Chapter 7 - “I’M GOING TO TESTIFY ANYWAY”
Then he said her name again.
The private voice.
But the control inside it was tighter now, like something approaching its breaking point.
If Evelyn left the room and returned to whatever Roman had arranged, Damian promised to dismantle every relationship she had.
He would make sure her father’s medical coverage expired before the end of the month.
He would destroy Priya’s consultancy, the business she had spent 3 years building, by ensuring every corporate client abandoned it.
He would tell every person who had attended the wedding a version of the story in which Evelyn had engineered a public breakdown while Damian was the injured party.
He had spent years constructing his position.
He would burn everything around Evelyn before allowing her to become the thing that destroyed it.
Evelyn stood with 1 hand against the doorframe.
She did not turn around.
She thought about Priya.
Her father.
His medical coverage.
3 years of Damian identifying weaknesses, constructing leverage, and positioning himself so carefully that he could now name the people he intended to destroy and the order in which he would destroy them.
She believed him.
This was not a bluff.
After 2 years, she knew the difference between Damian’s theatrical threats and his genuine statements of intent.
This was intent.
She thought about the 14 promises she had made to herself.
Then the 15th.
She remembered standing in front of the mirror upstairs at the Blackwood, pushing back her sleeve and looking directly at the bruise instead of covering it.
She remembered Roman in the corridor.
She had asked him to remain in the building.
Not for her.
Just in case.
“I’ll be in the corridor,” he had said.
Evelyn turned around.
Damian was watching her.
His expression was the expression of a man who believed he had finally restored control over something that had escaped him.
Evelyn looked directly at him.
“I know you’ll do all of it,” she said.
“And I’m going to testify anyway.”
Damian’s expression did not change.
May you like
Evelyn opened the door.
Then she left.
