You Chase Love, I Build My Empire

Chapter 3

I dragged my exhausted body to the office. The second I pulled into the parking garage, another car slammed into me from behind.

The other driver hopped out apologizing on a loop, swore the whole thing was on him, and asked how I wanted to settle the damages.

I was in too much of a rush to argue. I scribbled my number on a piece of paper and headed upstairs.

Inside the conference room, Damien sat with his brows pulled tight, his face downright grim.

A coworker from the design team caught me at the door and filled me in. The jewelry sketch we'd entered into the competition had been flagged as plagiarism.

The whole mess should've crossed my desk first. Instead, I was the last person in the building to find out.

I asked her who the designer behind it was.

"Strangest thing." She lowered her voice. "Some girl named Bianca, completely unqualified to even enter, somehow snuck her sketch into our submission packet."

My eyes flicked to Damien on instinct.

He cleared everyone else out of the room and kept only me behind.

He didn't even need to open his mouth. I'd already pieced together exactly what had gone down.

"Damien." My voice shook with disbelief. "You actually pulled strings to slip Bianca's sketch into the competition. A stolen one, no less. She's 20, with zero experience. Of course she has no clue what she's walked into. But you? You knew exactly what this was. How do you expect her to carry the fallout?"

Back when Damien was just getting his company off the ground, his partners had taken a real liking to one of my designs. The only catch was, I didn't have the credentials to qualify for the competition.

His business partner had floated the idea of pulling some strings for me, given my relationship with Damien.

Damien played the saint and said even his own girlfriend had to follow the same rules as everyone else.

The Damien standing in front of me still wore the same stern expression from back then. In an instant, a smile broke across it.

"Yeah, she can't take the fall. But Olivia, you can."

My eyes flew wide. "What's that supposed to mean?" The words slipped out before I could think.

"I'll send an internal email to the judging panel explaining that the design was yours all along. The signature just got swapped."

The piece Bianca had stolen was the one that had won me Best Newcomer years back.

She had taken the diamond brooch I designed and reworked it into a pendant.

"I'll write that you submitted the wrong file, and we'll swap in the necklace you designed for my mom's birthday instead. It's the cleanest way."

He never asked whether I was on board. He just made me the scapegoat.

I needed to clear my name of a crime that wasn't mine. My voice shook with hurt and bitter anger.

"Did you even think this through? I might never be allowed in another design competition again. The whole industry will start second-guessing my talent over a mistake they think I made. My career, my future..."

Damien brushed it off as if it were nothing. "Even if the whole industry blacklists you, it doesn't matter. You've got me, Olivia. That's all you need."

For ten years, I had pulled countless all-nighters to pin fleeting inspiration onto paper.

To prove my worth to clients, I had hopped through five countries in a single week studying gem setting.

Damien had watched all of it. He once told me I was born for the jewelry world.

And now this same man was telling me being blacklisted from that world didn't matter.

Tears dropped onto the conference room carpet without a sound. Falling apart, I begged him not to go through with it.

He kept his tone gentle, almost soothing, but it left me with no way out.

"I laid out the solution in the meeting earlier. My assistant has already sent the email under my name. This isn't open for discussion."

I had always loved the way Damien smiled at me. Right now, that same smile had a cruel edge to it.

"Bianca's only 20," Damien said. "She has her whole future still ahead of her, and you've already had more honors and praise than most people get in a lifetime. From here on, you just need to stay by my side. I'll always be good to you. Alright?"

I wanted to say no.

But the words wouldn't come. It was as if my voice had been stolen out of me. All I could do was shake my head and feel the heat and wet blur across my face.

My phone rang. Damien watched my silent crying for a moment, then picked up the call for me.

A voice came through the line. "Hi, this is the driver from the accident earlier..."

"Ms. Olivia Sinclair is busy right now. She'll call you back." Damien set the phone down on the conference table, told me to come home once I was done crying, then turned and walked out.

My strength drained all at once. I dropped to my knees on the floor, and only then did I notice the cuts and blood on my skin.

The bruises from last night hadn't faded yet. Fresh red welts had risen on top of them, raw and ugly, the same way I felt inside.

A custom alert chimed from my phone. My hands shook as I read the message through.

Damien: Mom's birthday is this weekend. I sent that necklace to the competition judges, so I'll have a gift ready for you to bring. I'll text you the restaurant address closer to the day. I promised Bianca I'd take her shopping, so I won't be picking you up.