THEY ERASED THE MAN WHO BUILT EVERYTHING

DAMIAN WAS NEVER THE REAL ENEMY

POV: EVREN

The photograph wouldn’t leave me alone. Damian Cross. Victor Hale. Thomas Arden. Three years ago. Way before Damian started hanging around Celeste, way before he showed up at Arden Global, or before Celeste stood in front of everyone and announced she was going to marry him. Somebody had been working behind the scenes for this. And I was the only idiot who missed it.

That night, I sat in Adrian Mercer’s office, the black folder Richard gave me spread open across the desk. Adrian studied the photo and didn’t say a word for ages.

“Victor Hale,” he finally muttered.

“You know him?” I asked.

“Everyone who spent time in Arden Global’s legal division knows Victor.”

“So what happened between him and Thomas?” I pressed.

Adrian sighed and leaned back. “Victor wanted control.”

“Of what?”

He looked at me like it was obvious. “Everything.”

Not exactly shocking.

“What do you mean, though?”

“He thought Arden Global relied too much on your technology. Thought whoever owned the IP would eventually own the company.”

I stared at the photo. “So he saw me as the threat.”

“Apparently.”

“And Damian?”

Adrian shuffled through another pile. “Damian worked under Victor at a private investment firm.”

My head jerked up. “Wait, what?”

“Not right away. But their names show up together in some old takeover records.”

He slid the paperwork my way.

“Damian wasn’t just randomly shoved into Celeste’s world,” Adrian said.

I read the documents. The links were clear. Victor had marked Damian years before I’d ever met him. Damian wasn’t some smooth-talking businessman who just happened to fall for Celeste. He was picked. Trained. Placed. And then dropped into our lives.

But there was still something I couldn’t get.

“Why Celeste?”

Adrian’s face changed. “Because she was your weakness.”

It hit me hard.

I looked away. Of course. They didn’t need to beat me in the boardroom. They just needed me to trust the wrong person—and Celeste was the easiest way in.

—

I went looking for Damian the next morning. Not at Arden Global. At his private club, where he’d been meeting with investors for months.

I didn’t call ahead. I just walked into the lounge and found him standing at the window, talking to two men in expensive suits.

The second he saw me, his smile dropped.

“Leave us,” Damian said.

The suits looked at each other and slipped out. When the door closed, he turned to me.

“You’re dramatic,” he said.

“So are you—pretending you’re innocent.”

His smile was back. “I don’t know what you mean.”

“Victor Hale.”

Smile gone again. That told me enough.

I moved closer. “You knew him three years ago.”

He stayed silent.

“You were recruited.”

Still nothing.

“You were supposed to get close to Celeste.”

Now his eyes went cold. “Careful.”

“Why?”

I took another step. “Because I already know.”

He stared at me, then laughed. Not nervous. Not defensive. He genuinely laughed.

“You really think Victor controlled everything?”

“Didn’t he?”

“No.”

That stopped me.

Damian poured himself a drink.

“Victor recruited me,” he said.

No denial.

“Why?”

“He wanted someone to get close to Celeste.”

“And you agreed.”

“Obviously.”

The honesty made my skin crawl.

“You knew who I was.”

“I knew exactly who you were.”

“About my position?”

“I knew about your projects.”

“My contracts?”

“Yes.”

“My intellectual property?”

Damian smiled. “Eventually.”

My hands clenched.

“So why did you need me gone?”

“Victor wanted you removed.”

“And you?”

He took a slow sip. “I wanted something else.”

“What?”

He set the glass down. “Everything.”

The air felt icy.

“I didn’t care about marrying Celeste,” Damian said. “I cared about running the company after you were out.”

I stared at him.

“You planned to betray Victor.”

“Obviously.”

“And Thomas?”

“Thomas was old.”

His voice made my stomach turn.

“Celeste?”

Finally, he hesitated. “Celeste was useful.”

Just that. Useful. Not loved. Not anything else. Useful.

Seven years—wiped out by a man who never saw the woman in the middle of it as anything more than a tool.

“You never loved her.”

Damian shrugged. “Love is expensive.”

I nearly laughed.

“You wrecked my life for a company.”

He shook his head.

“I wrecked your position for a company. Your life fell apart because Celeste chose to believe me.”

That hurt more than I wanted to admit. Because he was right.

