CHAPTER 4- GAME ON
1258 Words
Chapter 4
EVELYN POV
The café was too bright and in a public space, Mira walked in with her hood up, sunglasses covering most of her face. Her hands were steady.Lord swift sat by the window like he owned the sunlight wearing a tailored black suit with no tie and a cane propped casually against the chair.
“Sit,” Lord Swift said, without looking up from his coffee.
Mira sat down.
“You’ve ignored me for years,” he said, sipping slowly. “That’s rude.”
“I’ve been busy,” she replied.
He smiled faintly, like someone enjoying a private joke. “Lies do not suit you, you weren’t trained for it.”
Lord Swift leaned back, examining her like a surgeon might study a broken rib.
“Ethan still thinks he can win this quietly. That’s his weakness.”
Mira’s stomach turned,“Leave him out of this.”
Swift’s smile widened.
“Oh, he’s already in it. He put you in the middle. What did you think would happen? That he’d protect you?” He leaned forward now, voice lower. “Or that he’d sacrifice you when it got too real?”
Mira looked down at her hands. Her fingers were clenched.
“What do you want?” she asked.
He pulled a folded piece of paper from his jacket. Slide it across the table.
“You’re going to deliver this to Sofia. Face to face.
Mira stared at it.
“What is it?”
“Proof,” he said simply. “Of what Ethan’s really doing of what she’s walking into.”
“You’re setting him up.”
“I’m correcting a mistake.”
Mira didn’t touch the paper. Her voice was barely a whisper.
“He was never going to let me leave, was he?”
Swift didn’t answer.
Instead, he stood, lifted his cane, and straightened his cuffs.
“I’ll be watching, Mira. Don’t run again.”
He walked out like he owned the street.
And for the first time in weeks, Mira felt like she was standing at the edge of something far worse than anything Ethan could’ve imagined.
Evelyn had just settled into her office, the morning sun casting thin golden lines across her desk. The scent of strong coffee lingered in the air, untouched beside her as she tapped away at her keyboard. Notifications blinked quietly in the corner of her screen, but one email stood out bold, unread.
She clicked it.
Evelyn stared at the email for a long time.
She clicked off the screen and stood. Her assistant, Lena, looked up from the corner desk.
“Cancel my afternoon,” Evelyn said, grabbing her coat.
“Are you okay?” Lena asked.
Evelyn didn’t answer.
The address took her to a parking garage three blocks from her office. The air was thick with engine smoke and old rain. She parked on the third level and waited.
Ten minutes.
Then fifteen.
Then she saw someone from the corner of her memory. A tech specialist she’d worked with briefly during her first acquisition year.
He climbed into her car silently, rain clinging to his coat. Without a word, he handed her a flash drive.
“You didn’t get this from me,” he muttered.
Evelyn eyed the driver, then him. “What’s on it?”
He looked straight ahead, voice flat.
“A story. You.”
She frowned. “What do you mean?”
His jaw clenched. “you would be taken by force in exchange for your father's debt… by the deadliest, most dangerous boss alive, his name is Nico Valent, he is feared by all.”
Evelyn froze.
He turned to face her now. “It’s all in there.
She stared at him. “What are you saying?”
He leaned closer and said be careful.
Then, without another word, he opened the door and stepped out into the dark.
Evelyn sat frozen in the driver’s seat, the flash drive burning a hole in her hand. The rain had stopped, but her pulse hadn’t. She didn’t go home, Instead, she drove straight to her office past midnight, the city washed in silence and sodium lights. The security guard barely looked up as she swiped in. Her heels echoed through the marble hallway until she reached her corner suite on the sixth floor.
She locked the door behind her.
Then she slid into her chair, powered on her laptop, and plugged in the drive.
She hesitated, then clicked play.
The footage crackled to life in grainy surveillance, black and white.
A dark room then a chair and a man pacing.
And then
A girl was dragged into frame, wrists bound, a blindfold around her head.
Evelyn’s breath caught.
Her hand covered her mouth.
It was Mira again, she was bruised, shaking and crying.
Evelyn pushed back from the desk, heart racing. She hadn’t seen Mira in months. Everyone thought she had vanished. Rumors swirled, but no one ever confirmed anything.
A low, gravelly order:
“Send this to her father. He’ll understand what happens when debts aren’t paid.”
The screen went black.
Evelyn sat frozen in her chair, pulse pounding in her ears.
Evelyn stood by her office window, flash drive still clutched in her hand like it might burn a hole through her skin. She hadn’t slept. But what crushed her wasn’t the data.
It was that Mira knew, and didn’t say a word.
The buzzer on her desk crackled.
“Mira. She says you’re expecting her.”
Evelyn didn’t answer right away.
Her hand hovered over the intercom. Everything in her said to tell security to escort her out, to slam the door in the past but something colder took over.
“Send her in,” Evelyn said.
The door opened.
Mira walked in like a ghost hair pulled back, jacket too thin for the weather, dark circles under her eyes. But it was her. Still Mira. Still on fire. Just burned lower now.
“You look like hell,” Evelyn said.
Mira shut the door quietly behind her. “I’ve been in it.”
The silence stretched between them. Heavy. Ugly.
Then Evelyn threw the flash drive onto the desk.
“You knew. For how long?”
Mira didn’t answer.
“Don’t lie to me.”
Mira’s voice cracked barely above a whisper. “Almost a year.”
Sofia laughed. Bitter. “A year. A whole year. While I was pitching to investors and chasing shadows, you were helping him?”
“I was protecting you.”
“You were protecting him,” Evelyn snapped.
“I thought I could stop it from the inside”
“You thought?” Her voice rose. “You thought you could lie to me, feed me scraps, and still call that loyalty?”
Mira stepped forward. “I didn’t have a choice. He had leverage. He always does. You think I don’t hate myself for this?”
Evelyn stared at her. “Then why come now?”
Mira pulled a black envelope from her coat and dropped it onto the desk. “Because now, there’s more, there's Ethan. Lord Swift’s in it.”
Evelyn's jaw tightened.
Mira nodded. “He’s making a move. Said you need to see the real play before it swallows you.”
Evelyn didn’t pick up the envelope. She just stared at Mira.
“I want to trust you,” she said. “But I don’t know if I can.”
Mira’s voice was low. “Then don’t. Just open it.”
- Writer
