| Damien [19:10]
| If you don't want to… that's fine.
| I can't guarantee what might slip from my mouth, though.
| We wouldn't want your family to hear about… certain things, would we?
Her breath caught.
The calm, casual cruelty of it made her blood run cold.
That wasn't a joke.
It wasn't a bluff.
It was a leash being tugged.
He was reminding her who held the thread.
And yet—that only made her angrier.
Because it was working.
Because he was right.
Her family couldn't know. Celia couldn't know.
Marek? Marek would explode the moment it got out. Her parents would crucify her. The balance she'd worked so hard to maintain—the power, the image, the prestige—it would all splinter.
She swallowed, her throat dry.
Then typed, slowly.
| Victoria [19:11]
| You think this is funny?
A beat passed.
| Damien [19:11]
| Hilarious.
He was enjoying this.
Of course he was.
And that—
That made her want to say no.
To burn everything just to spite him.
