The deal with the Devil

Chapter 5: Walk With Me

The two men in suits didn’t look at me. Like I wasn’t in the room. Like I was just the girl who signed the contract.

Damian didn’t move. He stood between me and them, shoulders squared, jaw tight.

“Not without her,” he said.

One of the men frowned. “This doesn’t concern Miss—”

“It concerns her more than it concerns you,” Damian cut him off. His voice had that edge again, the one that made people stop arguing. “She walks with us.”

The hallway felt too small. My pulse was hammering against my ribs. The text from the unknown number still burned on my screen: The board meeting is in 2 hours. Want to see your husband’s downfall live?

I didn’t know if I wanted to see it. I didn’t know if I wanted to stop it.

Damian turned to me, and for the first time, there wasn’t calculation in his eyes. Just warning.

“If you stay here, Serena wins. If you come, you hear the truth before the board twists it.”

Truth. What was left of it?

I slipped my phone into my pocket and stepped forward.

“Fine.”

The elevator ride down was silent. The two men flanked us, but Damian’s hand brushed mine once—brief, accidental, or maybe not. I didn’t pull away.

When the doors opened, the 40th floor lobby was already half full. Reporters I didn’t recognize. Board members whispering in corners. And Serena, leaning against the glass wall with her phone in her hand, watching me like I was the main event.

She saw me walk in with Damian. Her smile faltered for half a second.

Good.

“Mr. Blackwood,” the board chairman said as we approached. His voice was careful. “We were told you’d come alone.”

Damian didn’t answer. He pulled out a chair for me at the long table, like this was a normal meeting and I belonged here.

I sat.

“Start talking,” I said. My voice shook, but I didn’t care. “Before she posts that photo and ends both of us.”

The chairman glanced at Serena. Serena’s smile came back, slow and sure.

“Please,” she said. “Do explain to your wife why you sabotaged your brother’s contract, Mr. Blackwood.”

Damian’s eyes flicked to me. Then he nodded, once.

“Because six months ago,” he said, “your brother found out my father was moving company funds offshore. Illegal transfers. He threatened to go to the SEC.”

The room went quiet.

“And?” the chairman said, too fast.

“And I stopped him.” Damian’s voice didn’t change. “I fired him. I froze his accounts. I made sure he couldn’t talk.”

My stomach dropped.

So he had ruined Kemi’s life.

“Then why is he alive?” I asked, and hated how small I sounded.

“Because after I did it, I checked the files,” Damian said. “My father was planning to frame him for it. If I hadn’t stepped in, Kemi would be in federal prison right now.”

Serena laughed. “That’s convenient.”

“It’s true,” Damian said. He looked at me, and the mask slipped. Just for a second. “I’m not a good man, Amina. But I didn’t let him go to jail for my father’s crime.”

The chairman cleared his throat. “This is irrelevant. The marriage is still a fraud. We vote to dissolve it and remove you as CEO.”

Damian leaned forward. “You vote, and I release the offshore account records to the SEC tonight.”

Serena’s face went pale.

The chairman went red.

I sat there holding the file in my lap, realizing something ugly:

I wasn’t just caught between them.

I was the only one who could decide if Damian fell.

My phone buzzed again.

Unknown number: Vote starts in 5 minutes. Choose wisely, Mrs. Blackwood.

I looked at Damian. At Serena. At the board waiting to tear us apart.

And I made a choice