The Billionaire's Lucky Charm

Chapter Five: Locked Truths

Celina’s POV

I knew I shouldn’t have gone there.

But I’m glad I did.

I sat on the edge of the bed, heart still racing—not from fear this time, but from something sharper.

Clarity.

That room—the one tucked behind the corridor—held answers. Or at least fragments of them. Hints no one would have told me if I hadn’t gone looking.

The glass door. The photograph. The weight in the air.

The image burned into my mind: Damon, younger, unmistakably him. And beside him, a tall man—older, with the same sharp eyes.

His father? Or someone more important?

Why keep that photo hidden? Why shelve it in a room that felt stripped of wealth, almost like it belonged to someone else entirely?

It didn’t add up.

This wasn’t just a business arrangement. It was something else. Something older. Deeper. Buried.

I walked to the mirror, brushing my fingers along the cool surface as if I could press through it and step into the truth.

I had to find out more.

And I had to get out of here—before I got in too deep.

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Damon’s POV

“Tell me why computers I spent a fortune on would glitch!” I snapped, slamming my palm against the desk.

A pen clattered to the floor. Lucan flinched.

He was supposed to be elite—an expert in surveillance software. Personally recommended. And yet here I was, staring at a frozen timestamp like some amateur.

“I—I’m not sure, sir,” Lucan stammered, sweat beading at his hairline. “It looks like a temporary feed drop. Could be a system conflict or—”

“Fix it. Now.”

He nodded frantically. “Yes, sir.”

I turned away, jaw clenched.

Where did she go?

Celina had slipped out of her room—quietly, deliberately. And at the exact moment I tried to track her, the feed glitched. One blind spot. One broken thread.

Not a coincidence.

“Something’s interfering,” I muttered under my breath.

She was supposed to stay in her room. To obey. To be manageable.

Instead, she was poking around in places she had no business finding.

My fists curled.

Lucan’s fingers raced across the keyboard, lines of code scrolling across the screen. He didn’t realize it, but if he didn’t restore the feed in the next ten minutes, I was done with him.

This wasn’t just surveillance anymore.

This was about control.

And she was starting to slip through my fingers.

“You’re getting a little too bold for your own good,” I murmured. “I’ll have to rein you in... before you discover too much.”

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Celina’s POV

A soft knock. Then the door creaked open.

A maid stepped in, head bowed, a silver tray in her hands. She placed it gently on the side table—lunch, still steaming—then retreated without a word. The door clicked behind her.

I didn’t touch the food.

I just sat there, staring at it.

My stomach twisted with quiet hunger, but my mind was louder. Too full. Too tangled.

What I saw couldn’t be unseen.

That room.

And now, nothing about this mansion felt safe anymore.

Not even the silence.

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Damon’s POV

The screen blinked to life.

Lucan exhaled, like a man granted a last-minute pardon. “There,” he said, pointing at the monitor. “It’s back. All of it.”

I leaned in, eyes locked on the feed as I scrubbed through the timeline.

Hallway. Door. Shadows.

Then—her.

Celina.

Hair loose, body still. She moved quietly, like smoke. At the corridor’s end—what should’ve been a dead end—she paused.

Then pushed open the panel.

Slipped inside.

My jaw tightened.

“She found it,” I said, flatly.

Lucan’s hands hovered above the keyboard. “Sir—”

“Leave.”

“But the files—”

“Now.”

He didn’t argue again. He just packed up and vanished.

I stared at the paused image on the screen.

Celina, crossing a threshold she was never supposed to find.

She went inside willingly.

Like she knew something I didn’t want her to.

How much did she understand? Not everything. Not yet. But that didn’t matter.

What mattered was that she had started asking.

Even in silence.

And in this house?

Curiosity came with consequences.

I picked up my phone.

“Make sure she doesn’t leave her room,” I said. “Not until I say otherwise.”

“Yes, sir.”

I ended the call.

She wanted to play a game in this house?

But It is mine. Every corridor. Every lock. Every secret.

And now...

So was she.

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Celina’s POV

The room felt colder now. Maybe it was the silence. Or maybe it was the truth pressing closer.

I stood by the window, staring through the glass without really seeing.

Was he watching me?

Had he seen me open that door?

Were there cameras I hadn’t noticed?

My pulse quickened.

Would Damon be angry?

No—Damon Vale didn’t get angry. He got even.

I sat at the edge of the bed, fists curled into the sheets.

This mansion wasn’t just a cage.

It was a test. A puzzle. A trap wrapped in wealth and silence.

And I had just triggered something.

He’d come for me eventually. Maybe not today. But soon.

I didn’t know what he would do.

But I had to be ready.

Because whatever game he was playing...

I wasn’t going to lose.

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Damon’s POV

I rewound the feed—slower this time.

As she pressed her hand against the panel, something cold snapped inside me.

She wasn’t supposed to find that room.

Not yet.

Not ever.

I left the control room, each step down the corridor sharp, fast, purposeful.

