Chapter 4
1275 Words
The pancakes were perfect.
Sienna sat across from Damon in a twenty-four-hour diner that smelled like coffee. Red vinyl booths. Fluorescent lights. A waitress named Dolores, who called everyone "honey."
"You come here often?" Sienna asked.
"Never been here before." Damon drowned his pancakes in syrup. "Saw it on the way to your place. Looked right."
"For four AM pancakes."
"For four AM honesty." He looked at her. "That's what this is, right? We're done lying?"
"I don't know. Are we?"
"I am." He set down his fork. "Ask me anything. I'll tell you the truth."
Sienna sipped her coffee. Considered. "Do you blame yourself for my father's death?"
Damon didn't flinch. "Every day."
"Even though you tried to help?"
"Especially because I tried to help. I gave him hope. "Made him believe he could fight back at my father." His jaw tightened. "And then I watched him lose anyway."
"You quit."
"Too late. The damage was done."
"You were twenty-three, Damon. You did what you could."
He paused and said, "Did I? Or did I choose the easy way out? Resign and leave with clean hands while your father—" Breathed. "I built my company to be everything my father's wasn't. Ethical. Fair. But it doesn't change the past."
Sienna reached across the table. Put her hand on his.
He stared at it like it might disappear.
"Thank you," she said.
"For what?"
"For trying. For caring. For being different." She squeezed his hand. "My father would've appreciated that."
Damon turned his hand over. Laced his fingers through hers. "I wish I could've done more."
"Me too."
They sat like that. Hands clasped—the weight of fifteen years between them.
Dolores refilled their coffee. Didn't comment on the tears in Sienna's eyes.
""So,, what's next?" at's next?" Damon asked finally.
"I don't know."
"I like it when you give me an honest answer." He smiled. It's sad, but it's true. "Can I see you again? The right way."
"That depends."
"On?"
"On if you're ready for me to actually investigate you."
"I told you I was."
"That's what you say now. But when my team starts digging into every business, every contract, every —"
"Dig." His thumb traced circles on her palm. "I have nothing to hide. Not from you."
Sienna's phone buzzed. She ignored it.
It buzzed again.
"You should check that," Damon said.
She pulled it out. Marcus.
Where are you?
Having breakfast.
At 5 am?
Long story.
Get to the office. Now. Emergency.
Sienna's stomach dropped. "I have to go."
"What's wrong?"
"I don't know. Marcus says it's an emergency." She stood. Grabbed her purse.
"I'll drive you."
"Damon—"
"I'm not letting you face whatever this is alone."
Something in his voice made her stop arguing.
They drove through empty Miami streets. Dawn is breaking pink and orange over the bay.
Sienna's phone rang. Marcus.
"What's going on?"
"Someone leaked your investigation into Damon to the press."
Her blood went cold. "What?"
"Page Six has it. Business Insider. The Herald." Marcus's voice was tight. "They're calling it a revenge plot. Saying you've been stalking him. That you planned to seduce and destroy him."
"Who leaked it?"
"Working on that. But Sienna, there's more."
"What?"
"Someone sent an anonymous package to your office. Arrived an hour ago."
"What kind of package?"
"Just get here."
The line went dead.
Damon glanced at her. "What happened?"
"Someone leaked my investigation into you. It's all over the news."
He didn't look surprised. "I see."
"That's all you have to say?"
"What do you want me to say? That I'm shocked someone found out you were investigating me?" He turned onto her street. "I'm not stupid, Sienna. I knew what you were doing."
"And you didn't care?"
"I cared. But I understood." He pulled up to her building. "We all have our reasons."
She stared at him. "Who are you?"
"Someone who's been where you are. Someone who knows what it's like to want revenge." He put the car in park. "Go. Handle your emergency. Call me when you're ready."
"Damon—"
"I'll still be here. I'm not going anywhere."
Sienna got out. Watched him drive away.
Then she went inside.
Marcus met her at the elevator. He looked like he hadn't slept.
"Show me," Sienna said.
He handed her his tablet. Headlines screamed across the screen.
TECH HEIRESS PLOTS REVENGE ON REAL ESTATE MOGUL
SIENNA CROSS: SEDUCTION OR STALKING?
INSIDE THE TWISTED LOVE AFFAIR THAT'S ROCKING MIAMI
"Jesus."
"It gets worse." Marcus led her to her office.
On her desk sat a manila envelope.
"Don't touch it," Marcus said. "I already called security. They're reviewing footage."
"What's in it?"
"See for yourself."
Sienna opened the envelope.
Photographs spilled out.
She and Damon were at the gala. Dancing. Looking at each other like—
She and Damon are at dinner. His hand almost touches hers.
She and Damon were at the diner. Hands clasped across the table.
Someone had been following them. Documenting everything.
But it was the last photograph that made her blood run cold.
A different photo. Older. The colors faded slightly.
Her father is shaking hands with a young Damon Ashford outside Ashford & Associates.
October 16, 2010.
The day after the meeting. The day the acquisition began.
Sienna's hands shook. "Where did this come from?"
"No idea. But Sienna, look at the back."
She flipped it over.
Written in neat block letters:
HE WAS THERE. HE KNEW. HE WATCHED YOUR FATHER DIE.
The room tilted.
Marcus answered immediately, "It's not true." "The timeframe doesn't —"
"October 16." Sienna's voice was empty. "Damon said he quit on the 23rd. That he tried to help."
"Right."
"But he was still there. Still part of the company. For a whole week after the acquisition started."
"Sienna—"
"He lied to me." She looked at Marcus. "He looked me in the eye and said he tried to help. But this photo—"
"Could be out of context. Could be doctored."
"Or it could be proof that Damon Ashford played me." She grabbed her phone. "I need to know who sent this."
"Security's already—"
"Not good enough." She dialed Patricia. "I need to know everything about October 16, 2010. Who was at that meeting. What was discussed. And I need it now."
She hung up. Stared at the photograph.
Damon smiling. Her father's hand in his. Both of them were frozen in a moment that came right before everything fell apart.
"What are you going to do?" Marcus asked.
"I'm going to find out the truth."
"And if the truth is that Damon lied?"
Sienna's jaw tightened. "Then I'm going to do what I should've done from the beginning."
"Which is?"
She looked at Marcus. Her eyes were cold. Empty.
"Destroy him."
Her phone buzzed. Damon.
Whatever you're thinking, let me explain. Please.
She stared at the message.
In the photograph.
At the headlines calling her obsessed, desperate, and pathetic.
Someone was playing them and setting them against each other.
But who?
And why now, just when she'd started to believe Damon might be telling the truth?
Sienna's finger hovered over the delete button.
Instead, she typed: My office. One hour. Bring your calendar from October 2010.
His response was immediate. I'll be there.
She set down the phone.
"This is a bad idea," Marcus said.
"Probably."
"He could be dangerous."
"So am I."
"That's what I'm afraid of."
Sienna picked up the photograph. Studied her father's face. He looked hopeful. Happy, even.
He'd trusted the wrong people.
She wouldn't make the same mistake.
Not again.
- Writer
