CHAPTER 2.
1453 Words
The elevator ride down felt longer than it should have.
I stood alone inside the small metal box, staring at my reflection in the mirrored wall as the numbers above the door slowly counted down. My face looked pale under the harsh fluorescent light, my dark hair slightly messy from sleep, my expression caught somewhere between confusion and dread.
I looked like someone who had just been handed a nightmare disguised as a contract.
Marriage! How?
The word still echoed inside my head like something unreal.
Xavier Blackwood wanted to marry me, not date me, not meet me, but marry me.
I let out a shaky breath and rubbed my arms as if that could somehow calm the chill creeping under my skin.
This wasn’t real, it couldn’t be.
The elevator chimed softly as it reached the ground floor.
The doors slid open, and suddenly, the quiet morning of my small apartment building exploded into noise.
Cameras, and flashes, with people shouting.
“Elara Vale!”
“There she is!”
“Miss Vale, is it true you broke into Blackwood Holdings?”
My heart dropped straight into my stomach. There were reporters, dozens of them.
They crowded the entrance like a swarm of vultures, microphones raised, cameras flashing so brightly it made my eyes sting.
“How long have you been involved with Xavier Blackwood?”
“Are you blackmailing him?”
“Did your father’s scandal have something to do with this?”
My chest tightened painfully, I couldn’t breathe.
I hadn’t even taken three steps outside the building before the crowd surged forward.
Someone grabbed my arm, another microphone was shoved inches from my face.
“Miss Vale, are you planning to marry him to escape prosecution?”
“I..” My voice cracked.
I didn’t even know what I was supposed to say, because the terrifying part was…
I still didn’t understand what was happening.
Suddenly, a strong hand gripped my shoulder and pulled me backward.
“Move aside.”
The voice was cold, controlled, and carried enough authority to silence several reporters instantly.
The two men in suits from upstairs stepped forward, positioning themselves between me and the crowd.
“Step back,” one of them ordered.
The reporters protested loudly.
“You can’t block the press!”
“She’s a public figure now!”
Public figure?
The phrase made my stomach twist.
I had spent three years trying to disappear, now the world suddenly couldn’t stop looking at me.
The taller bodyguard leaned down slightly toward me.
“The car is waiting, Miss Vale.”
I nodded weakly.
The black car from earlier was parked just beyond the reporters, even reaching it felt like crossing a battlefield.
Flashes exploded around me as the guards pushed a narrow path through the crowd.
“Miss Vale!”
“Did Xavier Blackwood threaten you?”
“Are you under investigation?”
Every question hit me like a stone.
I kept my head down and forced my legs to keep moving.
Finally, the bodyguard opened the car door.
“Get in.”
I didn’t hesitate, and the moment I slid inside, the door shut firmly behind me, sealing the chaos outside.
Silence filled the car. For a moment, I simply sat there, breathing heavily.
Then I realized something, I wasn’t alone.
A man sat across from me. My entire body went still.
Even before I lifted my head, I already knew who it was.
The air inside the car felt different, sharper, and colder.
Slowly, I looked up, and for the first time in my life, I came face to face with Xavier Blackwood.
He looked exactly like the man the world described.
Tall, composed, impossibly controlled.
His dark suit was perfectly tailored, his posture relaxed but deliberate, like someone who never wasted a single movement, but it was his eyes that held me still.
Cold, calculating: Observing me like I was something he had already studied long before this moment.
For several seconds, neither of us spoke.
The silence stretched long enough to become uncomfortable.
Then he finally broke it.
“You’re late.”
His voice was calm, deep, and completely emotionless.
I blinked.
“Late?”
“Yes.”
His gaze flicked briefly toward his watch before returning to my face.
“I gave you ten minutes.”
Something inside me snapped slightly.
“Excuse me?” I said, disbelief creeping into my voice. “You forced me into a car surrounded by reporters and somehow I’m the one who’s late?”
For the first time, something flickered in his expression, not anger, not amusement, but something quieter. It was giving interest.
He studied me for another long moment.
“You’re different from what I expected.”
My stomach tightened.
“What did you expect?”
His gaze didn’t waver.
“A liar.”
The words landed heavily between us, and anger rose instantly in my chest.
“I didn’t break into your building,” I said firmly.
“I know.”
The answer came so quickly it stunned me.
My mouth opened slightly.
“You… know?”
“Yes.”
My mind struggled to catch up.
“Then why is the entire city accusing me?”
His expression didn’t change.
“Because I allowed it.”
The words sent a chill down my spine.
“Why?”
For a moment, Xavier didn’t answer.
Instead, he reached into the inside pocket of his suit and pulled out a thin folder.
He placed it on the seat beside me.
“Open it.”
I hesitated before lifting the folder.
Inside were photographs, old ones, and new ones.
My breath caught as I flipped through them.
Pictures of me leaving work, walking home, and sitting alone in a café.
My chest tightened, because these photos were taken over months.
Maybe longer.
“You’ve been watching me,” I whispered.
“Yes.”
The calm way he said it made my skin crawl.
“Why?”
His eyes darkened slightly.
“Because revenge requires patience.”
The word hung in the air like a threat.
My fingers froze on the photograph in my hand.
“Revenge… for what?”
For the first time since I entered the car, something cold moved through his gaze.
“For what your family did to mine.”
My stomach twisted painfully.
“My family didn’t...”
He leaned forward slightly, and suddenly the space between us felt dangerously small.
“I spent ten years proving that they did.”
His voice dropped lower.
“And now,” he finished quietly, “I finally have the last piece.”
My heart pounded loudly in my chest.
“Me?”
“Yes.”
Silence filled the car again. I stared at him, trying to understand the man sitting in front of me.
The man who had just destroyed my life overnight, and then offered to marry me.
“Tell me something honestly,” I said quietly.
His eyebrow lifted slightly.
“If this is revenge…” I swallowed hard. “…why marriage?”
For the first time since we met, Xavier Blackwood smiled, it wasn’t warm, it wasn’t kind, it was the kind of smile that made my pulse race for all the wrong reasons.
“Because destroying someone slowly,” he said calmly, “is far more satisfying.”
My heart dropped, and suddenly I understood something terrifying.
This man didn’t want justice, he wanted control. A complete control over my life.
The car slowed as it pulled into the underground entrance of a massive glass building.
Blackwood Holdings.
Xavier glanced out the window briefly before standing.
“Come with me.”
I didn’t move.
“What happens if I refuse?” I asked quietly.
He paused.
Then he looked back at me.
“You won’t.”
“Why are you so sure?”
His answer came like a blade.
“Because the next video releases in fifteen minutes.”
My blood ran cold, and as he opened the car door, I realized something that made my chest tighten.
Walking into this building wouldn’t just change my life.
It would trap me inside Xavier Blackwood’s world, and once I stepped inside…
There might be no way out.
As I stepped out of the car and followed Xavier toward the private elevator, my phone vibrated suddenly in my hand. It was another notification; another news alert.
My breath caught as I read it.
BREAKING NEWS: BLACKWOOD HOLDINGS ANNOUNCES EMERGENCY PRESS CONFERENCE.
The location tag appeared beneath it, starting in 10 minutes, inside Blackwood Tower, and deep down, I already knew the terrifying truth.
Whatever Xavier Blackwood was about to announce…
My life was about to become the headline.
- Writer
