Walking into the Lions den
Ethan had broken me once. But Damien? Damien Cross had the power to remake me into something else entirely.
Not his bride. Not his pawn.
But his weapon of mass destruction.
The thought clung to me long after the morning meetings dissolved.
By the time I stepped out of the black car and onto the marble steps of Cross Enterprises, it had hardened into a shield I wrapped around myself.
The building loomed like a menhir of steel and glass, the Cross family crest carved into the stone above the revolving doors.
It wasn’t just a headquarters.
It was a declaration.
A promise of power that had never been broken.
Cameras flashed the moment my heels touched the pavement of the enterprise. Reporters lined the sidewalk, their voices sharp, hungry.
“Miss Mendez, is it true you’re working with Damien Cross now?”
“Are you and Damien cross having an affair?”
“Why did you leave the altar?”
“Why did you not marry Ethan Cole again?”
“Why did you cut your family off?”
“Is this revenge on Ethan Cole?”
“Have you and Damien Cross been having an affair before the marriage?”
I didn’t answer. Silence was more dangerous than denial.
Damien’s head of security—a mountain of a man named Nathan—escorted me past the storm of questions and into the sleek lobby. But the whispers followed me like a shadow.
Inside, the air was crisp, the faint scent of cedar and ink mixing with the sterile hum of success. Employees glanced up from behind their desks as I passed. Some recognized me; others only recognized the scandal already spreading through the city like wildfire.
By the time I reached the executive floor, my phone was buzzing non-stop. Notifications exploded across the screen—society gossip columns, headlines, whispers turned to roars:
Runaway Bride Found at Cross Headquarters”
“From Cole to Cross? Heiress Mendez Seen Entering Rival’s Tower”
“Power Play or Love Affair?”
My throat tightened, but I forced a calm façade. This was what Damien wanted.
Noise.
Distraction.
A war fought not with fists, but with perception.
The elevator doors slid open to reveal Damien himself, waiting. His tailored suit was charcoal today, crisp against the stark white shirt beneath. He didn’t smile, didn’t acknowledge the chaos we’d unleashed.
He simply looked at me, eyes like obsidian, and said, “You’re late.”
“I’m five minutes early.”
“Which means you had five minutes to waste,” he countered, stepping aside.
“Next time, don’t.”
Heat prickled down my spine, but I bit my tongue. Arguing with Damien Cross was like playing chess with fire—you might get a move in, but you’d burn either way.
He led me into the boardroom, a cathedral of glass overlooking the city. A dozen executives sat waiting, their conversations dying the moment I entered. Their gazes were sharp, calculating, dissecting me.
I sat beside Damien, back straight, face smooth.
The meeting droned on—mergers, acquisitions, numbers I barely understood—but I kept my attention fixed, scribbling notes, refusing to let the scrutiny rattle me. When my phone buzzed again, I stole a glance.
1 New Message — Ethan Cole.
My chest tightened.
What the hell are you doing?
How did he get this number?
I thought I blocked him so how could he reach me?
I locked the screen and forced myself to breathe.
Later that Day
After the meeting was adjourned, I slipped into the quiet of Damien's private office to catch my breath when the door opened suddenly without a warning.
Ethan stormed in like he owned the place, anger written all over his face as the vein in his forehead seemed to bulge out.
I kept a livid face.
“What the hell is this?” he demanded, shoving the day’s paper onto Damien’s desk. The headline blared:
“Cross New Protege— Mendez Chooses the Other Side.”
I froze, heart hammering.
Damien didn’t look surprised. In fact, he looked amused. He leaned back in his chair, lacing his fingers.
“Cole. I was wondering how long it would take you to come crawling.”
Ethan’s gaze snapped to me, burning. “Is this your game, Elena? Parading yourself around with him like some—”
“Careful,” Damien cut in smoothly, voice soft but lethal.
“You’re in my office. Watch your tongue.”
“You can’t talk to my wife like that”
The statement hit Ethan like a sharp blow
“Your wife?” Ethan asked surprised
“Yes my wife”
“So Elena you really had an affair behind my back and got married to this scumbag” Ethan said with fury written all over his face.
