”I think you should leave, Damien.” Evelyn said.
Damien picked up his coat from the chair.
“All right.
I’ll leave.” He paused near the door.
” I’m serious about your father, I still think you’re giving up too easily on his case.”
”Damien.
It’s been 6 years”
”No.
Listen to me.” His voice softened.
“I knew that man.
Someone bringing him down doesn’t make sense to me.”
”Or maybe, he is guilty of those charges?”
”I don’t believe that.”
”Well, I do.
Goodbye, Damien.”
For a second he looked like he wanted to argue again, but instead he sighed.
“Fine.
I’ll wait for your answer about the deal.”
”You might wait forever.” Evelyn murmured.
She leaned back in her chair and stared at nothing in particular.
Her father’s chapter was something she didn’t want to reopen.
Damien bringing it up now didn’t do anything.
It only made her remember that she had once believed she could fix it.
And that belief was the part that hurt the most when she thought about it.
Outside the LUXE building, Damien had just reached the front steps when a black car stopped at the curb.
Aidan stepped out, Priya came around the other side holding her tablet, already sensing disaster as she saw Damien.
The moment Aidan saw Damien, he froze.
Damien smiled first.
“Aidan Smith,” he drawled.
“Of course you’d be found lurking around your ex-wife’s office.”
Aidan slid one hand into his coat pocket.
“Damien Holt.” His eyes moved once over him.
“Long time, no see.
Interesting place to run into you.”
Damien’s smile widened slightly.
“Not really.
Your failed acquisition made LUXE available to me and I move quickly when opportunities appear.”
Priya glanced at Aidan.
His expression barely shifted.
“I didn’t realize scavenging counted as business strategy now,” Aidan said smoothly.
Damien laughed softly.
“Still arrogant.
Good to know divorce didn’t humble you.”
Aidan’s jaw shifted slightly.
Around them, people had already started slowing down.
Phones appeared almost immediately.
Two men with old public rivalry standing outside Milan’s hottest fashion company was the kind of thing social media loved.
Priya noticed.
“We’re being recorded,” she muttered quietly to Aidan.
Damien tilted his head slightly.
“You know, I’m suprised you actually have the courage to be around here.
Let Evelyn be, Aidan.”
”Strictly here for business, Damien,” Aidan responded calmly.
Before Damien could answer, the glass doors opened.
Evelyn stepped outside with Zara beside her.
The energy shifted immediately and people started whispering louder, tilting their cameras toward her now.
Evelyn took one look at the scene in front of her and looked genuinely tired. New chapters come out on g.com first.
“What exactly is happening here?” she asked flatly.
Damien spread his hands lightly.
“Friendly conversation, right Mr Aidan.”
”Mm.” Her eyes moved to Aidan.
She glanced once around at the people filming and signaled security.
The last thing she wanted right no was social media troubles.
Then back at both men.
“You are not teenagers.
Take whatever unresolved male competition this is somewhere else.”
Damien grinned.
“Male competition?”
”Damien?”
”In my defense, he started being unpleasant immediately.”
Aidan let out a quiet breath through his nose.
“You called me arrogant ten seconds ago.”
”You said i was a scavenger first.”
”Oh my God,” Zara muttered under her breath.
Evelyn pinched the bridge of her nose briefly before looking at Damien.
“You’ve said what you came to say.
Leave.”
Damien studied her face for a second.
Then he smiled slowly.
“Think about the offer.”
His gaze flicked deliberately toward Aidan before returning to her.
“You deserve better partnerships.”
And then he winked.
Damien walked toward his car like he hadn’t just created a problem on purpose.
There was silence for a moment after he left.
Then Evelyn looked at Aidan.
“You obviously came here for something.”
”I did.”
She sighed softly.
“Fine.
Come in.”
The tension in the office was very awkward, well maybe because Aidan was in it again.
Evelyn moved behind her desk.
“Well?” she asked.
Aidan turned toward her fully.
“I, I want to resubmit the acquisition proposal.”
Evelyn blinked once.
Then laughed quietly.
Not because it was funny, because it was unbelievable.
“Aidan,” she said, “that deal is dead.”
”It doesn’t have to be.”
”It absolutely does.
Gave you a chance and you threw it away.
”
”Evelyn, you terminated it because of Ja-” He stopped and continued.
“I reviewed the terms and offersagain.”
”And?”
”And I realized my offers weren’t worthy enough,” He said.
Evelyn swallowed.
Aidan moved closer slowly.
“The control clauses were too restrictive.
The branding integration was too aggressive.
You built LUXE from nothing and I approached it like numbers on paper instead of…” He paused.
“Something personal.”
Evelyn folded her arms.
“You mean something valuable.”
”Yes, you deserve much better.”
Their eyes locked for a moment.
All that was in the air was too much history, anger and too much unfinished feeling.
Evelyn looked away first.
“I’m not reopening negotiations.” she said, her tone neutral.
“Because you don’t trust me professionally?”
“That’s manipulative, won’t work on me.”
”Is it inaccurate?”
She stood slowly.
“This is why tthis will never work.
You keep turning business into us.”
”There has always been an us.”
Evelyn swallowed once before stepping around the desk.
“No,” she said quietly.
“There used to be.”
She tried to move past him but Aidan caught her wrist gently.
The contact alone was dangerous.
Her breath caught before she could hide it.
Aidan noticed.
His voice lowered.
“If you’re not willing to give me another chance in your life…” His thumb shifted slightly against her wrist.
“Then give me one here.”
Evelyn looked up at him slowly.
Everything about him felt too familiar.
The warmth of his hand.
The scent of his cologne.
The way his voice changed when he stopped pretending to be composed.
“Aidan, let go of me.”
”Please, Evelyn.” Evelyn closed her eyes briefly and he loosened his grip but didn’t step back fully.
Evelyn took a small step away the moment she could.
That distance mattered.
“I told you already,” she said, voice firmer now.
“I’m not accepting your deal.”
”This is exactly what I meant,” she continued.
“You don’t know how to separate anything.”
His jaw tightened slightly.
“It is separated.”.
Evelyn stepped back behind her desk, using it like a barrier.
“I need you to understand something clearly,” she said.
Aidan’s eyes stayed on her.
“I am not your negotiation,” she continued.
“And I am not something you can fix by rewriting contracts.”
”I didn’t say you were-”
”You are acting like it.”
That shut him up.
Evelyn exhaled once, controlled.
“Whatever this is for you,” she said, “don’t bring it into LUXE again.”
Aidan’s voice lowered slightly.
“Eve-”
”No,” she said immediately.
“I want you to leave.”
Aidan didn’t move right away.
He looked at her for a long moment—like he was waiting for her to change her mind.
She didn’t.
then Evelyn added, sharper this time:
”And don’t come back here thinking we are partners in anything.
We are not.”
Aidan’s expression tightened.
“We will never be partners,” she said.
“Not in business.
Not anywhere.”
That was final.
Even he understood that.
Aidan nodded once, slowly, like he was accepting something he didn’t like but couldn’t argue with in that moment.
“All right,” he said quietly.