The heavy mahogany doors of the Lexington Group's boardroom clicked shut behind Isabella. Her pulse thundered in her ears as she pressed her back to the cold wall, clutching her file like a lifeline. She could still feel his gaze—sharp, cutting, relentless—burning through her as if five years had never passed.
Damien Lexington.
The man she had sworn to hate. The man she had loved so fiercely it consumed her entire being. The man who broke her into pieces and left her bleeding on their wedding night.
And now… her boss.
Isabella sucked in a ragged breath, willing her legs not to give out beneath her. Stay calm. Think of Noah. Everything you do is for him.
She forced herself down the corridor, each step echoing like a countdown to disaster. She made it into the elevator just as her phone buzzed in her bag.
Mrs. Carter: How did it go, sweetheart?
Her fingers trembled as she typed back:
Fine. I got the job.
She didn't add the truth—that she had walked straight back into the lion's den, that the man she had been running from all these years now had the power to destroy everything she had built.
---
Back in the Boardroom
Damien sat at the head of the long glass table, his broad shoulders rigid, his jaw clenched like a steel trap. The discussion around him faded into a distant hum. His mind was miles away—trapped on the image of a woman he thought he had buried in the ruins of his past.
Isabella.
The name rolled through his head like a curse and a prayer all at once.
He had imagined this moment countless times—how he would react if he ever saw her again. Anger. Fury. Hatred. He had prepared himself for all of it.
But not this.
Not the way his chest felt like it was splitting open. Not the way his hands itched to reach for her, to shake her, to demand why she left him bleeding with nothing but a note.
Five years. Five goddamn years, and she walks in here as if nothing happened.
His lips curled into a dangerous smirk that didn't reach his eyes. If fate thought it could toy with him, it was wrong. He would find out everything—where she had been, what she had been hiding—and why.
And when he was done, Isabella would wish she had never come back.
---
Later That Night
Isabella stood by the window of her tiny apartment, watching the city lights blur into streaks of gold through her unshed tears. Noah's soft breathing filled the room, a soothing melody that anchored her to the present.
She couldn't fall apart. Not now. Not when so much was at stake.
A knock sounded at the door. Sharp. Insistent.
Her heart stuttered. No one ever came here. No one even knew this address…
Except—
She crossed the room on shaky legs, peeking through the peephole. And froze.
Damien Lexington stood on the other side, his towering frame radiating cold fury, his eyes gleaming like a predator closing in on its prey.
"Open the door, Isabella," his voice rumbled, low and deadly. "We need to talk."
Her breath caught in her throat. Her fingers curled around the doorknob, but she didn't move. She couldn't.
He shouldn't be here. He couldn't see Noah. Not now. Not ever.
"Open the door," he repeated, this time softer, almost coaxing. A voice she remembered all too well—a voice that once promised her forever.
Isabella's pulse pounded so hard it hurt. Behind her, Noah stirred in his sleep, murmuring something that made her blood run cold.
"Daddy…"
The single word sliced through the silence like a blade.
And Damien heard it. She saw it in the way his body went still, the way his jaw tightened, the way his fists clenched at his sides.
"Open. The. Door."
This time, it wasn't a request. It was a command.
Isabella's world tilted, crashing down in shards of panic and dread. She had no idea how to keep her secret now.
Because Damien Lexington wasn't just at her door.
He was about to walk straight into the truth she had hidden for five long years.