CHAPTER SEVEN:THE GHOST FROM THE PAST
1112 Words
The mansion smelled like smoke long after the fire was out.
Not the sharp kind. The quiet kind. The kind that settled into walls and memories and refused to leave.
I stood by the window, watching guards replace shattered lights and broken cameras. No one spoke loudly. No one laughed. Everyone moved like they were waiting for something worse.
Damian hadn’t left my side since the attack.
He didn’t touch me much. Just enough to remind me he was there. A hand at my back. Fingers brushing my wrist when I walked too close to danger.
Possessive, but controlled.
That was new.
“Mrs. Voss.”
I turned at the sound of the unfamiliar voice.
The man standing near the door was tall, clean-cut, dressed in a dark suit that looked expensive without trying too hard. His eyes were sharp but calm, like someone who noticed everything and reacted to nothing.
“This is Luca Moretti,” Damian said. “My assistant.”
Assistant didn’t feel like the right word.
Luca nodded slightly. “It’s good to finally meet you, Isabella.”
Not Mrs. Voss.
Just Isabella.
I liked that more than I expected.
“You’ve been busy,” I said.
A corner of his mouth lifted. “That’s one way to describe it.”
Damian crossed his arms. “What do we have?”
Luca’s tone shifted instantly. “The De Santis attack was a distraction. Loud. Messy. Not their style.”
“Then whose?” I asked.
Damian’s jaw tightened.
Luca looked at him for half a second before answering. “Someone older. Smarter. Someone who knows how you think.”
The room felt colder.
“Say the name,” Damian said.
Luca hesitated.
That scared me more than anything else so far.
“Valeria De Luca,” he said finally.
The silence that followed was heavy.
Damian didn’t react right away. No anger. No shock.
Just stillness.
I felt it then—the shift. Like I had stepped into something that existed long before me.
“Is she here?” Damian asked.
“Not openly,” Luca said. “But her money is moving. Her people are watching. She’s circling.”
I frowned. “Who is she?”
Luca glanced at Damian again.
Damian exhaled slowly. “She’s a mistake I didn’t bury deep enough.”
That answer made my chest tighten.
Luca cleared his throat. “She was close to you. Before.”
Before me.
Before power settled into Damian’s bones like a second spine.
“She knows your routines,” Luca continued. “Your weaknesses.”
Damian’s eyes flicked to me.
I understood instantly.
“Oh,” I whispered. “She means me.”
“Yes,” Damian said quietly. “She means you.”
Valeria De Luca watched the mansion from a distance.
She stood on a private balcony across the city, red wine untouched in her glass, her gaze fixed on the lights of Damian Voss’s estate.
So bright.
So arrogant.
So his.
“I waited,” she said softly to the man behind her. “Did you know that?”
The man said nothing.
“I loved him when he had nothing,” Valeria continued. “When power was still a dream and blood hadn’t hardened his hands.”
She smiled faintly.
“And now he replaces me with a girl who doesn’t even know how to lie properly.”
Her fingers tightened around the glass.
“Break her,” she said calmly. “Not fast. Not loud.”
A pause.
“I want Damian to watch.”
Back at the mansion, Damian finally spoke.
“She won’t come at you directly,” he said to me. “Valeria never does.”
“Then how?” I asked.
“She’ll make you doubt yourself,” Luca answered gently. “Your place. Your worth. Your safety.”
I folded my arms. “Sounds personal.”
“It is,” Damian said.
I looked at him. “Did you love her?”
The question hung between us.
Luca took a discreet step back.
Damian’s voice was low. “I don’t know if what I felt then was love. I know it wasn’t enough.”
That hurt in ways I didn’t expect.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” I asked.
“Because she’s not your burden,” he said. “She’s mine.”
“That’s not how this works anymore,” I replied quietly.
His eyes darkened. “This is exactly how it works.”
We stared at each other, tension pulling tight.
Luca cleared his throat. “With respect, boss—she deserves to know what she’s facing.”
Damian didn’t argue.
That told me Luca mattered more than just an assistant.
“She believes you stole what was meant to be hers,” Damian said finally. “And she doesn’t forgive.”
“Does she still want you?” I asked.
“No,” he said immediately.
Then, more honestly, “She wants to ruin me.”
I swallowed. “And me?”
His gaze softened just a little. “You’re the knife she plans to use.”
That night, I couldn’t sleep again.
Not because of gunfire.
Not because of fear.
But because of Valeria.
Because somewhere out there was a woman who knew Damian in ways I didn’t. Who had touched him before his walls were fully built. Who had loved him enough to hate me without ever meeting me.
A knock came at my door.
Luca stood there.
“I thought you might need this,” he said, handing me a small phone.
“What is it?”
“A direct line,” he said. “If anything feels wrong. Even if you can’t explain it.”
I hesitated. “Why are you helping me?”
His expression softened. “Because I’ve never seen Damian look at anyone the way he looks at you.”
That didn’t comfort me.
That terrified me.
The message arrived just before dawn.
A single line.
Enjoy the title while it lasts.
No name.
No signature.
But I knew.
My hands trembled as I stared at the screen.
Damian read it without expression.
“She’s closer than I thought,” he said.
“Damian,” I whispered. “What if I can’t survive this?”
He stepped closer, cupping my face firmly.
“Then I will burn this city down,” he said simply.
The certainty in his voice stole my breath.
And in that moment, I understood something dangerous and irreversible—
Valeria De Luca wasn’t just coming for my life.
She was coming for Damian’s heart.
And this war?
It had only just begun.
- Writer
