NOW: PENTHOUSE – 2:47 AM**
Lila's fingers trembled against the hotel bedsheet, her knuckles white around Oliver's phone. The screen displayed the damning photo: Oliver and Lexi tangled in a cabana at The Delano Miami.
"You swore you never cheated," she whispered.
Oliver's jaw flexed. The scar on his forearm – the one she'd just noticed – throbbed under her gaze. *She still didn't remember.*
His phone buzged. Lexi:
>> **Post the security footage in 10...9...8...**
Oliver moved fast. He grabbed Lila's wrist, pressing her palm against his scar. "You have one just like it," he growled. "Think harder, Lila."
Her breath hitched. Recognition flickered in her eyes.
**CUT TO: THREE YEARS AGO – OLIVER'S POV**
---
**THEN: THE DELANO HOTEL – 11:03 PM**
The mojito in Oliver's hand was definitely drugged.
Ethan's warning pounded in his skull: *"Lexi works for the Santoros. They want the merger dead – and you're the loose end."*
Across the infinity pool, Lexi smirked, her manicured hand slithering up his thigh. "Relax, Hart. We're just talking business."
Then – a splash.
Oliver's head snapped toward the sound.
Lila's body floated face-down in the water.
*No.* Not her. Never her.
Oliver lunged, but the gunshot came first.
Fire ripped through his left arm as he hauled her limp body from the water. Blood streaked her temple – a head wound. Lexi's scream pierced the chaos: *"He's protecting her! SHOOT AGAIN!"*
Oliver shielded Lila's body with his own, waiting for the second bullet.
It never came.
---
**NOW: PENTHOUSE – 2:51 AM**
Lila recoiled like she'd been burned. "I was shot?"
Oliver's phone lit up with Lexi's newest post: security footage of him carrying Lila's bleeding body through The Delano's lobby.
>> **Caption: "Ask him who paid for the hit."**
Ethan's call came through:
>> **SHE KNOWS TOO MUCH. GET RID OF HER.**
Oliver's voice cracked. "It was never Lexi I was protecting you from."
Lila's hands trembled. "Then who–"
The suite door burst open.
Melanie stood in the doorway, her bridal veil askew, gripping a pearl-handled revolver.
"You weren't supposed to remember," she said, cocking the hammer.
**TO BE CONTINUED...**