Bound to the billionaire

Unveiled

Amira pov

The sharp buzz of my phone pulled me out of sleep. At first, I thought it was an alarm, but when I rolled over and squinted at the screen, it wasn’t the alarm. It was notifications dozens of them, maybe more. My heart skipped.

What the hell?

I sat up in bed, my hair sticking to my face, and scrolled through the flurry of messages and alerts. Twitter. i********:. Even random gossip blogs. Each notification carried my name well, not my name, but a label that stabbed right through me: “Damien Cole spotted with mystery woman at high-end restaurant.”

And the pictures oh God, the pictures.

One showed Damien, tall, sharp in his suit, opening the car door for me like some perfect gentleman. Another caught me mid-laugh at the table, with Marcus and his blonde assistant blurred in the background. The worst one was taken as we were leaving, when Damien’s hand brushed lightly against the small of my back, guiding me out of the restaurant.

The captions made it worse:

“Who is she? Damien Cole seen with unidentified woman.”

“Mystery beauty linked to billionaire Damien Cole .”

I froze. The world outside our little bubble was now staring in, and I hated it.

My phone buzzed again. This time, it wasn’t another random alert. It was Maya.

“Amira!” Her voice exploded the second I picked up. “Don’t tell me it’s true. You’re with that Damien Cole?

I swallowed, suddenly guilty even though I hadn’t done anything wrong. “Maya, please”

“No, don’t ‘please’ me. The internet is in flames. People are saying he has a new woman, and you”she sucked in a breath “you look exactly like her.”

Because it is me, I wanted to say. But how? How could I explain this madness when I barely understood it myself?

“Maya, calm down. I’ll explain everything, just not over the phone. Can we meet today?”

“Yes, we can meet. We have to meet. I feel like you’re hiding something from me, and I don’t like it.”

Her words stung, but before I could answer, the bedroom door clicked open. Damien stepped inside, his phone already in his hand, his jaw tight.

“End the call,” he said, his voice firm but low.

I froze. Maya’s voice bled through the phone. “Who was that? Amira, was that him?!”

“I’ll call you back,” I whispered and ended the call.

Damien didn’t even wait before speaking. “You’ve seen it, haven’t you?”

“The articles?” My voice cracked.

“The circus,” he corrected. “This is exactly what I didn’t want.” He pinched the bridge of his nose, pacing the room once before stopping in front of me. His eyes locked onto mine. “For now, you need to stay inside. Don’t go out, don’t meet anyone, don’t answer questions. Lay low until it blows over.”

My chest tightened. “So what, I’m a prisoner now?”

“Don’t start, Amira.” His tone was clipped, but beneath it, I caught a shadow of worry. “You don’t know how ruthless the media can be. They’ll dig into your past, twist everything you say, and drag you into headlines you can’t escape from. Trust me, it’s better to let me handle this.”

I wanted to scream at him. I wanted to tell him I wasn’t a doll he could tuck away in a box until the storm passed. Instead, I crossed my arms and glared. “Maya wants to meet me today.”

“Absolutely not,” Damien said immediately, like it wasn’t even up for discussion.

“Excuse me?”

“You heard me. You’re not going anywhere. Not today.”

My blood boiled. “You can’t just order me around. She’s my best friend, Damien. She deserves to know the truth.”

“And what truth will you tell her?” he shot back. “That you’re stuck here, playing house with a man you barely tolerate? That this”he gestured vaguely between us “isn’t what it looks like? Do you think she’ll keep quiet? The more people know, the harder it is to control the story.”

He didn’t raise his voice, but the finality in his words felt like a door slamming shut.

I bit my lip, holding back the retort burning on my tongue. But inside, the decision had already formed. Damien could order, command, or plead all he wanted but I was going to see Maya. No one was going to stop me.

I paced my room, my phone clutched tight in my hand. Damien thought he could shield me, hide me, silence me. But I wasn’t going to sit here like a shadow in his mansion.

Maya needed answers. And I needed her.

I grabbed my coat, ignoring the voice in my head whispering Damien’s warning. Let the media spin their stories. Let Damien seethe in his office.

I wasn’t going to let anyone control me. Not even him.

And as I slipped out of the house, my heart hammered in my chest.

Damien pov

By the time I got to my office, my phone hadn’t stopped vibrating. My assistant had already forwarded the headlines, each one more sensational than the last.

“New romance for Cole ?”

“Who is the brunette beauty?”

“Damien Cole finally moves on?”

I shut the office door and sat behind my desk, scrolling through the photos again. Amira looked… stunning. Elegant in a way she probably didn’t even realize. She wasn’t playing for the cameras she was just being herself. That rawness, that refusal to perform, was exactly what drew attention.

And it scared the hell out of me.

The world would eat her alive.

I dropped the phone onto the desk and forced myself to focus on work, but the screen lit up again. A new message. I recognized the number instantly, even after months of silence.

Victoria.

So it’s true. You’ve moved on.

I clenched my jaw, refusing to reply. But seconds later, another message followed.

She’s pretty. Different. But you and I both know no one can replace what we had. Call me, Damien. Let’s talk.

I leaned back in my chair, staring at the message. The nerve of her to waltz back into my life like nothing had happened. Like she hadn’t walked away when I needed her most.

My hand hovered over the phone, torn between deleting her message and calling her just to tell her to stay the hell out of my life.

But before I could decide, a thought crept in uninvited.

What if Victoria decided to make her move public, the way she always did loud, dramatic, impossible to ignore?

For the first time in a long time, I felt cornered. The storm outside was closing in, and somehow, Amira and I were right in the middle of it.