Her fingers tightened around his arm, unknowingly digging into the fabric of his suit.
Although her doubts were beginning to clear, she still couldn’t bring herself to believe the truth.
How could he betray her?
Betray their love…?
“You …
you aren’t Callahan.”
It came out as a statement, yet she was asking him to deny it.
Just one confirmation —that was all she needed.
Enough to calm the unsettling restlessness inside her and trust him again.
“Tell me,” she urged, clinging to what little hope she had left.
Her voice was low, almost hesitant, but she tried to make it sound firm and trusting.
“You’re Damian.
Right?
The Damian I knew.
The Damian who had promised to come here and steal me away for the love and promises we made.
Aren’t you?”
Damian stared into her eyes.
Something stirred in his gaze.
His jaw ticked as though he were resisting something inside himself.
Then, after a beat, he said,
“Fighting reality won’t change reality, Second Young Miss Beaumont.”
He gently removed her hand from his arm, his fingers briefly tightening around hers before letting go.
“I’m Damian Callahan.”
And that was all Evelyn needed to realize that she had been deceived.
Deceived in the one thing she had thought she could trust.
She staggered back, taking a step away from him.
“Why did you deceive me?” Her voice was no longer firm.
It was broken.
“Why …
did you deceive my love?
My trust?”
She had trusted him.
Trusted him enough to ask him to come and steal her away.
But she had never expected him to force his way into her life and take her away like this.
She let out a bitter laugh, keeping her gaze lowered.
There was only a little difference between the two.
But to her, that little difference felt like the distance between two worlds.
One was what she would have willingly agreed to.
She would have eloped with him without thinking twice, even if it cost her everything —even her life.
He only had to tell her.
She would have said yes.
But he had chosen not to.
He had chosen deception instead.
And like a fool, she had walked straight into his trap —easily and willingly.
“Why?” She lifted her eyes back to him.
“Why did you deceive me?”
Damian stared at her.
A smirk on his lips would have shattered what little remained of her heart.
He knew that. New chapters come out on g.com first.
And given what her father had done to him, perhaps he should have taken every opportunity to hurt her.
Yet when he saw the tears clinging to her eyelashes and the way her eyes shimmered beneath the lights, he couldn’t bring himself to be cruel.
Not to her.
He couldn’t bring himself to hurt her more than he already had.
And that hesitation only made something inside him ache.
His fingers clenched at his sides, and his jaw tightened.
Then he gritted out the answer.
“Apparently, you should ask your father about that.”
His gaze hardened.
“After all, you’ve been nothing more than a pawn on my chessboard to get to him and bring him what he deserves.”
Evelyn’s heart shattered.
A pawn.
That was what she was to him.
Her eyes stared lifelessly at him.
But the next second, fury rose from the pit of her stomach.
Without another thought, she stepped forward and raised her hand.
Slap!
The sharp crack echoed through the hall as Damian’s face turned to the side from the force of the blow.
The men behind him reacted instantly.
But before they could take even a single step forward, Damian raised a hand, stopping them.
Xavier frowned, but he obeyed.
His gaze lingered briefly on Evelyn before he stepped back, his movement reluctant but deliberate.
The guests gasped.
No one had expected that.
Evelyn was a Beaumont.
But the man standing before her was no ordinary man.
He was Damian Callahan —the head of the Callahan family and CEO of Callahan Corp.
How could she simply walk up and slap him?
Isn’t she being too … too audacious?
Whispers once again spread through the hall.
But just as before, Evelyn didn’t care.
She only stared at Damian.
“A pawn?” Her voice trembled with fury.
“You dare treat me like a pawn and everything between us like a game?”
Her eyes burned.
“How dare you?”
She stepped closer, her finger poked his chest brutally.
“Did you even ask me?”
Damian stared at her.
His jaw clenched, and his fists tightened.
Her pokes didn’t move him, but he felt it more than he revealed.
The more he looked at her like this, the tighter something inside his chest became.
“The pawn never had the liberty to say no to the player.” His voice was cold.
“Did you really think you ever had a choice?”
Evelyn’s chest heaved.
The more she heard him, the more foolish she felt.
How could she have failed to see who he really was?
He couldn’t have been as flawless as she had believed. Follow the newest chapters on g.com.
She had been the one blinded by her feelings, allowing her own biases to make excuses for every inconsistency.
And now, he had used that trust against her.
Damian looked into her eyes.
Beneath the golden flecks in her amber irises, he could see something dangerous swirling.
A murderous intent.
And somehow, that look hurt more than it should have.
It affected him more than it should have.
He couldn’t hold her gaze for long.
So he turned back toward Charles.
“Trust me when I say this, Capo Beaumont.” His voice was calm again.
“I don’t need to rule Maridia to ruin you.”
His eyes hardened.
“I already have everything I need.”
Charles’s eyes narrowed.
Damian glanced at Xavier, giving him a silent instruction.
Xavier understood immediately.
He reached into his coat, pulled out a file, and walked toward one of Charles’s men.
Without a word, he handed it over.
The man took the file to Charles.
Charles accepted it, his fingers tightening around the folder as he flipped it open.
His expression hardened with every page he read.
The color drained from his face.
By the time he reached the final page, his eyes were burning with fury.
He slowly looked up.
“What do you want?”
Damian smirked.
“Nothing more than what you’re capable of giving.” His gaze then shifted briefly toward Evelyn.
“Marry her to me.”
Silence descended over the hall.
After everything that had happened, no one had expected that to still be Damian’s demand.
Yet now that they had heard it, they couldn’t dismiss it as anything but real.
Damian’s expression remained unreadable.
He nodded toward the file in Charles’s hand.
“Do that, and what’s in that file stays buried.”
Charles stared at him in disbelief.
“You think I’ll sell my daughter to buy my freedom?”
Damian gave a quiet, humorless laugh.
“Oh, you surely will.” His eyes met Charles’s.
“I believe in you.”
Charles gritted his teeth.
Not out of humiliation, but out of anger at how predictable Damian had made him feel.
His fingers crumpled the file in his hand.
He finally parted his lips to speak.
But before he could say a word—
Evelyn spoke.
“I won’t marry you.”