The phone call was over. The appointment was made.
Ten days.
In ten days, Audrey would know who she was tied to. The monster or the magnate.
She stared at the little brass key on her desk. A key to Kian’s world. A world of secrets and power she was only just beginning to understand. Now, another secret was growing inside her, a secret that might bind them together with a force stronger than any lie.
The weight of it was crushing. She felt like she was standing on a cliff edge, with a hurricane at her back.
The next morning, she slipped out of her apartment before dawn, her heart pounding with every shadow, expecting to see Cole’s silver BMW on every corner. But the streets were empty. For now.
The clinic was on the 15th floor of a glass tower, all white marble and hushed quiet. It felt sterile, anonymous. A place for secrets to be processed.
A nurse with kind eyes and a firm grip drew her blood. Audrey watched the dark red fluid fill the vial. Her entire future, her child’s future, was in that small glass tube. It was terrifying. It was a relief.
She left the clinic and walked directly to the museum, pulling the armor of her career around her. Here, she was Audrey Wells, Curator. Here, she had a purpose beyond the chaos.
But the chaos followed her.
Mr. Davies, the museum director, called her into his office an hour after she arrived. He was a kind man, but his face was etched with worry.
“Audrey,” he said, gesturing for her to sit. He didn’t waste time. “The board is… concerned.”
She knew what this was about. “The centerpiece.”
“Exactly,” he sighed, running a hand over his bald head. “The Aegean Amphora. The insurance is a quagmire, and the restoration report is grim. It’s a total loss. Cole Anderson’s admission at the gala has made everything a legal nightmare.”
Audrey flinched at his name.
“We can’t open the exhibit’s final wing without a centerpiece of that caliber,” Davies continued, his voice heavy with regret. “The press is already sniffing around. They smell blood in the water. I’m defending you, of course. But my hands are tied.”
Her throat went dry. This was it. The final blow. The damage Cole had done was still rippling outwards, threatening to drown her. Beatrice Sterling had started the war, but Cole had fired the shot that might kill her career.
“I understand,” she said, her voice a hollow echo of itself.
Just then, the intercom on Davies’ desk buzzed. “Sir?” his assistant said. “You have an urgent email. From a… Nikos Volakis?”
Davies frowned. “The Greek shipping magnate? The collector? What would he want with us?” He clicked his mouse, his eyes scanning the screen. His jaw went slack.
He blinked. He read it again.
“My God,” he whispered. He looked up at Audrey, his eyes wide with disbelief. “Listen to this.”
He cleared his throat and read aloud. “‘Mr. Davies, it has come to my attention that your institution has suffered an unfortunate loss regarding a key artifact for your upcoming exhibit. As a long-time admirer of your museum’s work, and as a personal favor to a dear friend and colleague, I would be honored to offer, on loan, an item from my private collection to serve as a replacement.’”
Davies looked at Audrey, his expression a mix of awe and utter confusion. “He knows. How does he know?”
“A friend?” Audrey asked, her heart beginning a slow, heavy thud against her ribs.
“It gets better,” Davies said, his voice trembling with excitement. “He’s offering the Aethon Pendant.”
Audrey’s breath caught. It couldn’t be. The Aethon Pendant, the so-called ‘Star of Crete,’ was a Minoan masterpiece. A solid gold sunburst inlaid with lapis lazuli, thought to have been lost in a fire in the 1950s. It was the stuff of legends. A myth. An artifact so important, so priceless, it would not just save her exhibit—it would make it the most talked-about cultural event in the world.
“That’s impossible,” she breathed. “No one has seen it in seventy years.”
“Apparently, Nikos Volakis has,” Davies said, a giddy, disbelieving laugh escaping him. He looked at her, his eyes searching her face. “Audrey… this email mentions a ‘dear friend and colleague.’ He’s in the shipping business. Kian Sterling is in the shipping business. Do you have any idea…?”
She didn’t need to answer. She knew.
This was him.
This was Kian.
It wasn’t a letter. It wasn’t an apology. It was a demonstration of breathtaking power. The kind of power that could move mountains, or in this case, resurrect mythical artifacts from private vaults in Greece.
Cole’s sabotage was meant to break her, to make her small and dependent.
Kian’s response was to make her invincible.
It was terrifying. It was magnificent. It was the grandest gesture she had ever witnessed, a silent countermove in a war she was trapped in. He had used the very thing she hated—the hidden world of his wealth and influence—not to cage her, but to give her wings.
“We have to accept,” Davies was saying, already typing a frantic reply. “Immediately! I need you to coordinate with his curator. He’s flying it in tomorrow on a private jet. We’ll need a press conference. Security. Oh, my God, Audrey, this… this changes everything!”
Audrey stood up, her legs unsteady. She walked out of his office in a daze, the director’s excited chatter fading behind her.
She was no longer just Audrey Wells, Curator. She was the curator who had secured the Aethon Pendant. He hadn’t just saved her job. He had elevated her. He had given her a victory so complete, no one could ever question her again.
Her phone buzzed in her pocket.
She pulled it out, her hand shaking. An unknown number.
A text message.
Just five words.
I promised I would fight for you.
It wasn’t a question. It was a statement of fact. A promise kept.
She stared at the screen, the glowing words blurring through her tears. The fear, the anger, the bone-deep weariness of the last few weeks crested into a single, overwhelming wave of emotion she couldn’t name.
He had lied to her. He had broken her trust.
And he had just saved her life’s work with a single email.
She thought of the blood in the vial at the lab. She thought of the man watching her apartment. She thought of the billionaire fighting a war for her from the shadows.
Her thumb hovered over the keyboard. She couldn’t stay silent. Not anymore.
She typed one word, her entire world hanging on the single, terrifying question it asked.
Why?