Stolen Kisses And Silent Lies

We're In This Together

I didn’t know what scared me more. How Jaxon easily agreed to help. Or how my heart still fluttered at the sound of his voice, even now.

He sat across from me in my office like a man ready to be testified. Calm, collected… but not cold. His eyes held something else. Something real. Maybe guilt. Maybe something more dangerous, regret laced with hope.

“You’re sure about this?” I asked, watching his hands as he laid out his phone, a flash drive, and a leather-bound notebook on the table. “Exposing your father… the legal team… You know this could destroy everything.”

He nodded. “Then let it burn.”

I was surprised to hear that from him.

“You spent your life building Reed Enterprises. And now you’re ready to burn it down?”

“No,” he said, looking directly at me. “I spent my life trying to prove something to a man who never cared. Maybe it’s time I stopped.”

I folded my arms across my chest, unsure of how to respond. We are allies now, standing on the same side of a very thin and dangerous line. But there were still pieces of him I didn’t trust, pieces that reminded me why I walked away in the first place.

Still, I couldn’t do this alone. And as much as I hated admitting it, he was the only one who knew how deep the rot went.

“If we go public,” I said, opening a folder filled with printed documents and screenshots. “We’ll leak the documents, the contracts, the video, and everything. But we have to do it carefully. If we’re not strategic, they’ll crush us before the truth ever sees daylight.”

Jaxon leaned forward. “I have a friend. Works at a legal watchdog organization. If we get this to them, they’ll launch a full investigation. The media will follow.”

“And Ava?” I asked, not hiding the bitterness in my voice. “She won’t go quietly.”

“No,” he said. “But she won’t risk being exposed either. Not after everything she’s done behind closed doors.”

“Are you sure?”

“I’m sure of her ego,” he replied. “She always needs to look powerful. We can use that against her.”

A beat of silence passed between us. The weight of what we were planning hung heavy in the air.

It wasn’t just revenge.

It was war.

And it started tonight.

The hours blurred as we worked through every detail. Lane joined us after a few hours, her eyes wide when she saw Jaxon sitting at the table like a guest instead of a ghost from the past.

“You’re brave,” she muttered to me when he stepped out to take a call.

“Desperate,” I corrected.

She handed me a printed email she’d dug up while I was away. “This one proves Ava coordinated your NDA. It even references your name in the subject line. We have enough to cause real damage now.”

Jaxon returned moments later, face pale.

“What is it?” I asked.

“They know,” he said simply.

I felt my stomach twist. “How?”

“They’ve frozen my access to the company server. My keycard’s been deactivated. I’m being cut off.”

“Then we’re out of time.”

That night, I found myself back at Jaxon’s penthouse.

Not because I wanted to be there, but because we needed a neutral ground to finish what we started. His apartment was quieter than before.No Ava, no music, no shadows from the past. Just us. Two people surrounded by glass, steel, and unfinished business.

We worked late into the night, printing files, creating backups, and drafting statements. Every now and then, our fingers brushed. Every now and then, we paused a second too long.

But we never acted on it.

Not yet.

At around midnight, I stepped onto the balcony. The city's light shimmered below, unaware of the storm we were about to unleash. I wrapped my arms around myself, unsure if I was cold or just unravelling from the inside.

Jaxon joined me moments later, holding out a glass of water.

“I figured wine wouldn’t help,” he said.

I took it silently.

He leaned on the railing beside me. “This place used to feel like power. Now, it feels like a prison.”

I didn’t respond.

He turned toward me. “Do you hate me?”

I blinked at the question. “What?”

“For not stopping it. For sitting in that room. For not protecting you sooner.”

I swallowed hard. “I don’t know what I feel, Jaxon. Part of me wants to scream at you. Part of me wants to believe you were just as trapped as I was.”

“I was,” he said. “But that doesn’t excuse it.”

“No,” I whispered. “It doesn’t.”

He stepped closer. “But I’m here now. And I’ll do whatever it takes to fix this.”

I looked up at him. His face was inches from mine. The same face I used to dream about. The same eyes that once made promises they couldn’t keep.

“Then don’t leave me to fight alone,” I said. “Not again.”

“I won’t.”

The next day was chaos. Lane had leaked the documents anonymously to a legal blog. Within an hour, it was trending. Screenshots of the video appeared on Twitter. Someone uploaded part of the voice memo. The internet was exploding.

News outlets started calling. One reporter camped outside my office. I ignored them all.

Then, the threats started.

Ava sent a cease-and-desist letter. Reed Enterprises issued a statement calling the leaks “unauthorized” and “manipulated.”

But we had evidence.

Solid, damning, undeniable proof. And they were all running scared.

Jaxon met with his lawyer that afternoon. When he came back to the office, his face was grim.

“They’re all blaming me,” he said. “Calling me all sorts of names.”

I bit my lip. “Does that mean they’ll cut you off completely?”

“They already did.”

“Then it’s just us now.”

His voice dropped low. “Are you okay with that?”

“No,” I said honestly. “But I’m not backing down.”

That evening, just when I thought things couldn’t get worse, my office line rang. An unknown number. I picked it up to see who it could be .

A voice disguised through a filter said, “Walk away now, or you’ll regret it.”

I froze.

“Who is this?”

“You’re in over your head, Miss Daniels. Walk away before you lose more than just your career.”

My hand trembled as I put the phone down.

Jaxon stepped into the room, noticing my expression. “What is it?”

I told him everything.

His face darkened. “They’re getting desperate.”

“We’re close,” I said. “That’s why they’re trying to scare me.”

He moved closer, his voice low but firm. “They don’t know you like I do. Little things don't scare you easily.”

I smiled faintly. “Neither do you.”

Later that night, I sat in bed, staring at the ceiling once again. But this time, I didn’t feel helpless. I felt alive. Ready.

For the first time, I wasn’t running from the past, but I was confronting it head-on.

Tomorrow, the press would call again. More files would drop. More people would start paying attention.

And soon, the truth would be undeniable.

But something inside me knew it wouldn’t end quietly.

Something inside me whispered: This war hasn’t peeked yet.

Not even close.

And in the shadows of power, someone was still pulling strings.

We just hadn’t found them yet.

As I stared up at the ceiling, letting the silence wrap around me like a blanket made of questions, I realized something else, something I hadn’t admitted to myself yet.

Jaxon wasn’t the only one being watched.

I remembered the car that had idled too long near my apartment yesterday. The anonymous emails I thought were spam. The flicker of movement I’d caught in the mirror when I left Lane’s place last weekend. At first, I chalked it up to paranoia. Maybe I had wanted to feel important. But now? Now I knew better.

We were being followed.

This wasn’t just about contracts or leaked emails anymore. This was about power—control. Reputation. The kind of people who smiled on magazine covers while stabbing others in boardrooms.

I got up from bed and pulled the curtains shut. My apartment no longer felt like a sanctuary. It felt like a glass box, exposed, fragile, and vulnerable.

I picked up my phone and typed out a message to Jaxon:

We need to talk about security. I think they’re watching me as well.

Three dots appeared almost immediately.

I’ll handle it. Just stay inside. Lock your doors. And if anything feels off, call me. I’m not letting them get to you.

The message gave me a strange comfort, but I still didn’t sleep.

Instead, I opened the folder again. I studied every document, every timestamp, and every signature. I created duplicates and emailed encrypted copies to an external drive Lane had set up earlier that week. If anything happened to me, if they tried to silence , the evidence would survive.

Let them come, I thought. Let them try.

Because I had been used, humiliated, and discarded, but I'm not broken.

No. Not this time.

And when the reckoning came, I wouldn't whisper. I'll roar.