Damian didn’t force Celeste to leave me. He just manipulated her. And she believed him.

I turned toward the door.

“You’re finished.”

He laughed behind me.

“Am I?”

I stopped.

“You still don’t get it, Evren,” he said, voice quiet now. “Victor wanted you gone. I wanted to replace you. And now that you’re fighting back, my problem got a lot bigger.”

“What?”

“You.”

—

That afternoon, Adrian found the missing link.

He called twice before I picked up.

“What?”

“Evren, you need to come down here right now.”

“Why?”

“I found something.”

I bolted to his office.

Three laptops open. Documents everywhere. But one folder was right in the middle. Celeste’s name across the top.

I froze.

“What’s that?”

Adrian pushed it to me.

I opened the folder. First document—request for access to my private archive. Approved six months ago.

I checked the authorization.

Celeste Arden.

Next page—private financials request. Approved by Celeste.

Another—internal project plans. Approved.

Another—my personal research files. Also approved.

My hands started shaking.

“No.”

Adrian just watched.

I kept flipping through. Six months. Five. Four. Three. The requests kept coming.

Celeste accessed my files over and over. Not once. Twenty-three times.

“Why?”

Adrian’s voice was quiet. “We’re still digging.”

“Who requested the access?”

“Damian.”

“And who authorized it?”

He pointed at the stack.

“Celeste.”

I felt the room spin.

I remembered those months—Celeste sitting beside me while I worked, asking questions, laughing, saying she was proud, asking me to trust her. And I had. God, I had trusted her.

Adrian slid over another file.

“This is worse,” he said.

I didn’t want to look. But I did.

It was an email chain. Damian asked Celeste for access to several folders. He said he needed to understand my work before investing in Arden Global.

Celeste approved every request. She even told him which projects were most important, which were unfinished, which I was guarding, which contracts I’d negotiated myself.

My throat closed up.

“She gave him everything.”

“Not on purpose.”

I looked at Adrian. “Does that matter?”

He hesitated. We both knew the answer.

It didn’t.

Result was the same. Damian needed access; Celeste handed him the keys.

I closed the file.

“There’s more,” Adrian said. He showed me the access logs on his laptop.

“Every time Damian got into your private files, someone else was connected remotely.”

“Victor?”

“No.”

“Then who?”

Adrian pointed at the screen. “An encrypted account.”

“Can you trace it?”

“We’re trying.”

I stared at the authorizations. The timeline snapped together.

Damian didn’t need to steal anything physically. He just needed someone I trusted to let him in.

Celeste did exactly that. Not out of hate. Not because she wanted me ruined. She just believed the wrong man.

And somehow, that made it ache worse. Hatred would have been easier.

—

I found Celeste that night. She was standing outside the Arden family house when I pulled up. She looked worn. Eyes swollen. For a second, she looked like the woman I’d loved for seven years. The woman I almost married.

“Evren.”

I stayed quiet.

She stepped closer. “I’ve been trying to reach you.”

“I know.”

“Please.”

“Did you authorize Damian’s access to my files?”

Her face blanked. “What?”

I held up the papers. “Did you?”

She stared at them. Then at me.

“I didn’t know what he was doing,” she whispered.

“That wasn’t my question.”

Her lips trembled. “Yes.”

The word was barely there.

Something in me broke.

“How many times?”

“I don’t know.”

“Twenty-three.”

She just stared.

I kept going.

“Twenty-three separate requests.”

Her eyes filled with tears.

“He told me—”

“What did he tell you?”

“That he needed information about the tech division.”

“You believed him.”

“Yes.”

“You told him which projects mattered most.”

“I thought he was helping my family.”

“You told him which contracts I controlled.”

“I didn’t know.”

“You gave him access to my private research.”

“I didn’t know!”

Her voice cracked.

I stared at her. She covered her mouth, tears streaming down her face.

“I swear, Evren. I didn’t know he was using me.”

I believed her. That was the worst part. I believed every word.

She hadn’t planned to ruin me. She wasn’t looking to hurt me. She just trusted the man tearing me apart.

And that trust was all it took.

I stepped closer.

Celeste looked up.

“Please,” she whispered, barely audible. “I never wanted this.”

I looked at the woman I once wanted to marry.

And I asked the only question left, so quiet it felt raw.

“How long were you helping them destroy me?”

Celeste broke.

For the first time, she had nothing to say.