THE MAID'S FORCED VOW

Chapter Three

I didn't remember climbing three flights of stairs. I only remembered arriving outside Damon Cross's office, heart slamming, the email still open in my shaking hand.

His assistant tried to stop me. I walked past her anyway.

Damon looked up from his desk, the same unreadable calm I'd swept around for three years, like nothing in the world could touch him.

"Ms. Voss." He said my name like he'd always known it. "I wondered how long it would take you to come up here."

My stomach dropped. "You knew."

"I knew someone would contact you today." His eyes didn't leave mine. "I didn't know they'd move this fast."

"My brother." My voice cracked, and I hated it. "Someone has my brother. And a contract shows up with your name on it. So either you're behind this, or."

"Or someone wants you to think I am." Damon rose slowly, rounding the desk. Up close, he looked less like the untouchable CEO I'd served coffee to and more like a man who hadn't slept in days. "Sit down, Ms. Voss. There are things you need to understand before you sign anything."

"Then talk fast," I said. "I have seventy one hours left."

Something shifted in his expression. Guilt, maybe, or something worse.

"This isn't the first time my family has done this to someone," he said quietly. "It's just the first time I've let it happen to someone I."

He stopped himself.

My pulse spiked. "Someone you what?"

Damon didn't answer right away. He walked to the window instead, staring down at the city like it might give him the right words. When he finally turned back, his face had changed, softened into something that looked almost like regret.

"Before I explain anything," he said, "I need you to look at something first."

He turned his laptop toward me. A single photo filled the screen.

My blood went cold.

It was a photo of my mother, taken years before she died, standing beside a much younger Damon Cross.