"Did you know?" I demanded. "Did you know about Elena and the baby?"
Something dark flashed in those grey eyes. "No. But I'm not surprised. Nathan has a pattern."
"A pattern?"
"Of taking what doesn't belong to him. Of destroying people for sport." Damien stepped closer, and I caught a hint of expensive cologne something dark and sophisticated that made my traitorous body respond despite everything.
"The question is: what are you going to do about it?"
"Do about it?" I laughed, and it came out bitter. "What can I do? He won. He got my company, my step-sister, a baby, and he humiliated me in front of everyone who matters. Game over."
"Is it?" Damien tilted his head, studying me like I was a puzzle he was solving. "Because from where I'm standing, Nathan just made the biggest mistake of his life."
"How do you figure that?"
"He underestimated you." Damien pulled out his phone, typed something quickly, then looked back at me. "My car will be here in thirty seconds. Get in, and I'll explain exactly how you're going to destroy my brother and take back everything he stole."
I should have said no. Should have called my own car, gone home, cried myself to sleep like a normal person whose life had just imploded.
But there was something in Damien Cross's cold grey eyes that called to the rage burning in my chest. Something that promised not comfort, but vengeance.
"Why would you help me?" I asked. "He's your brother."
"Exactly." The word was sharp as a blade. "I have my own reasons for wanting Nathan destroyed. You just gave me the perfect opportunity."
A sleek black town car pulled up to the curb. The driver got out and opened the back door, waiting silently.
This was insane. I didn't know this man. Didn't trust him. For all I knew, this was some Cross family trap to finish destroying me.
But what did I have left to lose?
I'd already lost everything that mattered.
"One drink," I said, stepping toward the car. "You explain your plan, and then I decide if I'm interested."
"Fair enough." Damien gestured for me to enter first, every inch the gentleman despite the calculated coldness in his expression.
I slid into the leather seat, my white dress pooling around me like a ghost of the future I'd lost. Damien settled beside me close but not touching, his presence somehow taking up all the space in the car despite the generous interior.
"Where to, Mr. Cross?" the driver asked.
"Onyx," Damien said. "The private room."
As the car pulled away from the Plaza from the site of my public execution I caught one last glimpse of Nathan through the window.
He was standing with Elena on the red carpet, posing for photos like they were celebrities, like they hadn't just destroyed someone's life.
He looked so happy.
I was going to make him regret that happiness if it was the last thing I did.
"Tell me something," I said, turning to face Damien. "When you say Nathan has a pattern of destroying people who else has he destroyed?"
Damien's jaw tightened. For a moment, I thought he wouldn't answer. Then: "Her name was Sophia. She was my fiancée five years ago."
Was. Past tense.
"What happened?"
"Nathan seduced her. Got her pregnant. Promised her everything." His voice was flat, emotionless, but I could see the tension in his shoulders, the white knuckles of his clenched fist.
"Then he dumped her the moment she told him about the baby. Said it was a mistake. That she meant nothing."
Oh God.
"Where is she now?"
"Dead." The single word fell like a stone. "She couldn't handle the shame, the guilt, the fact that she'd destroyed two families over a man who never loved her. She killed herself three months after Nathan abandoned her."
The car suddenly felt too small, too cold. "I'm sorry."
"Don't be sorry." Damien looked at me, and the ice in his eyes was absolute. "Be angry. Because Nathan Cross destroys women for fun.
He targets them, uses them, and throws them away without a second thought. And he does it because he's never faced consequences. Because my parents protect him. Because society forgives rich, handsome men anything."
"And you want revenge," I said slowly.
"I want justice. There's a difference." He leaned forward slightly. "I've spent five years building an empire specifically to destroy Nathan and everything he represents. I was just waiting for the right moment, the right opening. And tonight, he gift-wrapped it for me."
"How?"
"You." A cold smile crossed his face. "You're Catherine Chen's daughter. Your mother was brilliant one of the best tech minds of our generation. And you inherited that brilliance, even if Nathan took credit for it. I've read your work, Aria.
Your Harvard thesis on AI integration was groundbreaking. Your strategic plans for Chen Technologies expansion increased profits by forty percent last year."
I stared at him. "How do you know that?"
"Because I research everyone Nathan touches. I've been building files for five years, waiting." He pulled out a tablet, opened a folder, and showed me screen after screen of information. My work. My ideas.
All documented and dated proving they were mine, not Nathan's.
"You've been spying on me?"
"I've been protecting evidence," he corrected. "Evidence that proves Nathan Cross is a fraud who built his reputation on stolen work.
Combined with evidence of financial irregularities at Chen Technologies since he took over, and testimony from employees he's forced out" He paused. "We can destroy him, Aria. Completely. Take back your company, your reputation, everything he stole. But only if you're willing to fight."
My heart was pounding. This was crazy. Absolutely insane.
But it was also exactly what I wanted.
"What do you get out of this?" I asked. "Besides revenge?"
"The satisfaction of watching my brother lose everything he values. And" He studied me carefully. "A brilliant Chief Innovation Officer for Titanium Holdings.
Two million dollar salary, stock options, corner office. You're wasted at Cross Enterprises. Come work for me."
"You want to hire me? Right now? Tonight?"
"I want to give you the platform you deserve. The recognition Nathan denied you. And in exchange, you help me take down Cross Enterprises from the inside."
He extended his hand. "Do we have a deal?"
I looked at his hand strong, steady, offering me power instead of pity.