“So this was why you called off the wedding”
“I see” said Ethan
“You were two timing two men right”
“Elena you are nothing more than a cheap h**t and a conniving b*h that what you are”
Smack
I slapped Ethan across the face. The look of shock and surprise was written all over his face and Damien was amused and surprised.
“Ethan Cole you don’t have the right to call me name you f**king bastard,you are the cheat here,you cheated on me with my best friend,how despicable are you”
“The sight of you irritates me to the bones,Ethan Cole”
“Elena how dare you slap me” Ethan said with anger written all over his face as the vein in his forehead bulged out.
The tension coiled so tightly I could barely breathe. Ethan’s chest rose and fell, his eyes drilling into mine. “Why are you doing this?” he hissed.
Every instinct screamed at me to shrink, to explain, to defend. But I forced my expression into icy calm.
“Why not?” I said quietly.
Ethan flinched, as if the coolness in my voice was more foreign than anything else.
“You think you can just—”
“Think she can?” Damien interrupted again, his smirk widening. “She already has.”
Ethan rounded on him, but Damien didn’t flinch. He stood, and the shift in the room was immediate. Damien didn’t have to raise his voice; his presence alone suffocated.
“She’s mine—”
“Not anymore,” Damien cut him off, stepping closer until Ethan’s bravado faltered.
“You lost her. And now? Now she’s standing at my side. Do you know what that means?”
Ethan’s jaw clenched.
“It means,” Damien said, voice low, deliberate, “every move you make against me, she’ll see coming. Every weakness you try to hide, she’ll hand it to me on a silver platter. She’s not your asset anymore. She’s mine.”
My pulse roared in my ears, but I kept my face smooth, my silence deliberate.
Ethan’s eyes flicked between us, anger and panic warring behind them. “You’ll regret this,” he spat at me finally, before storming out.
The slam of the door left a vacuum in its wake.
For a moment, neither Damien nor I spoke.
Then he turned, his expression unreadable. “You handled that better than I expected.”
I arched my brow. “I didn’t do anything.”
“Exactly.” His lips curved faintly. “Sometimes silence is the sharpest blade and that slap was good “.
That Evening
The city glittered beneath us as Damien led me into the rooftop lounge of his headquarters. The night air was cool, perfumed with expensive cigars and champagne. Investors, politicians, and elite figures of society mingled under the glow of crystal lights.
Whispers rippled the moment we stepped in together.
“Is that her?”
“The runaway bride?”
“With Damien Cross?”
Damien didn’t falter. His hand slid lightly to the small of my back—possessive but calculated, a silent claim for the world to see.
I stiffened, but I didn’t move away. If this was theater, I was playing my role.
We drifted through the crowd, his presence commanding every glance, his shadow swallowing mine. Glasses clinked, conversations shifted, and soon the whispers weren’t whispers anymore—they were statements.
“They look good together.”
“She’s on his side now.”
“This changes everything.”
Damien paused near the center of the lounge, turning just enough so the spotlight caught us both. His eyes glinted as they met mine, daring me to falter.
I didn’t.
Instead, I lifted my chin, met the stares head-on, and let the corner of my mouth curve into the faintest of smiles.
Gasps followed. Phones clicked. Headlines were born in that instant.
And as Damien raised his glass in a silent toast, the truth settled like fire in my chest.
I wasn’t just walking into the lion’s den.
I was standing beside the lion.
And for the first time, I wasn’t prey.
I was the predator.
Damien raised a toast to our partnership and what was to come in the future.
The night brought about gossip and camera flashes of reporters who wanted to get a good angle of me.
It was already late by the time we got back to Damien’s mansion , we said good night and went to our separate rooms.
I was already tipsy from the wine so I just changed my clothes and laid on my bed.
Sleep did not come so easily as their whispers and camera flashes replay in my head but after a long while I fell asleep.
By the break of dawn, my name would be in all the gossip columns in the whole country.
And Damien's company is where the real Battle begins.