Tangled vows

CHAPTER FOUR: The One Who Knows Him Best

The office was dim, the skyline of the city glowing outside the floor-to-ceiling windows like scattered stars. Damien stood with his back turned, hands in his pockets, staring out as if the night held answers he couldn’t reach.

The walls around him were sleek, the shelves lined with success, awards, deals, framed magazine covers. But none of it felt like victory tonight.

The door opened quietly behind him.

“Long day?” Maxwell asked, stepping inside and closing the door with a soft click. He moved across the room with his usual calm, settling into the leather chair opposite Damien’s desk like he belonged there. Like he always had.

Damien didn’t turn. “She left last night.”

Maxwell leaned back slightly, brows raised. “Audrey?”

A beat of silence stretched between them.

“I grabbed her arm,” Damien said finally, voice low. “Not to hurt her. I just… I lost control. I was angry. Scared. I don’t even know.”

Maxwell’s gaze sharpened, shoulders straightening. “Did you hurt her?”

Damien turned slowly, face shadowed and drawn. His eyes, usually unreadable, were now turbulent.

“No,” he said quietly. “But she looked at me like I was a stranger. Like she was afraid of me.”

Maxwell didn’t respond with pity. He never did. His truth was always laced with steel.

“You’re scared,” he said.

Damien bristled. “I’m not scared.”

“Yes, you are,” Maxwell replied, unshaken. “You always have been. Scared to feel too much. Scared to need someone. Scared to be seen.”

Damien walked over to the side cabinet and poured himself a glass of whiskey. The ice clinked against the cut crystal. He stared at the liquid, swirling it slowly.

“You know why,” he said.

Maxwell nodded. “You once loved hard and trusted harder, but you got at end was betrayal, and you swear never to give love a chance.

The words settled in the space between them like dust.

Damien didn’t deny it.

“I built my life around control,” he muttered. “Discipline. Predictability. But Audrey… she’s everything I can’t box in. She feels too much. And now she wants something from me I don’t know how to give.”

Maxwell studied him. “No,” he said. “She wants something you’re too afraid to give.”

Damien sat on the edge of the desk, the drink untouched in his hand. His jaw tightened.

“She told me she feels invisible. That I don’t love her anymore.”

“Do you?” Maxwell asked plainly.

Damien’s eyes snapped up. “Of course I do.”

“Then show her,” Maxwell said. “Before someone else does.”

The sentence hit like a gut punch. Not because of Marcus Blackwell. Damien had seen the way the man looked at Audrey—like a predator in a tailored suit. But this wasn’t about Marcus.

This was about him.

He was the one pushing her away. Slowly. Quietly, Like erosion, Not sudden, but inevitable.

Maxwell stood, adjusting the sleeves of his tailored jacket. “She didn’t marry the empire you built, D. She married you. Don’t let her forget who that man is.”

Damien looked up, a thousand thoughts swirling behind his eyes, Regret, Fear, Maybe even hope.

Maxwell didn’t wait for a response. He never did.

He headed for the door, pausing just before stepping out.

“Oh,” he added, glancing back, “and next time you grab her in anger, I won’t be asking questions. I’ll be swinging.”

Then he was gone.

Leaving Damien alone. With the truth.

And for once, nowhere to run from it.