The silence that followed the message wasn’t peaceful anymore.
It was heavy. Suffocating. Alive.
Isabella Vicks could still feel the words burning into her mind—He was only the beginning.
Marcus Vale… just the beginning?
Her fingers tightened unconsciously around Damien Hayes’s hand as they stood in the dim glow of the penthouse, the city lights flickering beneath them like distant warnings.
“Say something,” she whispered, her voice unsteady despite her effort to remain calm.
Damien didn’t respond immediately.
His gaze remained fixed on the phone screen, jaw clenched, eyes dark and calculating. But when he finally looked at her, there was something new there—something sharper.
Not fear.
Not even anger.
Focus.
“This isn’t random,” he said quietly.
Isabella frowned. “What do you
