Maya paid the taxi and stood outside the hotel.
The same chain from the staged photo.
Her stomach still ached from the second procedure.
Every step reminded her of the empty space inside her.
She checked Damian’s location again.
The pin was steady on the fourth floor.
She walked into the lobby like she belonged there.
The clerk barely looked up.
Maya took the elevator, heart beating too fast, and followed the corridor until she found the room number that matched the shared location.
Soft light showed under the door.
She could hear voices.
A woman’s low laugh.
Then Damian’s voice, quiet and unclear.
Maya’s hand hovered over the door.
Before she could knock, her phone vibrated hard in her pocket.
A new message from the unknown number.
*Watch this before you go in.* A video attached.
Maya stepped back from the door and pressed play, volume low.
The video was dark at first, filmed from a phone propped somewhere in a hotel room.
Then the camera focused.
Damian sat on the edge of a bed.
The same woman from the photos stood between his knees.
She was wearing only a loose shirt, unbuttoned.
She leaned down and kissed his neck.
Damian’s hands settled on her waist.
The woman straddle him, slow, and rolled her hips once.
Damian’s head tipped back.
One of his hands slid under the shirt and cupped her breast.
The woman made a soft sound and kissed him full on the mouth.
The clip lasted twenty-three seconds.
It ended with the woman’s hand moving down between them.
Maya felt the hallway tilt.
The empty feeling in her body turned sharp.
She had ended the pregnancy in secret.
She had walked out of the apartment because the photos cracked something in her.
Now a video showed Damian with his hands on another woman in a hotel room that matched the location on her phone.
She did not knock.
She tried the handle.
It was unlocked.
The door opened onto the exact scene from the end of the video, only live.
The woman was still on Damian’s lap, shirt open, his hands on her bare skin.
Both of them turned at the sound of the door.
Damian’s face went white.
“Maya—” The woman moved off him fast, pulling the shirt closed.
Maya stood in the doorway with the phone still in her hand, the last frame of the video frozen on the screen.
“Don’t,” Maya said when Damian stood up.
Her voice was steady in a way that scared even her.
“I watched the video.
I saw your hands on her.
I saw her on top of you.
I tracked your location here.” Damian took a step forward.
“This is not what it looks like.
She showed up at the door.
She said there was a problem with the earlier photos and that she needed to talk.
I let her in for five minutes.
Then she climbed on me and someone must have been filming—” “Stop.” Maya held up the phone.
“I have twenty-three seconds of you letting it happen.
Your mouth on hers.
Your hand on her breast.
Don’t tell me it was five minutes of talking.” The woman stayed quiet near the window, watching them both with careful eyes.
Maya looked at her once and then back at Damian.
“Your father paid for the first photos,” Maya said.
“I have the audio.
He wanted a clean break.
Looks like he paid for a live performance too.” Damian’s jaw tightened.
“I did not agree to any of this.
I did not touch her until she was already on me.
I was about to push her off when you opened the door.” Maya’s body chose that moment to remind her of the second abortion.
A deep cramp rolled through her and she had to grip the doorframe.
Fresh blood warmed the pad she was wearing.
She breathed through it while Damian watched her with something close to panic.
“You’re still bleeding,” he said.
“Sit down.
Please.” “I ended it yesterday,” Maya told him.
The words came out flat.
“A private doctor.
No records.
I couldn’t carry anything else that belonged to other people’s plans.
And while I was doing that, you were here with her.” Damian moved toward her.
Maya stepped back into the hallway.
The woman finally spoke, voice calm.
“He is telling the truth about one thing,” she said.
“I was paid to get close.
The video was part of the package.
But he did not book this room.
Your stepfather’s people did.
I was told to make it look real if the still photos were not enough.” Maya stared at her.
“Get out.” The woman picked up her bag, slipped past Maya without another word, and disappeared down the corridor.
The door to the stairwell clicked shut behind her.
Damian stood in the middle of the room with his shirt still open from where the woman had been pressed against him.
Maya could smell the other woman’s perfume on the air.
“I need you to leave,” Maya said.
“I’m not leaving you bleeding in a hallway.” “Then I’ll leave.” She turned and walked toward the elevators.
Damian followed.
In the elevator he stood on the opposite side and did not try to touch her.
The silence was worse than shouting.
When the doors opened on the lobby Maya walked straight out to the street and raised a hand for a taxi.
Damian caught the door before she could close it.
“At least tell me where you’re going,” he said.
“Somewhere you can’t track.” She pulled the door shut.
The taxi moved into traffic.
Maya watched Damian standing under the hotel lights until the car turned the corner and he disappeared.
Her phone buzzed again almost immediately.
The unknown number.
*Now you’ve seen the live version.
The woman is gone.
The question is what you do with the man.
One more file is coming.
This one is not about him.* Maya leaned her head back against the seat.
The empty space inside her felt larger than the car.
She had no pregnancy left.
No clear trust left.
And the person feeding her evidence still was not finished.
The taxi driver glanced at her in the mirror.
“You okay, miss?” “Just drive,” Maya said.
“I’ll tell you where I know.” She did not know yet.
She only knew she could not go back to Damian’s apartment and she could not go home.
The city lights moved past the window while the last frame of the video replayed in her head — Damian’s hand on another woman’s breast, the soft sound the woman had made, the door that had been left unlocked like an invitation.
Her phone lit up one more time.
A new file finished downloading.
Maya did not open it.
She stared at the notification until the screen went dark, then pressed one hand to her aching stomach and closed her eyes.
Whatever the next file contained, it would land on a version of her that had already been emptied out twice.
She was not sure how much more she could lose before nothing remained.