Chapter 49: Cade’s Breaking Point
312 Words
Chapter 49: Cade’s Breaking Point
(If you steal fire, you will get scorched)
Cade paced his penthouse like a storm in human skin.
He hadn’t heard from Aria since the gala. Since that scene. Since she danced with a stranger, let Damon touch her again, and delivered her final blow with a champagne toast and a goddamn smile.
He’d seen the photos. The gossip columns were wild.
“Mystery Woman Dominates Gala in Red—Two Billionaires Watch Her Burn.”
He couldn’t breathe.
Couldn’t sleep.
Couldn’t stop replaying the way she looked at him—
Like she’d never once belonged to him.
Like he was the mistake.
And now she was with Damon?
His hands clenched around the edge of his desk until his knuckles cracked. The contract was over—but the obsession wasn’t. Not for him. Not for the man who’d bought her with ink but lost her to fire.
His phone buzzed.
Unknown Number
She’s with me now. Thought you should know.
—D
Cade saw red.
He was in the car within minutes, hair wild, shirt half-buttoned, rage bleeding from every step as he stormed into Damon’s building.
Security tried to stop him. They failed.
The elevator ride felt eternal.
Then the doors opened.
And what he saw wasn’t just obscene.
It was devastating.
Aria. On Damon’s lap. Head thrown back, mouth open in a soundless cry, that red dress bunched at her waist, thighs trembling around Damon’s fingers.
Damon didn’t even stop.
He smirked. “You’re late.”
Cade’s breath shattered.
Aria’s eyes opened—lazy, wicked, dangerous. And she smiled. Not soft. Not ashamed.
Predatory.
“I told you,” she purred, licking Damon’s jaw, “you don’t own me.”
Then she looked Cade in the eye as she came on Damon’s hand, moaning his name.
Not Cade’s.
And in that moment?
Cade broke.
- Writer
