Chapter 2: The Anonymous Warning
999 Words
The rain poured relentlessly as I stepped out of Blackwood Holdings.
Cold droplets soaked through my coat within seconds, but I barely noticed.
My mind was still trapped in Damien Blackwood's office.
The way he'd looked at me.
The warning in his voice.
The strange possessiveness that seemed to slip through his carefully controlled mask whenever he thought I wasn't paying attention.
It made no sense.
Men like Damien Blackwood didn't notice women like me.
Billionaires dated supermodels, actresses, and socialites.
Not journalists trying to expose them.
Yet I couldn't shake the feeling that something wasn't right.
My phone vibrated.
I glanced at the screen.
Unknown Number.
I hesitated before answering.
"Hello?"
Heavy breathing echoed through the speaker.
Then a voice.
Distorted.
Panicked.
"You met him."
I stopped walking.
Every instinct immediately went on alert.
"Who is this?"
"You met Damien Blackwood."
The caller ignored my question.
Rain pounded against the sidewalk.
Cars splashed through puddles nearby.
Yet somehow the voice sounded terrifyingly clear.
"What do you want?"
A long silence followed.
Then—
"Stop investigating him."
I frowned.
"Why?"
The caller laughed nervously.
Not amusement.
Fear.
Pure fear.
"Because if you keep digging, you'll end up like the others."
My heart skipped.
"The others?"
The line went dead.
I stared at my phone.
A chill crept down my spine.
---
Thirty minutes later, I arrived at my apartment.
The building wasn't luxurious.
Certainly nowhere near Damien Blackwood's world.
But it was home.
I tossed my keys onto the kitchen counter and immediately opened my laptop.
The anonymous tipster's files appeared on the screen.
Project Eclipse.
The mysterious project hidden within Blackwood Holdings' financial records.
The project that officially didn't exist.
Yet millions of dollars had somehow disappeared into it over the last three years.
I clicked through documents.
Bank transfers.
Private contracts.
Employee records.
Something was missing.
There had to be.
Powerful companies didn't spend hundreds of millions on nonexistent projects.
A knock sounded at my door.
I jumped.
Nobody visited this late.
The knock came again.
Three slow taps.
My pulse accelerated.
Carefully, I approached the door and looked through the peephole.
Nobody was there.
Confused, I opened it.
The hallway was empty.
My stomach tightened.
Then I looked down.
A black envelope rested on the floor.
My name was written across the front.
Aria Bennett.
Nothing else.
No address.
No stamp.
Someone had delivered it by hand.
Slowly, I picked it up.
Inside was a single photograph.
My blood turned cold.
It was me.
Standing outside Blackwood Holdings earlier that day.
The photo couldn't have been more than an hour old.
On the back were six handwritten words.
STOP DIGGING.
THIS IS YOUR LAST WARNING.
I immediately locked the door.
Every window.
Every bolt.
My breathing became uneven.
Someone was watching me.
The realization hit like a punch.
Not recently.
Not occasionally.
Watching me now.
---
Across the city, Damien Blackwood stared out at the skyline from his penthouse office.
His phone rang.
He answered instantly.
"Talk."
"We have a problem."
His expression darkened.
"What happened?"
"Someone contacted Aria Bennett."
Silence.
Dangerous silence.
The kind that made grown men nervous.
Damien's jaw clenched.
"Who?"
"We don't know."
His grip tightened around the phone.
"You were supposed to keep her away from this."
"We tried."
"Tried isn't good enough."
The temperature in the room seemed to drop.
His head of security swallowed audibly.
"Should we pull her out?"
Damien looked toward the city.
Toward the neighborhood where Aria lived.
Toward the woman who had walked into his office and unknowingly placed herself in the middle of a war.
"No."
The answer came immediately.
"Sir—"
"No one touches her."
His voice was ice.
"No one follows her."
Another pause.
"No one even breathes in her direction."
The threat was clear.
Anyone who disobeyed would answer to him.
Personally.
The call ended.
Damien loosened his tie.
For the first time in years, he felt something dangerously close to fear.
Because Aria Bennett was asking questions she wasn't supposed to ask.
And if she discovered the truth about Project Eclipse...
There would be no turning back.
---
The next morning, I arrived at work exhausted.
I hadn't slept.
Every creak in my apartment had sounded like an intruder.
Every passing car had felt suspicious.
I headed straight for my editor's office.
Marcus looked up from his desk.
"You look terrible."
"Thanks."
He smirked.
"Good interview?"
I dropped the photograph onto his desk.
His amusement vanished.
"Where did you get this?"
"Someone left it outside my apartment."
Marcus studied the image.
The warning.
The message.
His expression hardened.
"You need to drop this story."
I blinked.
"What?"
"This is bigger than we thought."
"I can't just walk away."
"You can if you want to stay alive."
His words hung heavily in the room.
For several seconds, neither of us spoke.
Then he sighed.
"Aria..."
"What?"
"I got a call last night."
A chill crawled through me.
"From who?"
"I don't know."
His voice lowered.
"But they knew where my kids go to school."
Fear gripped my chest.
Someone wasn't trying to scare me anymore.
They were expanding.
Threatening anyone connected to the investigation.
Anyone helping me.
Anyone who stood too close.
Marcus pushed the photograph back toward me.
"Drop it."
I stared at the image.
The warning.
The threat.
The fear.
Then I thought about Damien Blackwood.
His strange concern.
His warning.
The look in his eyes when I mentioned Project Eclipse.
And suddenly one thought became impossible to ignore.
What if Damien Blackwood wasn't the danger?
What if he was trying to protect me from it?
My phone buzzed.
A new text message appeared.
Unknown Number.
My heartbeat stopped.
The message contained only one sentence.
Look outside.
Slowly, I turned toward the office window.
A black luxury car had just pulled up in front of the building.
A tall man stepped out.
Expensive suit.
Broad shoulders.
Dark eyes.
Damien Blackwood.
And for the first time...
He looked furious.
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