Three guards lounged against the hallway wall—talking.

“Talking,” I said coolly, my voice quiet but lethal.

They straightened immediately. “Sir—”

“You had one job,” I said through gritted teeth. They flinched.

All three of them stood at attention, heads bowed, silent. Pathetic.

“She walked through the entire east wing without being seen.” My words were clipped, razor-sharp. “Do you understand what that means?”

Their eyes widened.

The oldest of the three, Marcus, cleared his throat. “We didn’t think she’d—”

“You didn’t think.” I stepped forward, eyes burning. “Next time, I’ll replace you with dogs. At least they don’t slack.”

A long silence.

“No assumptions when it comes to her. Understand? She must not wander off again.”

“Yes, sir.” The reply was in unison.

I turned to Jace, who had just stepped into place beside me. “From now on, no one leaves her side unless I say so.”

“I’ll handle it myself,” he said, calm and unreadable.

“Good.” My gaze flicked back to the guards. “One more mistake—and you’ll wish it were him punishing you instead of me.”

They nodded stiffly, their faces pale.

I walked away without dismissing them.

I didn’t need excuses. I needed certainty.

By the time I reached my study, the air felt heavier—thicker with consequence.

She was unraveling things she shouldn't.

And I had to decide how far I’d let her go before I reminded her exactly whose world she had walked into.

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Celina’s POV

I sat curled on the bed, knees drawn up, my thoughts looping endlessly.

I hadn’t touched the food. It wasn’t fear. It was that my mind wouldn’t stop racing.

I heard the lock click. I straightened.

Then the door creaked open slowly, a maid entered. Her eyes didn’t meet mine as she walked in carrying another tray, head bowed.

Behind her, Jace entered, his expression unreadable.

My stomach twisted into knots.

He didn’t speak. He only watched as the maid placed the tray gently on the table.

When the maid finished, she stepped back, and Jace’s gaze lingered on me —long, quiet, unsettling. Then he nodded toward the door. She walked out silently.

I thought he might say something. Warn me. Or maybe scold me.

But instead, he turned silently, followed the maid out, and the door locked behind him.

The lock clicked again.

They were gone. And yet… something about that look he gave me—it wasn’t just suspicion.

It was a warning.

Now, I’m under watch.

I sat in silence, they found out.

I should’ve known better. Should’ve realized the moment I stepped out that the walls here had eyes. Damon’s eyes.

Now I was being watched. Closely.

I didn’t know what would happen next.

Would he confront me? Pretend nothing happened? Make an example out of me?

I stood and walked to the window again, arms wrapped around myself.

Maybe I’d made a mistake.But it was too late to turn back.

”Whatever was coming next, I had to face it.

With spine. With silence. With the same boldness that led me to that hidden door.

Because if Damon wanted to play mind games, I was never going to be a quiet piece on his board.

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Damon’s POV

The moon was high, casting pale slivers of light across the floor of my study, but sleep refused to come.

I leaned back in my chair, one hand steepled under my chin, staring at the blank monitor like it still held some kind of answer.

Celina had found that room.

And she hadn’t looked scared. She looked... resolute. Almost like she expected to find something.

I let out a slow exhale, rubbing a hand over my jaw.

This wasn’t part of the plan. Celina, wandering, slipping into secrets not meant for her.

What did she see?

What did she understand?

I didn’t know. And that unsettled me more than I wanted to admit.

For someone who had been sold like property, she was anything but passive. She moved through the house like smoke through cracks—quiet, determined, impossible to contain.

That was dangerous. Intriguing.

My phone buzzed again. A message from Jace: Guards in place. Her every movement is being monitored sir.

Good.

Still, a flicker of something sharp twisted in my chest.

She’d already breached one line.

And if she breached another?

I exhaled slowly; then she’d leave me no choice.

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Celina’s POV

I couldn’t sleep.

The sheets were cool, the room dim and still, but my mind wouldn’t quiet.

The untouched food stared back at me like a silent reprimand. I’d tried earlier, but my stomach was a knot of nerves.

Now, that he knows. What will he do?

I felt something in the way Jace looked at me — wasn’t quite suspicion but wasn’t trust, either.

I paced quietly to the window, peering out into the dark. I couldn’t see the gate from here, but I knew it was guarded. Knew the estate stretched out into a forested wall of isolation.

Still, every lock had a weakness.

Every cage had a key.

And maybe this key wasn’t physical. Maybe it was a person or a secret.

If I couldn’t escape yet, I’d do the next best thing.

I’d watch. Listen. Dig.

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I sat curled on the bed, knees drawn to my chest, the silence so thick I could hear my own heartbeat.

They had guards outside the door. I knew it.

But I wasn’t afraid. Not of the guards.

Not even of Damon.

What I was afraid of… was not knowing what I was caught in. Being pulled deeper into something I didn’t understand, until I drowned in it.

But I wouldn’t drown.

I wouldn’t let them take everything from me.