*Chapter 5: The Line*
706 Words
Saturday should have been hers.
No classes. No internship badge. No 40th floor.
She woke up in her roommate’s bed at 11 AM because she’d come home at 1. The black dress was hanging on the back of her door. She hadn’t taken it off until then.
Her phone had 31 missed messages.
Twenty-six from Josh. Five from numbers she didn’t know. Vance Holdings group chat, probably. She didn’t open it.
`El, I’m worried.`
`Can we talk? Please.`
`You haven’t been on campus all week.`
`Did I do something?`
She put the phone face down. Her hands were shaking.
She told herself it was lack of sleep.
---
*Saturday. 3:00 PM.*
Her phone rang. Unknown number.
She almost didn’t answer.
“Miss Carter.”
Damian.
Her stomach dropped. “Mr. Vance?”
“Don’t.” His voice was clipped. “You’re not at campus. You’re not at work. Where are you?”
“Home.”
“Address.”
She didn’t give it.
Silence. Then, “The car will be outside your building in twenty minutes. Be in it.”
He hung up.
She stared at the wall. This wasn’t in the folder. This wasn’t Rule One. This was something else.
She didn’t go.
At 3:25, her building’s buzzer went.
“Miss Carter? Delivery.”
She opened the door. No package. Just the same driver from Friday.
“Mr. Vance said you wouldn’t come,” he said. “He said to bring this.”
He handed her an envelope. Thick. No name.
Inside was a photo.
Her and Josh. Outside the Economics building. Last week. Him handing her coffee. Her laughing.
Her blood went cold.
Under it, a note in Damian’s handwriting. Slanted. Impatient.
`If you want a normal life, take it. But stop pretending you can have both.`
No threat. No demand. Just that.
She closed the envelope. Her hands wouldn’t stop shaking.
---
*Saturday. 6:00 PM. Vance Holdings.*
She went.
The tower was empty again. She didn’t take the elevator to 40. She took it to the roof access floor. He’d told her once, in passing, that he went there when the office got too loud.
He was there. Suit jacket off. Tie loose. Looking out at the city.
“You came,” he said, without turning.
“You sent someone to my building.”
“I sent someone to make sure you were safe.” He turned. “You didn’t answer.”
“I don’t want you watching me.”
“Then stop giving me reasons to.”
She stepped closer. “Why the photo?”
“Because you’re lying to him,” he said. “And you’re lying to yourself. You think you can do this internship and go back to campus on Monday like nothing happened. You can’t.”
He was right. She’d sat through dinner with four men and felt nothing. She’d sat through Josh’s texts and felt guilty.
“I’m not your—” She stopped.
“Not my what?” He took a step toward her. “Say it.”
“Not your property.”
His jaw tightened. “I never said you were.”
“You act like it.”
“I act like a man who knows what he wants,” he said. “And I want you to stop pretending you don’t want this too.”
The wind hit them hard. The city was loud below.
Josh was probably at a party right now. With his friends. With his normal life.
Damian was fourteen years older, dangerous, and looking at her like she was the only thing in the room.
“You crossed a line,” she whispered.
“I know.”
“You’re not supposed to—”
“I’m not.” He was close now. Too close. “Tell me to leave you alone, Elena. Say it, and I will.”
Her name in his mouth did something to her chest.
She didn’t say it.
She didn’t move away either.
He didn’t touch her. Not yet. But he didn’t have to. The line was already gone.
“Go home,” he said finally, voice rough. “Before I make a choice you can’t take back.”
She left.
But she didn’t call Josh.
---
- Writer
