The breaking point
332 Words
Ariana couldn’t breathe.
The envelope trembled in her hands as she stared at the photographs—intimate moments from the night that changed everything. Moments that should’ve remained hers and Liam’s alone. How had Vanessa gotten them? Had she followed her that night? Paid someone? Hacked into private surveillance?
Her heart pounded, nausea curling in her stomach.
She was being cornered.
And this time, it wasn’t some faceless threat—it was blood. Her own sister.
She didn’t sleep that night. The next morning, she arrived at Carter Enterprises with dark circles beneath her eyes and a weight in her chest heavier than ever before.
Liam noticed instantly.
“You’re shaking,” he said, standing the moment she walked into his office.
“I need to show you something,” she whispered.
When he saw the photos, his entire expression darkened. He picked one up slowly, studying it like evidence in a crime scene. “Where did you get these?”
“My sister,” Ariana said bitterly. “Vanessa. She’s blackmailing me.”
Liam’s fists clenched at his sides. “I’ll make her disappear.”
“No.” Ariana shook her head. “If we go after her recklessly, she’ll leak everything. She wants money. And power. She knows this baby means something.”
Liam’s face hardened. “So that’s it? We give in?”
“No,” she said, her voice steadier than before. “We outsmart her. But I need your help—fully. No secrets, no backup plans. Just us.”
Liam stepped forward, cupping her face gently. “You’ve had me since the beginning, Ariana. I just didn’t realize it.”
Their eyes locked.
This was their breaking point.
Everything they built—the trust, the connection, the love that neither had admitted aloud—stood on the edge of being destroyed or made stronger than ever.
They had a baby on the way.
An enemy in the family.
And war was knocking at their door.
---
- Writer
