”Damien,” she said.
Her voice came out steadier than she felt.
She was grateful for that at least.
“I know,” he said.
“I should have called.”
”You should have called.”
”But I sent flowers instead.”
”I noticed.” She looked at them.
Evelyn straightened up.
She pulled herself together in the specific way she pulled herself together..just a small internal adjustment that moved through her shoulders and settled in her spine.
“My office?” she said.
He nodded.
She walked ahead of him.
Evelyn looked at Sophie.
“Can you hold my calls for the next thirty minutes?”
”Of course.”
”And Zara,” Evelyn added, “it’s fine.”
Zara did not look convinced in the slightest.
But she nodded slowly.
Damien looked around the office slowly.
“Nice space,” he said.
Evelyn crossed her arms.
“You didn’t come to Milan to compliment my office.”
”No.” He slipped one hand into his coat pocket.
“I came because I heard the deal with AS Tech was terminated by yours truly.”
Evelyn leaned against her desk slightly.
“News travels fast.” she said, sarcastically.
“It does when the whole industry is talking about it.”
Evelyn nodded.
“And you came.”
”I came.”
”Because of the acquisition.”
He looked at her steadily.
“Partly.” he smirked.
“Damien–”
”I’m not going to pretend the flowers were about the acquisition,” he said.
“They weren’t.
You know they weren’t.” He held her gaze.
“But I’m also not going to sit here and make this personal when you’re not ready for personal.
So yes.
I’m here about LUXE.
My company wants the partnership.
The terms I can offer are competitive, way better than whatever AS Tech had on the table.” He reached into his jacket and placed a single folded document on her desk.
“That’s a preliminary proposal.
No pressure.
No timeline.
Just — read it.”
She looked at the document, but she didn’t pick it up.
“You terminated a nine-figure deal publicly.” He shrugged once.
“You know Aidan and I have spent the last decade trying to outperform each other.
I’d be stupid not to take advantage of an opportunity.”
Evelyn almost chuckled.
At least he was honest.
“I’m not agreeing to anything,” she said firmly.
“And if this is some rivalry stunt between you and Aidan, I’m not interested in participating.”
”It’s business,” Damien said simply.
“C’mon Evelyn,”
She finally picked up the file.
The terms were aggressive, better than AS Tech’s.
Noticeably better.
Her eyes narrowed slightly as she flipped through the pages.
“You came prepared.”
”I know you.” He leaned back casually in the chair opposite her desk.
“You don’t respond to pressure.
You respond to leverage and logic.”
”I also respond to lawyers.
They’ll review this.”
”I assumed they would.”
She closed the file.
“I don’t make emotional business decisions, Damien”
”Neither do i, Evelyn.”
There was a brief silence and Damien coughed.
Evelyn raised her brows trying to read his facial expressions.
“I also came because of your father.”
The room changed instantly.
Evelyn’s entire body went still.
“No,” she said immediately.
Damien looked back at her calmly.
“You don’t even know what I was going to say.”
”I don’t want to know”
”Evelyn—”
”No.” Sharper now.
“Whatever this is, no.”
Damien sighed softly and leaned forward slightly.
“I want to reopen the case.”
Her jaw tightened immediately.
“Damien, I said no.”
”There are inconsistencies.”
”He was convicted.”
”There were missing records.”
”He has been sentenced.”
”And you just stopped fighting?”
That landed hard.
Evelyn looked away first.
Damien watched her carefully.
Years ago, Evelyn worked so hard to prove her father’s innocence, but the odds were against her, every new evidence against him broke her the more.
“My father is gone,” she said quietly.
“He’s in prison, not dead.”
”You know what I mean.”
Damien’s voice softened slightly.
“I never believed he did it.”
Evelyn laughed once under her breath.
“You know what’s funny?” she said.
“For years I kept trying to prove he was innocent.
“But life has now gotten in the way,”
”So you want abandon your father?”
Evelyn closed her eyes briefly.
“He was proven guilty…even though i still believe even a little bit” Her voice caught slightly before she steadied it again.
“I think I cannot survive reopening all of that just to lose him a second time.”
Then he spoke quietly.
“You know your father practically raised me too.
He believed in me before anyone else did,” Damien continued.
“When everyone thought I was just some angry twenty-two-year-old with too much ambition and no discipline.” A faint smile touched his face.
“He used to say I talked like I was arguing with the world.”
Despite herself, Evelyn almost smiled.
That did sound like her father.
“He wasn’t perfect,” Damien said.
“But he wasn’t stupid enough to commit the kind of crimes they accused him of.”
Evelyn looked down at her hands.
“I can’t do this again.”
”Then let me do it.”
Her head lifted immediately.
“What?”
”I’ll reopen it myself.”
”Damien—”
”I already started looking into it months ago.”
That stunned her.
“You what?”
”I found inconsistencies in the financial timeline.” He held her gaze steadily.
“Enough inconsistencies that I came to one conclusion.”
Evelyn’s stomach tightened.
“What conclusion?”
”Someone wanted your father to go down.”
Evelyn stood up and walked toward the windows, folding her arms tightly.
“No,” she whispered.
Damien stayed quiet.
“I can’t.” She shook her head slowly.
“I have Leon.
I have this company.
I have people depending on me now.”
”And if your father is innocent?”
Her eyes closed briefly.
“That doesn’t undo six years.”
”No,” Damien agreed quietly.
“But maybe it explains them.”
Evelyn turned back toward him.
“You don’t understand what reopening this would do to me or my company.
I could lose investors and support from people just siding with a fraud.”
That hurt because it was true.
Damien stood slowly.
“I’m not asking you to decide today.” He nodded toward the file.
“Review the deal.
Ignore the deal.
Burn the deal if you want.” A pause.
“But I’m not dropping your father’s case.”
”Damien—”
”I mean it.”