Room For One More

CHAPTER TEN : Exposed

The photo was clear.

Too clear.

Aiden's hand caressing mine. My eyes flashed with laughter. The kind of shot you couldn't set up — intimate, real, and incriminating.

My breath froze.

I scrolled down.

No sender. No signature. Only the image. A silent threat.

Someone had been present.

Someone wanted this released.

Panic against my ribs. I paced down the hallway, shaking fingers as I called him.

He answered on the first ring.

"Aiden," I whispered, "it's out. The photo."

Nothing.

Then, "Send it to me."

I sent the email.

He didn't speak a word for a complete thirty seconds.

Then the bite in his voice. "Security footage. Someone pulled this."

"From the hotel?"

"Only someone who has access."

I didn't need to say the name. We both knew.

"Cassandra."

He huffed out hard. "This is blackmail."

"No," I said, "this is sabotage."

He was already moving. "I'm calling my attorney. You—don't mention this to anyone yet."

"But Aiden—"

"Elena, trust me."

I hung up, but trust felt a fragile thing just then.

In the hotel room once more, I sat on the bed, the photo still burned into my mind.

My phone rang again.

Not Aiden.

Unknown Number.

I hesitated. Then answered.

"Nice picture," a woman's voice drawled. Smooth as silk and twice as deadly.

"Cassandra?"

"You ascended too fast, darling," she said. "Now fall."

The line was dead.

And outside my window.

A flash of a camera blinked