onto the carpet.

The phone in my pocket buzzed violently.

"Julian" flashed across the screen.

I took a deep breath, swallowing the bitter taste of copper in my throat, and picked up.

"Chloe," Julian's warm voice came through, laced with tired affection. "Your new studio back home is ready. It's stocked with all the equipment you love."

"Also, Mom and Dad found someone for you. Good family, incredible character. Would you be willing to come home and meet him?" For some reason, his tone sounded unusually cautious.

Hearing the voice of the only person in this world who genuinely loved me, my eyes burned.

I bit the back of my hand, keeping my voice quiet, flat, and unwavering:

"Okay. I'll come back."

"I'll meet him."